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President Bush says federal law enforcement and spy agencies are changing to meet the new demands of the war on terrorism and that better intelligence is needed to confront the terrorist threat. There are accusations the FBI and CIA mishandled information prior to the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Criticism of the FBI and CIA has grown louder in recent weeks, and a congressional investigation is about to begin.

There are concerns the two agencies ignored warning signs and did not coordinate information in the months leading up to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

President Bush acknowledges they could have done better, but says they are changing the way they do business in response to the terrorist threat.

"So when you read about the FBI, I want you to know that the FBI is changing its culture. The FBI, prior to September 11, was running down white collar criminals, and that is good. It was worrying about spies, and that is good. But now they have got a more important task, and that is to prevent further attacks.

The president endorsed the FBI reorganization recently announced by agency director Robert Mueller. And he stressed that since September 11, the FBI has been doing a better job of coordinating information with the CIA.

Speaking before a crowd of two-thousand in Little Rock, Arkansas, Mr. Bush said it is part of an all-out effort to promote coordination at all government levels to deal with the terrorist threat.

"My point to you is that whether it be at your airports, or at the border or law enforcement, the whole mission of the federal government, working in conjunction with local governments, is to protect the American people," he said.

Earlier, White House spokesman Scott McClellan was asked about new reports that the CIA had vital information about two of the September 11th hijackers prior to the terrorist attacks which was never shared with the FBI. Mr. McClellan said the White House is focusing on reforming those two agencies and noted they are being investigated by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. The committees open joint hearings on Tuesday.

Congress begins hearings Tuesday into whether American intelligence agencies could have done more to anticipate and prevent the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.

The House and Senate Intelligence Committees will hold joint, closed-door hearings on intelligence failures before the September 11 attacks.

Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, spoke of "massive failures of intelligence at the CIA" on ABC television Monday.

"I believe that you are going to see a lot more instances like this, where, if they had acted upon the information they had and followed through, maybe things would be different," he said.

FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General John Ashcroft said Sunday agencies do need to improve how they gather and share information. But they said better coordination still probably would not have prevented the September 11 attacks.

In the latest example of what could have been a lost opportunity, President Mubarak tells the Times that Egyptian intelligence agents warned U.S. officials that Osama bin Laden's terror network was in the advance stages of an operation to strike at an American target just days before September 11.

Mr. Mubarak says his agents had no idea the attacks would be as extensive as they were. He told the Times that his agents tried to stop the operation, but he offered no details.

Intelligence experts say President Mubarak's comments highlight the need for greater intelligence sharing among U.S. allies that have sources within terrorist organizations.

Paul Wilkinson is a professor at St. Andrews University in Scotland. "Better coordination, more emphasis on human intelligence gathering and far better intelligence sharing with allies and with the wider international community in so far as they can be persuaded that it is in their interest to help in this very important battle," he said.

Mr. Mubarak's comments come as the U.S. Senate and House Intelligence committees begin their probe of intelligence failures related to the September 11 attacks.

Even as the bureaucratic finger-pointing escalates, former CIA Director James Woolsey says it is clear both agencies failed to keep the other up to date on the movements of suspected terrorists. "It's possible that it could have made a difference," he said. "It could have given the FBI a line of inquiry to follow that might have kept some of the hijackers out of the country, might have led from one hijacker to another. We just don't know."

FBI Director Robert Mueller says despite the missed warning signs prior to September 11, he doubts U.S. investigators would have been able to piece together the terror plot that struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

But Mr. Mueller has made greater cooperation with the CIA a key component of his plan to reorganize the FBI to focus on counter-terrorism.

Amid reports of intelligence failures, President Bush says the CIA and the FBI did not communicate properly with each other before September 11, but he does not believe the terrorist attacks could have been averted.

The president was touring the headquarters of the National Security Agency, a top-secret intelligence-gathering agency based in the eastern U.S. state of Maryland. He praised the agency's work force of analysts, engineers and linguists for putting in long hours.

