CIA officials will not face any disciplinary action over failures in intelligence before the 9/11 attacks, the spy agency director said last night.

Porter Goss rejected a report by the CIA’s inspector-general that recommended an accountability board to examine the performance of intelligence officers assigned to combat Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network before the attacks.

He said that a report by the CIA’s independent watchdog did not suggest “that any one person or group of people could have prevented 9/11”.

“After great consideration of this report and its conclusion, I will not convene an accountability board to judge the performances of any individual CIA officers,” he said.

Half of those named in the classified report that was sent to Congress last month have retired. “Those who are still with us are among the finest we have,” Mr Goss said.

A joint congressional inquiry to investigate the September 11 attacks told the CIA inspector- general to review whether any agency officials should be held personally accountable and disciplined for failures before the suicide hijackings.

Relatives of 9/11 victims have demanded that Mr Goss seek accountability from former and current CIA officials. Mr Goss said that he will make little, if any, of the document public.

George Tenet, the former CIA director who before the Iraq war told President Bush that the intelligence case to prove that Saddam Hussein possessed illegal weapons was a “slam dunk”, has retired. He has since been awarded the Medal of Freedom by Mr Bush in a White House ceremony.

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