Historical Dictionary of United States Intelligence

has been tenuous at best and totally unconvincing to a majority of

U.S. allies, who have refused to cooperate with Washington in Iraq.

The attacks also sparked numerous investigations, particularly of

the performance of U.S. intelligence prior to the attacks, most no-

tably the joint inquiry by the congressional oversightcommittees

and the independent National Commission on Terrorist Attacks

upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission. Ensu-

ing reports illustrated numerous causes of the intelligence failure, in-

cluding inadequate intelligence collection, insufficient policy and in-

telligence attention to the terrorism issue, lack of effective

coordination and cooperation among the intelligence agencies,

faulty intelligence structures, and many more dysfunctions, all of

which contributed, after Pearl Harbor, to the second most devastat-

ing surprise attack on the United States in its history.

THREAT ASSESSMENT.Athreat assessment is an evaluation of the

harm that might be done by a foreign entity or its agents to the inter-

ests of the United States.

303 COMMITTEE. On 2 June 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson

authorized changing the name of the 5412 Special Group—which

reviewed and authorized covert actions—to the 303 Committee but

did not alter its composition, functions, or responsibility. This com-

mittee considered 142 covert operations during the Johnson adminis-

tration. See also40 COMMITTEE.

TOWER COMMISSION.Known formally as the President’s Special

Review Board, the Tower Commission—so named because of its

chairman, Senator John G. Tower—was established on 1 December

1986 to investigate the Iran-Contra Affair. The commission’s report

was highly critical of President Ronald Reagan’smanagement of the

crisis, which allowed National Security Council (NSC) staffers to

conduct private covert operations. The report absolved the Central

Intelligence Agency (CIA) from complicity in the affair, asserting

that the CIAhad refused to undertake the operations without proper

presidential authorization.

TOWER, JOHN GOODWIN (1925–1991).Senator John G. Tower, Republi-

can from Texas, chaired the President’s Special Review Boardthat in 1987

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