9-11 Commission now going after Attorney General

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WASHINGTON - The FBI failed miserably over several years to reorganize and respond to a steadily growing threat of terrorism, and Attorney General John Ashcroft rejected an agency appeal for more funding on the day before al-Qaida struck, the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks said Tuesday.

"On Sept. 11, the FBI was limited in several areas," the commission said in a staff report. It cited "limited intelligence collection and strategic analysis capabilities, a limited capacity to share information both internally and externally, insufficient training, an overly complex legal regime and inadequate resources."

The commission released its unflinchingly critical report - which chairman Thomas Kean described as an "indictment' - at the outset of two days of hearings from several current and former officials at the Justice Department and FBI.

Former FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, the first to take the witness chair, politely and firmly took issue with the findings.

"We had a very effective program with respect to counterterrorism prior to Sept. 11 given the resources that we had," he said, noting that the report found that inadequate resources and legal restrictions were key ingredients in the agency's failings. That seemed a reference to Congress, which approves funding, and former Attorney General Janet Reno, who issued guidelines meant to strengthen American civil liberties protections by keeping the fruits of intelligence separate from criminal prosecution.

Reno was quoted in the report as saying that while the FBI never seemed to have sufficient resources, "Director Freeh seemed unwilling to shift resources to terrorism from other areas such as violent crime." Freeh said he shifted resources to meet specific emergency needs, but congressional limits prevented permanent shifts.

Reno was scheduled to testify later Tuesday.

On Sept. 11, 2001, the commission staff said, "about 1,300 agents, or 6 percent of the FBI's total personnel, worked on counterterrorism."

Cofer Black, the former head of CIA counterterrorism center, former acting FBI Director Thomas Pickard and Ashcroft also were on the witness list for the day.

The report said the FBI had an information system that was outdated before it was installed, further hampering efforts to battle terrorism. The report also cited legal impediments underscored by the guidelines Reno issued.

Freeh said they were "completely appropriate with respect to counter-intelligence cases." But counterterrorism cases are different because of the need to "use intelligence to prevent acts from taking place," he said.

Creation of a new Investigative Services Division in 1999 was a failure, the commission said, adding that 66 percent of the FBI's analysts were "not qualified to perform analytical duties."

A new counterterrorism strategy a year later again fell woefully short, and a review in 2001 showed that "almost every FBI field office's counterterrorism program was assessed to be operating at far below `maximum capacity."'

"The FBI's counterterrorism strategy was not a focus of the Justice Department in 2001," the first year of the Bush administration, it said.

Ashcroft has testified previously that the Justice Department had "no higher priority" than protecting Americans from terrorism at home and abroad.

Yet the commission staff statement quotes a former FBI counterterrorism chief, Dale Watson, as saying he "almost fell out of his chair" when he saw a May 10 budget memo from Ashcroft listing seven priorities, including illegal drugs and gun violence, but not terrorism.

Additionally, on Sept. 10, Ashcroft rejected an appeal from Pickard for additional funding, the commission said.

Ashcroft aides said the attorney general hoped to use his appearance before the commission to rebut criticism that he was less focused on terrorism than other law enforcement priorities. In a statement released Monday, the current FBI director, Robert Mueller, said that since his tenure began on Sept. 4, 2001, he and Ashcroft "have been in lockstep" in working to secure adequate counterterrorism resources for the FBI. Mueller is scheduled to testify Wednesday.

According to a commission document obtained by the Associated Press, Pickard also raised questions about the presence of former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick on the panel. The document said Pickard found her membership "surprising" because she and Reno had developed the policy to counter international terrorism primarily through the use of law enforcement techniques.

Commission members say it is critical to learn what law enforcement officials did to confront the rising threat of terrorism inside the United States.

"The FBI is going to have to answer the question: 'Why didn't they deliver the information up? Did they get clear instructions from the top that it should be delivered up?"' said former Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Democratic member of the Sept. 11 commission.

The commission staff statement discussed a long list of FBI shortcomings on terrorism, including a culture in which agents got credit and promotions for making cases and arrests but not for intelligence work that resulted in fewer prosecutions. Counterintelligence and counterterrorism, the report said, "were viewed as backwaters" within the FBI.

Other problems included outmoded computer systems that prevented proper information sharing, lack of strategic analysis, a legal barrier called "the wall" that barred most contact between criminal and intelligence investigators, and a decentralized structure that kept terrorism cases in the 56 field offices instead of FBI headquarters.

"It was almost impossible to develop an understanding of the threat from a particular terrorist group," the staff statement said.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)