President Bush stressed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation's mission has changed since the attacks, and that it now communicates closely with the Central Intelligence Agency. Congress began closed-door hearings Tuesday on whether U.S. intelligence agencies failed to analyze and act on information that might have prevented the September 11th attacks.

The bipartisan panel of Senate and House intelligence committee members is asking what the government knew before the attacks and what actions it took. After months of inquiry, the panel will make recommendations on how to improve intelligence operations to prevent such an assault in the future.

The panel is meeting in sound-proof, secure rooms at the Capitol. The hearings will be held in public June 25.

The hearings come as news reports say the CIA knew that two of the al-Qaida terrorists, who later became hijackers, were in the United States, but failed to alert the FBI and other federal agencies until three weeks before the attacks.

Responding to the report, a CIA official said the agency briefed at least some F-B-I officials on one of the hijackers, identified as Almidhar, in January, 2000. Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi both attended an al-Qaida meeting in Malaysia in that month, and both were among the 19 men who hijacked jetliners on September 11.

Several prominent lawmakers have criticized an apparent lack of communication both between and within the CIA and the FBI.

A U.S. Congressional probe into intelligence failures prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks continues Wednesday behind closed doors. The hearings began Tuesday with lawmakers vowing to conduct a thorough investigation.

After spending a day discussing how they will conduct their investigation and the kinds of questions they will ask, lawmakers Wednesday are expected to turn their attention to more substantive issues.

Meeting in joint session, members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are considering evidence the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency sometimes mishandled information and did not share intelligence with each other.

The joint committee has begun its proceedings in closed session, but it is expected to hold public hearings later this month. FBI Director Robert Mueller and CIA Director George Tenet are expected to testify in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday is to hold a public hearing on the FBI's handling of an alleged terrorist linked to the September 11 attacks.

Appearing before the committee will be Minnesota FBI agent Coleen Rowley, who has said bureau headquarters mishandled the investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui, a French national suspected as the 20th would-be hijacker. He has been in federal custody since August.

The biggest government reorganization in more than 50 years will create a new agency responsible for border and transportation security, emergency preparedness, information analysis, and measures to counter chemical, biological, or nuclear attack.

President Bush says the move, which requires Congressional approval, is part of what he calls " a titanic struggle against terror."

"I ask the Congress to join me in creating a single permanent department with an overriding and urgent mission: securing the homeland of America and protecting the American people," he said.

The president is asking Congress to create a Department of Homeland Security with 170,000 employees drawn from parts of eight cabinet departments and cabinet-level agencies including the Departments of Justice, Energy, Commerce, and Health and Human Services.

The new agency will take over the work of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Customs, the Coast Guard, Border Patrol, and the Secret Service which provides presidential security.

President Bush emphasized the reorganization will better protect Americans against future terrorist attacks. "This new department will review intelligence and law enforcement information from all agencies of government, and produce a single daily picture of threats against our homeland," he said. "Analysts will be responsible for imagining the worst, and planning to counter it."

The president's announcement comes as Congress begins investigations into why U.S. officials failed to coordinate various pieces of intelligence before September 11 which now appear to indicate that a terrorist attack was in the works.

President Bush says he supports the Congressional review of law enforcement, saying the suspicions and insights of some intelligence agents did not get enough attention before September 11.

"We need to know when warnings were missed or signs unheeded, not to point the finger of blame, but to make sure we correct any problems, and prevent them from happening again," he stressed. "Based on everything I have seen, I do not believe anyone could have prevented the horror of September 11. Yet we now know that thousands of trained killers are plotting to attack us, and this terrible knowledge requires us to act differently."

One of those differences will be the information analysis division of the new agency which will act as a clearinghouse for intelligence information on terrorist treats from agencies including the CIA and FBI.

Mr. Bush says the new agency will not require new funding as its $37 billion budget will come from existing departments whose work the new agency is taking over.

"By ending duplication and overlap, we will spend less on overhead and more on protecting America," explained. "This reorganization will give the good people of our government their best opportunity to succeed, by organizing our resources in a way that is thorough and unified."

