FBI In Post-9/11 Overhaul, Director Tells Commission

WASHINGTON -- The 9/11 commission adjourned its public hearings for the month Wednesday after hearing from the heads of the FBI and CIA.

FBI Director Robert Mueller testified that he is in the middle of overhauling his agency.

He said officials "can and are fixing what has been wrong with the FBI."

He said a top goal is boosting analysis and information sharing, but that it "cannot be done overnight."

That echoes CIA Director George Tenet's testimony earlier in the day. Tenet said it will take five years of work to solidify the ability of intelligence agencies to counter al-Qaida and other terror threats.

Before the men appeared, the commission released a report criticizing intelligence efforts before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

That report said the CIA missed the big picture on al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden.

CIA Needs Five Years

Tenet predicted it will take "another five years of work" to build U.S. defenses to a version capable of countering al-Qaida and other terrorists.

Opening a second consecutive day of public testimony, Tenet said it will take much work to build "the kind of clandestine service our country needs."

"The same can be said for the National Security Agency, our imagery agency and our analytic community," Tenet told the panel, which will release its final conclusions in July.

Tenet, who served as CIA director under President Bill Clinton, readily acknowledged that intelligence agencies "never penetrated the 9/11 plot."

"We all understood (Osama) bin Laden's intent to strike the homeland but were unable to translate this knowledge into an effective defense of the country," Tenet said.

CIA agents tried to penetrate al-Qaida's "sanctuary" in Afghanistan, Tenet said, but did not catch on to the plot to attack the American homeland.

On Wednesday, a day after the panel heard testimony from such big names as ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh and ex-acting FBI Director Thomas Pickard, commissioners released more preliminary findings. In the report, investigators asserted the CIA missed the big picture before Sept. 11, 2001, alleging that a more detailed look at clues before the attacks could have revealed the terrorist plot.

According to the report, intelligence services lacked a strategic plan before Sept. 11, 2001, to gather and examine information collected about al-Qaida -- and that they had no way to properly spread the information.

"That's flat wrong," Tenet said.

Also in the report of preliminary findings, commissioners said the CIA had a piece-meal approach to analyzing the intelligence, and therefore missed the broader threat.

The commission's staff statement acknowledged the CIA was hobbled by staffing limitations, along with daily demands on the spy agency to issue fresh intelligence summaries to government officials. The commission also hailed the work of many "dedicated officers."

Tenet Also Cites Lack Of Resources

Tenet testified that when he became the nation's top intelligence officer in 1997, agencies had lost "close to 25 percent of our people and billions of dollars in capital investment" in the preceding several years.

His comments mirrored findings in the panel's staff report, which noted the same erosion in resources dating to the end of the Cold War.

On Tuesday, former FBI officials complained of a similar shortage in resources.

Freeh testified that "inadequate resources" plagued the bureau up to the Sept. 11 attacks, an assertion reflected in the panel's findings.

His statement appeared to be echoed by Cofer Black, former head of the CIA's counterterrorism activities.

"We didn't have enough people to do the job, and we didn't have enough money by magnitudes," Black said. "When you run out (of money), people die. When people die, you get more money."

Some of the CIA shortcomings outlined by the commission:

An inadequate counterterror management strategy before Sept. 11. The panel said Tenet sought greater funding across the entire CIA, rather than just counterterrorism, making a build up of long-term capabilities difficult.

A lack of an institutionalized process to learn from successes and failures, such as surprise terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa in August 1998 and against the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000.

One suggestion that has been posed to improve intelligence gathering involves possibly expanding the powers of the director of central intelligence or creating a domestic intelligence agency, such as MI5 in Britain.

Asked about such a potential overhaul, Bush said Tuesday night that he was open to suggestions.

"I look forward to seeing what the 9/11 commission comes up with," the president said at his prime-time news conference.

Others testifying Wednesday -- in order after Tenet -- are John Brennan, director of the federal Terrorist Threat Integration Center; Patrick Hughes, Homeland Security Department assistant secretary for information analysis; John Pistole, FBI executive assistant director for counterterrorism and counterintelligence; James Pavitt, CIA deputy director of operations; FBI Director Robert Mueller; and Maureen Baginski, FBI executive assistant director for intelligence.

Congressman Calls For 9/11 Panel Member's Resignation

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said a member of the 9/11 commission has "an inherent conflict of interest."

Jim Sensenbrenner said Jamie Gorelick should resign from the panel investigating domestic antiterror efforts.

As a deputy attorney general, Gorelick wrote a memo on separating counterintelligence from criminal investigations.

The Republican congressman said that memo is "at the center of" issues raised by the panel.

On Tuesday, Attorney General John Ashcroft released the declassified 1995 memo from Gorelick. Ashcroft said divisions between counterintelligence and criminal investigations opened a loophole the terrorists exploited.

After Wednesday's hearings, the chairman and vice-chairman of the commission said that there was no reason for Gorelick to resign, and that she is one of the hardest working members of the panel.