| Probe hindered { September 18 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33124-2002Sep18.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33124-2002Sep18.html
Senator Says 9/11 Intelligence Probe Hindered
Reuters Wednesday, September 18, 2002; 8:50 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional investigators are not getting the cooperation they need from the Bush administration on information held by the U.S. intelligence community before the Sept. 11 attacks, a ranking Republican senator said on Wednesday.
U.S. House of Representatives and Senate intelligence committees kick off hearings on Wednesday on U.S. information-gathering activities before last year's deadly attacks on America.
A congressional source said on Tuesday U.S. intelligence agencies knew of unspecified threats against U.S. targets and about the possibility airplanes would be used as weapons.
On Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers flew two airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York, destroying the towering structures, and another crashed into the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth airplane, which may have been destined for a second site in Washington, crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
Altogether, more than 3,000 people were killed.
Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, accused the administration of impeding the probe into what the intelligence community knew before Sept. 11.
"Are we getting the cooperation we need? Absolutely not; that's one of our concerns," Shelby told NBC's "Today Show" before the congressional hearings opened.
Sen. Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat who is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, complained that FBI and CIA officials "at the operational level ... who had their hands on" important intelligence information were not being made available to congressional investigators.
Instead, Graham told NBC the committee is being given access to officials "at the top of the pyramid" who "only have a general apartness of what was going on in the organization."
"The fact they used airplanes as weapons should not have been a surprise to the intelligence community. I'm not sure it was to everyone," Shelby said.
After Sept. 11, White House officials complained that members of the U.S. Congress were leaking information to the media about what was known before the attacks.
Graham denied any congressional leaks have hindered the ongoing investigation. Shelby said there have "always been leaks and there will be in the future," adding that most of those leaks "have come from the executive branch of government" over the past year.
The two congressional committees are declassifying some of the more than 400,000 documents that have been gathered. Graham has said the information will provide an overview of the plot and events leading up to the devastating attack on the United States.
Graham said on Wednesday he was surprised the American public did not get a stronger warning of a possible attack.
"We have a lot of work to do on the threat warning system" so the public is given better information on what they should do to "protect themselves their families, their communities" when an alert is issued, he added.
© 2002 Reuters
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