[...] The documentary Who is Rich Blee? features several interviews with direct witnesses to events beginning in early 2000, within the CIA’s Bin Laden Station, headed by its chief Richard Blee, tasked with racking suspect Al-Qaeda operatives.
The release comes after the video in August of a controversial interview with Richard Clarke and follows a delay after the CIA made veiled threats of federal prosecution if the documentary revealed the names of two CIA analysts.
Beginning from a scant footnote in the 9/11 Commission Report (Endnote 44, Chapter 6) the program carefully builds a narrative how CIA intelligence about two future hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, including their presence in San Diego, was repeatedly withheld from the FBI and the White House.
These former officials, several of them for the first time, recount their experiences with the CIA and their suspicions surrounding violations of protocol and seemingly purposeful “bungling” of critical intelligence the CIA had in hand, that if shared, they believe would have likely prevented the 9/11 attacks.
Repeated and ongoing attempts by the CIA to obscure the facts around this case have raised concerns about possible criminal acts, and brought increased scrutiny on the CIA and a pattern of obstruction there in the 18 months leading up to 9/11. [...]