From Holden:

Because he’s a rat bastard.

The director of central intelligence has asked the C.I.A.’s inspector general to modify a draft report on the Sept. 11 attacks to avoid drawing conclusions about whether individual C.I.A. officers should be held accountable for any failures, Congressional and intelligence officials said Monday.

The request by Porter J. Goss, the intelligence chief, would affect an 800-page report that is the result of nearly two years of work. Congressional officials said they were reviewing Mr. Goss’s request, spelled out in an Oct. 27 memorandum to the inspector general, John Helgerson, to determine whether it was consistent with a request by the joint Congressional committee that looked into the Sept. 11 attacks.

That panel asked in December 2002 that the Central Intelligence Agency’s inspector general determine “whether and to what extent personnel at all levels should be held accountable” for any mistakes that contributed to the failure to disrupt the attacks. Mr. Helgerson’s draft report is widely understood to identify officers and officials who should be considered for discipline because of breakdowns in the collection, analysis and distribution of intelligence before the attacks.

[snip]

Congressional officials critical of Mr. Goss’s request said they saw it as inconsistent with Congress’s intent that the inspector general, not an internal board, determine who, if anyone, should be held responsible for errors related to the Sept. 11 attacks. Among the actions highlighted in previous inquiries by Congress and an independent commission have been the failure of C.I.A. and F.B.I. personnel to share information in summer 2001 that should have put some of the hijackers on a government watch list.