President Bush created the Office of Homeland Security following the September 11 attacks, but many in Congress said the office lacked the authority or resources to reorganize existing agencies.

By asking Congress to create a cabinet-level post before the end of the year, Mr. Bush says it will unite essential agencies that he says "must work more closely together" to strengthen homeland security.

U.S. lawmakers are welcoming President Bush's proposal to reorganize homeland security.

Congress has long pressed the Bush administration to elevate the office of Homeland Security to cabinet level - a move that would give lawmakers oversight authority over the agency.

Democratic House leader, Richard Gephardt, said the proposal is 'precisely what should be done.'

Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle said in a written statement 'it is encouraging President Bush recognizes the need for a fundamental overhaul of the way in which we approach America's homeland security.'

Another Democratic Senator, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who has offered bipartisan legislation to establish a cabinet-level homeland security office, agrees.

"The good news is that this broad bipartisan group of us in Congress and the White House are on the same side as we strengthen our guard to protect the American people at home against the threat of terrorism," he said.

Republican lawmakers are also pleased. Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania says Mr. Bush's plan is 'very, very good news.'

But some lawmakers caution the proposal could trigger bitter turf battles among entrenched federal bureaucracies.

Biden: "Were you consulted on the details of this new office? Will the FBI gain or lose jurisdiction as a result of this new office?" Mueller: "I respectfully do not believe it appropriate for me to disclose discussions I might have had had with the president," he said.

Biden: "I think that is malarky. That is not legitimate." President Bush's plan will require congressional approval.

The Bush administration has announced a series of steps in recent days aimed at better protecting the United States from further terrorist attacks. The measures include fingerprinting foreign visitors who might pose a security threat and making it easier for FBI agents to spy on people whom they suspect of having terrorist links. But, civil liberties groups and some members of Congress worry that the government is taking on new powers that threaten freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Some opposition Democrats and even a few Republicans in Congress are voicing concerns about the administration's new tactics in the domestic war on terrorism.

"No one in the Congress or in the administration can ignore the Constitution of the United States," he said. "To do so, we do it at our peril and we weaken the United States; we do not strengthen the United States."

In his recent announcement about fingerprinting and photographing some foreign visitors who are deemed as possible security risks, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the increased threat of terrorism requires a more sophisticated response from U.S. law enforcement.

"Their tactics rely on evading recognition at the border and escaping detection within the United States," he said. "Their terrorist mission is to defeat America, to destroy our values and to kill innocent people."

Civil liberties and Arab-American groups complain that the new entry and exit guidelines for foreign visitors will inevitably lead to racial profiling, with border agents pre-disposed to target Muslims and Middle Easterners as the most likely threats.

Nihad Awad is executive director of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. "We believe it is going to be a wasteful, discriminatory and counterproductive measure that will not help secure the borders because it is just a pure form of discrimination," he said.

Civil liberties groups have also criticized the new guidelines making it easier for FBI agents to scan the Internet and monitor suspicious individuals as part of their counter-terrorism efforts. A spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union says the new powers will do little to make Americans safer but will inevitably make them less free.

Human rights activists say the domestic crackdown is also hurting the U.S. image abroad.

William Schultz is executive director of Amnesty International USA. He says the continued detention of scores of foreign nationals on visa violations is a particular sore point.

"It alienates those nationals, their communities, their families, their friends, and it creates potential adversaries for the United States where there were none before," he said.

"I still believe that we have to protect the freedoms that we have in this country that are guaranteed by the Constitution, or all the work we do to protect it will be at naught," he said. "But there are things that we can do, well within the Constitution, that will assist us in identifying those amongst our midst who wish to kill Americans."

For the moment, at least, it appears the Bush administration has the public on its side.

Recent opinion polls suggest that Americans are more concerned about preventing further terrorist attacks than they are about the possible erosion of constitutional rights.

In comments following a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House Friday morning, Mr. Bush quoted former president Harry Truman saying the "buck stops here" - referring to the White House's need to ensure accountability in U.S. security agencies. Mr. Bush said the two main U.S. intelligence agencies: the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence, are responsive to criticism and are changing for the better.

