[ OUR OPINION ]
ESCALATING partisan criticism stemming from the long-delayed revelation of information known to U.S. intelligence agencies prior to Sept. 11 serves no constructive purpose. While much of the criticism may be warranted, an independent commission should be created to remove the controversy from the political arena -- not to affix blame but to identify and correct systemic flaws that may have allowed the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to occur. Commission should
examine Sept. 11
THE ISSUE President Bush has been criticized for not taking extra security precautions after a briefing more than a month before Sept. 11.
The White House acknowledged that government agents had prior indications of terrorist preparation for an attack only after CBS News reported it on Wednesday. No adequate explanation has been given for why it took eight months for this information to be made public.
House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri called for finding out what President Bush "knew about the events leading up to 9/11" and "what was done about it at that time." Bush answered back: "Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people." Both Gephardt's suggestion of presidential negligence and Bush's overstated response -- no one has implied that he knew an attack was imminent -- were unnecessarily inflammatory.
By all accounts, a briefing that the CIA had given the president on Aug. 6 did not include a memorandum from a Phoenix FBI agent in July warning that Middle Eastern men connected to Osama bin Laden might be receiving flight training in the United States. Nor was the president informed later in August that Zacarias Moussaoui was arrested in Minnesota after FBI agents became suspicious of his activity at a flight school. In fact, the FBI agents in Minnesota were themselves unaware of the Phoenix memo. Bin Laden's interest in plane hijacking to further terrorism had been known by intelligence agencies for several years.
Obviously, important dots were not connected, and Bush has recognized that failure. His daily briefing now combines information from both the FBI and the CIA. Also, Homeland Security Chief Thomas Ridge has set up a command center called the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility for the coordination of data from the CIA, the FBI and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Information needs to be not only gathered but shared and analyzed.
Congressional hearings would only add to the political frenzy. Instead, Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., have long favored an independent commission to examine the events surrounding Sept. 11. Now is the appropriate time for Congress to approve such a commission.
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