9/11 Panel Suggests Intelligence Overhaul

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Sept. 11 commission's final report recommended the creation of a new intelligence center and high-level intelligence director to improve the nation's ability to disrupt future terrorist attacks.

Overseeing the center would be a new Senate-confirmed national intelligence director, reporting directly to the president at just below full Cabinet rank, who "would be able to influence the budget and leadership" of the CIA (news - web sites), FBI (news - web sites), Homeland Security Department and Defense Department.

Commission Chairman Tom Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, said the 9/11 attacks "were a shock, but should not have come as a surprise."

"By September 2001, the executive branch of the U.S. government, the Congress, the news media, and the American public had received clear warning that Islamist terrorists meant to kill Americans in high numbers,"

Commission vice chairman Lee Hamilton said after the Sept. 11 attacks the government's efforts "rightly included military action to topple the Taliban and pursue al-Qaida."

"But long-term success demands the use of all elements of national power: diplomacy, intelligence, covert action, law enforcement, economic policy, foreign aid, public diplomacy and homeland defense," said Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana. "If we favor one tool while neglecting others, we leave ourselves vulnerable."

The report, which is the culmination of a 20-month investigation into the plot that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, describes the meticulous planning and determination of hijackers who sought to exploit weaknesses in airline and border procedures by taking test flights.

A surveillance video that surfaced Wednesday shows four of the hijackers passing through security gates at Washington Dulles International Airport shortly before boarding the plane they would crash into the Pentagon (news - web sites). In the video, the hijackers can be seen undergoing additional scrutiny after setting off metal detectors, then being permitted to continue to their gate.

While faulting institutional shortcomings, the report does not blame President Bush (news - web sites) or former President Clinton (news - web sites) for mistakes contributing to the 2001 attack.

Kean and Hamilton presented Bush with a copy of the report Thursday morning. Bush thanked them for a "really good job" and said the panel makes "very solid, sound recommendations about how to move forward."

"I assured them that where the government needs to act we will," Bush said.

The commission did not recommend creation of a new domestic intelligence agency similar to Britain's MI5, as proposed by some in Congress. Instead, the report endorsed steps already being taken by FBI Director Robert Mueller to create a specialized intelligence service within the FBI.

Beyond government reorganization, the report also says that the United States and its allies must embark on a global strategy of diplomacy and public relations to dismantle the terror network led by Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and defeat the militant Islamic ideology that feeds such terror groups.

"To Muslim parents, terrorists like bin Laden have nothing to offer their children but visions of violence and death. America and its friends have the advantage — our vision can offer a better future," the report said.

The commission also says the U.S. government must do more at home to guard against future terror attacks, including such things as setting national standards for issuance of drivers' licenses and other identification, improving "no-fly" and other terrorist watch lists and using more biometric identifiers to screen travelers at ports and borders. 

Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism czar in the Clinton and Bush administrations and now an ABC consultant, said on the network's "Good Morning America" the commission avoided controversy. "To get unanimity they didn't talk about a number of things, like what effect is the war in Iraq (news - web sites) having on our battle against terrorism. Did the president pay any attention to terrorism during the first nine months of his administration? The controversial things, the controversial criticisms of the Clinton administration as well as the Bush administration just aren't there."
"What they didn't do is say that the country is actually not safer now than it was then because of the rise in terrorism after our invasion in Iraq."
Less than four months before the presidential election, the commission's work already has ignited partisan debate over whether Bush took sufficient steps to deal with terrorism in the first year of his administration. Republicans have argued that Bush had just eight months to deal with the terror threat while Clinton's administration had eight years.