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Law Makers Call for Inquiry into 9/11 & “Threat Assessment”
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Sen. Tom Daschle calls for an investigation into the handling of warnings prior to Sept. 11.
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WASHINGTON
D.C., May 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Following the White
House’s bombshell admission about having foreknowledge of the
attacks of September 11, frustrated Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday
demanded an independent probe into intelligence agencies' response to
pre-September 11 terror threats and called for an immediate
"threat assessment" amid new administration warnings that
the country will inevitably be attacked again, news agencies reported.
The
White House finally agreed to show parts of a July 10 document to the
FBI warning of possible terrorist activity to the House Judicial
Committee Tuesday.
"Every
indication was that the traffic light went from yellow to red and the
FBI just kept driving," Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), said
Wednesday's on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"They
seemed to ignore what was a very clear warning."
If
Washington had taken that memo as seriously as the agent did, Durbin
added, "I think we would have been on a much greater state of
alert across this nation before September 11."
House
Minority Leader Dick Gephardt supported Durbin’s criticism and
called for an investigation, saying, "We need an inquiry, we need
to know what information was given to the White House and what they
did with it.”
"There
is a troubling trend of an administration unwilling to share
information," Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) told
reporters. "That trend is disturbing."
"A pattern was developing" of documents warning of terrorist
actions filed by various branches of the U.S. intelligence community,
some of which are only recently coming to light, Durbin also
reiterated late last week.
Durbin cited a July 10 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) memo on
alleged terrorists linked with Osama bin Laden training as pilots on
U.S. soil as one of three issues that concerned him.
The
other two were a July 26 report that the U.S. attorney general had
been warned by the FBI not to use commercial flights, and the arrest
in mid-August of terrorist suspect Zacarias Moussaoui after flight
school staff alerted authorities he wanted to learn to steer a plane
but not to take off or land.
"All three point to concerns of domestic commercial
aviation," Durbin told the Joint Bipartisan Intelligence
Committee.
The
comments came amid mounting controversy over a FBI warning issued
before September 11 that warned that “suspicious Middle Eastern
men” were training at U.S. flight schools but was not acted upon.
U.S. intelligence agencies have come under fire for failing to piece
together available information that could have prevented the September
11 attacks that killed more than 3,000 in New York and Washington.
"This is a very disconcerting new report," Daschle said of
the so-called Phoenix memo, renewing a call for the establishment of
an independent commission to look into the intelligence community's
handling of warnings of a possible terrorist attack.
"It's not a question of why didn't the president act, but why
didn't the agencies work," Daschle said. "A commission is
required for us to come to some final resolution."
The Bush Administration and most Republican lawmakers oppose setting
up an independent panel to look at possible intelligence failures,
preferring to stick to a lower-profile already established bicameral
and bipartisan congressional intelligence panel.
"I just don't think that's necessary," Senate Minority
Leader Republican Trent Lott told reporters, although he added that if
Democrats pushed the issue, he would be willing to "take a
look".
Top administration officials including Vice President Dick Cheney
descended on Congress Tuesday for a flurry of closed security
briefings in a bid to defuse the crisis, even as Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld warned there were "additional terrorist
threats."
"The question is not if, but where and when and how,"
Rumsfeld told a Senate panel.
The warnings have led top Democrats to criticize President George W.
Bush's decision to place national security under a director without an
official portfolio, saying Tom Ridge was not doing enough to protect
the country from future attacks.
"We need somebody in charge," Representative Jane Harmon
said. "We do not have someone in a position with adequate clout
to secure a strategy," she said, referring Ridge.
"We still have yet to see a threat assessment, a national threat
assessment," she added, questioning the effectiveness of Ridge's
color-coded threat alert system introduced in March.
"In the face of recent terror warnings, and after months of
experience with the Homeland Security Office, it's become clear that
the role of Homeland Security Director needs to be strengthened,"
agreed House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt.
The furor over the FBI's July Phoenix memo on al-Qa’eda operatives
possibly training at U.S. flight schools - which never made it to the
White House - and other reports of questionable handling of
intelligence information "suggest that we must improve all
aspects of our counter-terrorism efforts," he said.
Gephardt and other Democrats are introducing legislation to transform
Ridge's office to a Cabinet-level position, accountable to the U.S.
president, Congress and the American people.
"The public has a right to hear him explain, without divulging
sensitive security matters, his efforts to coordinate our
counter-terrorism operations," Gephardt said.
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