Al Qaeda Unchecked for Years, Panel Says

In a separate report released yesterday, the panel's investigators were critical of the FBI's attempts at reform since the Sept. 11 attacks. Although the bureau "is a stronger counterterrorism agency than it was before 9/11," the report said, it remains plagued by chronic computer problems, erratic training, shortages of linguists and intelligence analysts, and widespread confusion among agents over its counterterrorism mission.

In one example, "we heard from many analysts who complain that they are able to do little actual analysis because they continue to be assigned menial tasks, including covering the phones at the reception desk and emptying the office trash bins," the report said.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said in testimony that "we've got to put our house in order, and I think we are putting our house in order."

"Change cannot be done overnight," he added. "Transitions take time. . . . I think we're on the right path."

Mueller urged the commission not to endorse the creation of a domestic intelligence service that would take over counterterrorism responsibilities from the FBI. The panel is seriously debating the idea of an agency akin to Britain's MI5; the prospect of an overhaul of the nation's intelligence apparatus gained further prominence this week when President Bush said he was considering it.

"I do believe that creating a separate agency to collect intelligence in the United States would be a grave mistake," Mueller said. "Splitting the law enforcement and the intelligence functions would leave both agencies fighting the war on terrorism with one hand tied behind their backs."

The idea has prompted widespread criticism from law enforcement officials. Former FBI director Louis J. Freeh on Tuesday likened the idea to the creation of a "secret police," and the 9,000-member FBI Agents Association said such an agency would "put blinders on agents in the field and tie their hands behind their backs in the fight against terrorism."

Although members of the 10-member bipartisan commission showered praise on Mueller and Tenet for their efforts at reform, the remarks were overshadowed by the sweeping criticisms found in yesterday's staff reports.

"I came to this job with less knowledge of the intelligence community than anybody else at this table," said Chairman Thomas H. Kean, who served as a Republican governor of New Jersey. "What I've learned has not reassured me. It's frightened me a bit, frankly."

The commission staff also confirmed an early clue to a Sept. 11 hijacker, reporting that in 1999, the German government provided the U.S. government with a telephone number and first name: "Marwan." The CIA pursued the lead but little was discovered. The individual would eventually be identified as Marwan Al-Shehhi, who piloted United Airlines Flight 175 into the World Trade Center and used the same telephone number given to the CIA before the hijackings.

Commissioner Bob Kerrey (D), who served on the intelligence committee as a senator from Nebraska, said he did not know in 1996 that bin Laden's operatives might have been involved in downing the Black Hawk in Somalia.

"Did you ever have a conversation with President Clinton" about the incident in order to "ramp this guy up to the top of the list?" Kerrey asked Tenet, adding that the evidence "would have galvanized the U.S. against bin Laden."

Tenet said he would have to check on what he told Clinton.

Tenet said the CIA's inability to penetrate the al Qaeda network has led to a long-term rebuilding of its human intelligence program, which was in "disarray" after the loss of 20 percent of its personnel in the 1990s. By 2001, he said, there were 25 sources inside Afghanistan who were nonproductive on the Sept. 11 plot but useful for the U.S.-led invasion.

Kean questioned why it would take five years to rebuild the CIA's clandestine service. Tenet said it takes time to create "access and cover" so that U.S. agents can take root in the rough societies where terrorist sources can be developed.