President Bush announced his homeland security proposal late Thursday in a nationally-televised address. He said the new department involves reorganizing the U.S. government to coordinate information about terrorism and tighten the nation's domestic defenses.

Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman called the meeting with President Bush good, saying "partisanship ends at the nation's borders." He said he expects some bureaucratic resistance, but said he favors bringing duplicative government functions under one Cabinet-level secretary. The proposed Department of Homeland Security would be made up of 20 existing federal agencies, including the Coast Guard, Secret Service, Customs, Immigration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the war on terrorism will not end until states that sponsor it understand the deadly consequences of their support.

Addressing U.S. troops based in Kuwait Sunday, Mr. Rumsfeld said the war against terror that began in Afghanistan will not end there. He said the battle will continue until terrorist networks are rooted out wherever they exist.

He also said the United States must assume that it is only a matter of time before states that sponsor terrorists supply weapons of mass destruction to networks like al-Qaida.

Mr. Rumsfeld refused to answer any questions about possible plans to attack neighboring Iraq. He says his trip to Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar is not aimed at sounding out support among Gulf leaders for action against Baghdad.

Mr. Rumsfeld heads to Bahrain Monday, home of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. He then stops in Qatar before traveling to India and Pakistan.

U.S. and British warplanes use Kuwait as a base for air patrols in southern Iraq to protect Iraq's minority Shi'ite Muslims from attacks by Baghdad's predominantly-Sunni Muslim government forces.

The president said the federal government must be better prepared to deal with the threat of bioterrorism. "Terrorist groups seek biological weapons. We know some rogue states already have them. It is important that we confront these real threats to our country and prepare for future emergencies," Mr. Bush said.

The bioterrorism threat was close to home for members of Congress. They responded by giving overwhelming approval to legislation designed to boost spending to better protect all Americans from bioterrorism and improve the medical community's ability to respond.

As he signed the bill into law, President Bush praised their work. He said protecting the public from bioterrrorism is "an urgent duty of government."

"We must be better prepared to prevent, identify and respond, and this bill I am signing today will help a lot in this essential effort," Mr. Bush said.

Among other things, the measure provides $1.6 billion in grants to states for improved planning and preparedness. It sets aside hundreds of millions of dollars to produce and stockpile vaccines and medicines. And it provides more money to protect water systems and food supplies.

But the president made clear he wants to see more from Congress. He urged lawmakers to approve his plan to create a new cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security. "Strengthening our protections against bioterror is a part of a larger effort to deal with the new threats of the 21st century. If we are going to succeed, we need to re-organize our government," Mr. Bush said.

After the signing ceremony, Mr. Bush met with a panel of advisors on domestic security from inside and outside the government. He said America is responding to terrorism in two ways: through direct action against terrorists abroad, and heightened prevention at home.

"We are making progress. We really are. But until we rout out every terrorist cell and every terrorist, until attitudes change about freedom and America, we have got to protect our homeland in a new way," Mr. Bush said.

The head of the White House Office of Homeland Security is briefing lawmakers this week on the president's plan. Tom Ridge is meeting behind closed doors first with the entire membership of the House and later with all 100 Senators. President Bush has urged Congress to pass the necessary legislation to create a Department of Homeland Security this year. But administration officials said it will not be easy, acknowledging there are questions on Capital Hill about both the extent of the re-organization, and the cost of the plan.

The Saudi authorities say they have arrested 13 Saudis and foreigners linked to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network who were planning "terrorist" attacks in the kingdom.

Seven suspects were alleged to have been planning attacks on key installations in Saudi Arabia using explosives and surface-to-air missiles, the official SPA news agency said on Tuesday.

An Interior Ministry source quoted by SPA said they included a Sudanese man believed to be an al-Qaeda cell leader.

He and six Saudis were arrested several months ago.

Five Saudis and an Iraqi who had helped hide the Sudanese suspect and smuggled him out of the country were also picked up, SPA reported.

