THE US: The public commission investigating the September 11th hijackings yesterday issued a stinging indictment of the FBI and the attorney-general, John Ashcroft, alleging both failed to take counter-terrorism seriously enough before the attacks.
This interim staff report represented the commission's most direct criticism so far of a cabinet official in the Bush administration and put Mr Ashcroft's career at risk.
The report, delivered at the beginning of a day of public hearings, also portrayed the FBI as institutionally incapable of handling counter-terrorism, at a time when President Bush is considering the break up of the bureau and the creation of a new domestic intelligence agency, possibly modelled on Britain's MI5.
Mr Ashcroft, due to appear before the commission, rejected through his office the claims that he did not take the al-Qaeda threat seriously in his first months in office.
The commission's report noted that although Mr Ashcroft told a congressional committee on May 9th, 2001, that the justice department "had no higher priority than to protect citizens from terrorist attacks", the next day he issued budget guidelines and priority objectives focused on "reducing the incidence of gun violence and reducing the trafficking of illegal drugs".
Mr Dale Watson, the head of the FBI's counter-terrorism office, "told us he almost fell out of his chair when he saw the memo because it made no mention of counter-terrorism", the report said.
Furthermore, the commission report, delivered by its staff director Mr Philip Zelikow, noted that on September 10th, 2001, Mr Ashcroft turned down an appeal by the FBI for more spending on counter-terrorism.
The report depicted the FBI as an old-fashioned law enforcement organisation focused on individual cases and prosecutions and incapable of putting together a broad strategy to combat al-Qaeda and prevent further attacks. There was no common computer database for investigators, and the few computers available were more than a decade out of date by 2001. "I did a study of this in 1996, and the FBI was basically working with paper," Mr Larry Thompson a former State Department counter-terrorism expert, said. "There was maybe one computer operator on a floor. There was no kind of integrated computer network at all. All that Hollywood stuff about the FBI is fantasy."
According to the commission's report yesterday, two-thirds of the FBI's terrorism analysts were not qualified to do their jobs and had often been given their posts as a reward for performing well in other roles. Furthermore, attempts to establish a centralised counter-terrorist unit were hindered by senior FBI managers.
President Bush, under fire himself for not responding vigorously to warnings in the summer of 2001, did not defend the FBI when asked about the issue before yesterday's hearings.- (Guardian Service)