WASHINGTON (KRT) — As Congress began closed-door hearings Tuesday into pre-Sept. 11 intelligence failures, President Bush acknowledged that the FBI and the CIA failed to share vital intelligence before the attacks.
“In terms of whether or not the FBI and the CIA were communicating properly, I think it is clear that they weren’t. We’ve addressed that issue,” Bush told reporters during a visit to the National Security Agency, another frontline federal agency in the war against terrorism. The super-secret NSA monitors global electronic communication.
Bush offered assurances that the CIA and FBI are now working together to prevent future attacks and said there is no evidence that U.S. officials could have prevented the attacks even if all agencies had worked better together.
The FBI and CIA have come under increasing criticism amid disclosures that they failed to share or analyze data in their possession before Sept. 11 that may have signaled an imminent attack by terrorists affiliated with Osama bin Laden.
A few hours later, the House and Senate intelligence committees began their work of investigating America’s intelligence agencies in a secret, soundproof room in the Capitol’s restricted fourth floor.
Three hours later, they adjourned for the day.
“We will be a fact-driven, witness-driven inquiry,” said House Intelligence Committee chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla., as his Senate counterpart, Bob Graham, D-Fla., stood beside him. “We will not be driven by outside pressures,” Goss said.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, summed up the challenge facing the joint House-Senate effort before its hearing began.
“We need to be aggressive and rigorous in this inquiry, asking the right questions, like who knew what? And if they didn’t know it, why? And what did they do with the information they had? And how we can prevent, detect, derail and disrupt any other future attacks on the United States of America?” she said.
At the same time, a controversial proposal for Congress to appoint an independent commission to perform a similar investigative mission appeared to be losing steam. President Bush strongly opposes the idea, as do most Republicans, especially in the House of Representatives, where they are in control.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., who favors such an independent commission, heard growing objections from his fellow Democrats as they discussed the idea behind closed doors at their weekly lunch.
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said some Senate Democrats fear pushing for the controversial commission in light of Bush’s stern opposition, the likely refusal of the House to go along, and thus the probable futility of sticking their necks out politically for an idea doomed to fail.
“There are many who feel the Intelligence Committee should be given its opportunity,” Durbin said. “And others who feel an independent commission is necessary. Some weren’t sure what the composition should be. I’d be surprised if Senator Daschle got a clear message out of this one.
Daschle put off a vote on whether to create an independent commission on intelligence lapses but said he expects a debate in the Senate “at some point in the future.”
© 2002, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.