Abortive missile attack

On Sunday the Sudanese Government said it had handed the Sudanese man over to the Saudi authorities.

He had admitted firing a missile at a US warplane taking off from Prince Sultan Air Base, south of the Saudi capital Riyadh.


The accused will go before an Islamic court for punishment in line with Sharia (Islamic law)
Saudi spokesman

Last month Saudi security forces found a missile launcher tube three kilometres (two miles) from a runway at the desert airbase, which is used by about 4,500 US troops.

US officials identified it as a spent casing from a Russian Sam-7 missile, but did not confirm that it was used to target US aircraft.

The Saudi statement said the Sudanese "was linked directly to al-Qaeda and had fought in Afghanistan with the network".

Bin Laden, al-Qaeda's fugitive Saudi-born leader, accuses the United States of insulting Islam by keeping forces in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Qaeda was blamed for the 11 September terror attacks in the United States. US officials say 15 of the 19 suicide hijackers were Saudi nationals.

US intelligence experts say there is mounting evidence that al-Qaeda cells are now functioning largely independently of their leadership.

Pope Condemns Suicide Bombing

VOA News
19 Jun 2002 11:43 UTC

Pope John Paul II has denounced Tuesday's Palestinian suicide bombing that killed 19 Israelis and the bomber.

In his weekly general audience, the pope said those who plot and plan such barbarous attacks will have to answer before God.

The pope asked for prayers to change hearts and inspire thoughts of peace and mutual pardon.

The Islamic Hamas movement claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, which also wounded more than 50 people.

Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.

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Moroccan authorities have arrested a man alleged to be a leading member of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, say US officials.

The Saudi national, Abu Zubair - nicknamed "The Bear" for his huge frame - is suspected of planning attacks against Western interests in Morocco.


The Moroccans can use much more persuasive methods in questioning a suspect
US official

Another senior al-Qaeda agent, German citizen Mohammed Haydar Zammar, who was also arrested by Morocco, has been handed over to Syria where he is being interrogated, Reuters news agency reported citing US authorities.

The BBC's diplomatic correspondent, Barnaby Mason, says the two arrests show how the United States is using information gathered in interrogations by other countries' security forces.

US officials have said they are in no hurry to take custody of Abu Zubair because the Moroccans "can use much more persuasive methods in questioning a suspect," ABC television reported.

Interrogation information

According to US officials, Abu Zubair's alleged activities included:

Running some of Bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan before 11 September
Helping evacuate al-Qaeda forces from Afghanistan during the US-led war against the Taleban and al-Qaeda
Being a close associate of Abu Zubaydah, the senior al-Qaeda operations chief captured in Pakistan and being questioned by US authorities
Being central to al-Qaeda's international recruiting network, accepting recruits into training and placing them in overseas cells.

There is no evidence to link him directly with the attacks on the United States.

Our correspondent says it is clear that the Americans have access to whatever information emerges from the Moroccans' interrogation of him.

They also appear to have been given information from the interrogation of Mr Zammar in Syria.


US officials suspect Zammar recruited the chief 11 September hijacker

A senior State Department official told a congressional committee that co-operation from the Syrians had saved American lives.

An investigation by the German television station, ZDF, and the Washington post says the Americans have had contact with Mr Zammar for several months.

US officials suspect he was responsible for recruiting Mohammed Atta, the alleged ringleader of the group which launched the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington.

German officials, who have been trying without success to gain access to Mr Zammar, are sceptical that there is sufficient evidence to link him closely with the hijackers.

Series of arrests

Confirmation of the two arrests comes after Morocco recently admitted arresting seven others who are being charged with targeting American and British naval ships in the Straits of Gibraltar.

In another development, Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday its first arrests linked to al-Qaeda.

Thirteen people suspected of plotting to attack targets in Saudi Arabia have been detained some months ago.

The 11 Saudis, an Iraqi and a Sudanese man were involved in an alleged plan to shoot down a US military plane taking off from a Saudi air base, the government said.