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U.S. Congress to Frame Scope of Inquiry into Intelligence Failures
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Joint
House and Senate intelligence panel members address the media on
closed-door meetings concerning FBI and CIA failures.
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WASHINGTON,
June 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. lawmakers Tuesday,
June 4, vowed a “rigorous” investigation into apparent fumbles by
the nation's powerful intelligence agencies prior to the September 11
terror strikes and set out a blueprint for their future questioning of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA).
According
to U.S. daily newspaper, the Washington Post, the 37-member panel held
its first, closed-door meeting amid an uproar over intelligence
failures. The panel began by setting ground rules and hearing from
members of a specially formed staff who have begun sifting through a
massive cache of highly classified documents turned over by the
intelligence agencies, the paper reported.
The
hearings will focus on long-standing resistance by the FBI and the CIA
to share information with one another, which critics state was the
root cause of some of the intelligence blunders.
Addressing
the reason for the investigations, Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski
stated as she headed to the hearings, “People have the right to
know, they have a right to be protected.”
Mikulski
vowed the investigation would be “serious, thorough and credible”
as well as “aggressive” as lawmakers tried to find out “who knew
what, if they didn't know it, why? and what did they do with the
information they had.”
Representative
Jane Harman, part of the joint House-Senate Intelligence panel leading
the investigation, said the group, meeting inside a windowless,
soundproofed and secured room in the Capitol building, was
“reviewing a scope of inquiry” for future hearings.
The
outline is expected to be released late Tuesday or Wednesday, she
said. Lawmakers have so far reviewed more than 100,000 documents
related to how federal agencies dealt with incoming information before
the attacks that left some 3,000 dead, aiming to propose changes to
preempt future missteps.
The
main focus of the inquiry will center on events related to September
11, but lawmakers say the hearings will examine U.S. so-called
counter-terrorism efforts dating back to 1986, reports CNN.
To
date, the committee has taken roughly a third of the documents studied
which they consider relevant to their investigation and stored them in
a secure sight in one of the adjoining office buildings, one Senate
Intelligence committee aide told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
At
the center of the furor is the FBI’s mishandling of agent requests
and information that suggested future terrorist attacks on the United
States, and the CIA’s failure to share intelligence on two of the
September hijackers.
“In
terms of whether or not the FBI and CIA were communicating properly, I
think it’s clear they weren’t,” U.S. President George W. Bush
acknowledged Tuesday as he toured the top-secret National Security
Agency, tasked with intercepting and analyzing global communications.
While
there were intelligence failings leading up to September 11, Bush said
he has “seen no evidence to date that said this country could have
prevented the attack,” who emphasized that both agencies were
pressing ahead with sweeping reforms - especially the FBI.
Acknowledging
problems within the intelligence and investigative agencies, but
concerned that the present congressional investigation may tie up
intelligence resources needed for the battle against Al-Qaeda, Bush
said, “In terms of the gossip and the finger-pointing, the
level-three staffers trying to protect - you know, trying to protect
their hide, I don’t think that’s of concern. That’s just typical
Washington, D.C.,” he said. “But I am - what I am concerned about
is tying up valuable assets and time - and possibly jeopardizing
sources of intelligence.”
Embattled
FBI director Robert Mueller and CIA chief George Tenet are due to face
lawmakers in mid-June to explain what broke down on and before the
single-largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
“It
is essential that we get this sorted out,” House Majority Leader
Dick Armey told reporters.
The
intelligence panel, led by Florida lawmakers Democrat Bob Graham and
Republican Porter Goss, are expected to grill Tenet and Mueller, the
latter of whom in the meantime has been working feverishly to show the
bureau has learned its lesson from the terrorist catastrophe.
“They
could have done better, they should have done better and I think we
will find ways to improve the system, and that will be one of the
beneficial outcomes of our efforts that will go on all summer,” Goss
told NBC Tuesday morning. The hearings are expected to last until
autumn.
Acknowledging
the resistance between the FBI and CIA to share information, Goss
commented, “The turf-guarding problem has a penalty that cannot be
tolerated.”
On
Thursday, the Senate Judiciary committee will open the first of a
number of hearings open to the public.
“I
think the number one objective is public awareness of what happened
and to make sure that we take the necessary steps to improve our
national security so it doesn’t happen again,” said Goss, himself
a former CIA agent.
In
what is likely to be star-making testimony, longtime FBI attorney
Coleen Rowley, chief legal advisor in the Minneapolis field office,
who sent a blistering 13-page memo excoriating actions of her beloved
bureau to both FBI director Robert Mueller and members of Congress, is
to appear Thursday before the Judiciary panel, headed by Vermont
Democrat Patrick Leahy. Rowley’s testimony before the panel will be
closed to the media and public.
On
Wednesday, Rowley will address the joint House- Senate intelligence
committees.
Rowley
has stated that FBI headquarters hindered investigations into one of
the September 11 suspects, Zacarias Moussaoui, and then attempted to
“circle the wagons” to avoid missteps from going public.
She
will be asked “why she felt that the field office was blown off in
the way it was, with what now we know to be very important potential
information that would have avoided September 11 from occurring,”
Sen. Bob Graham, D-Florida, leader of the joint congressional panel
investigating U.S. intelligence efforts and the events surrounding
last fall's attacks, told CNN.
“She
is a very courageous woman to have come forward the way she has and an
experienced FBI professional,” he added.
“I
think she can give us some insight into the culture of the agency. Why
was there this sort of standoff between the field office in
Minneapolis and the headquarters in Washington when most of Americans
think the FBI works as a cohesive team?” he said.
Under
fire for failing to act on information linked to the attacks, in which
19 hijackers crashed airliners into the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon, Mueller has announced a sweeping overhaul of the agency in a
bid to thwart potential future terrorist attacks.
“We’ve
addressed that issue, and the CIA and the FBI are now in close
communications. There’s better sharing of intelligence,” Bush said
of the reforms, which include granting the FBI broader surveillance
powers.
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