President Bush asked House and Senate leaders yesterday to allow only
two congressional committees to investigate the government's response to
the events of Sept. 11, officials said.
The president said the inquiry should be limited to the House and
Senate intelligence committees, whose proceedings are generally secret.
Senate Democratic leaders want a broader investigation, involving some
committees that would be free to air their findings. The focus of the
committee probes is likely to center on intelligence failures preceding
the terrorist attacks that killed about 3,100 people.
A senior administration official said Congress "is already well set up
through the intelligence committees to review intelligence matters, and
those committees have a history of working with secret and classified
documents that other committees lack. . . . The president thinks it's
important for Congress to review events in a way that does not unduly
burden the defense and intelligence communities as they are still charged
with fighting a war."
Capitol Hill sources said Bush made the request of Senate Majority
Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) during a breakfast meeting with
congressional leaders. The White House would not confirm that. The
congressional sources said Vice President Cheney called Daschle last week
with the same request.
Daschle told reporters that Cheney had "expressed the concern that a
review of what happened on September 11 would take resources and personnel
away from the effort in the war on terrorism." Daschle said the probe will
start with the Intelligence Committee in an effort "to limit the scope and
the overall review of what happened."
"But clearly I think the American people are entitled to know what
happened and why at some point, just as they were desirous of knowing what
happened after the Pearl Harbor attack," Daschle said. "We did that right
during the early stages of World War II. So we haven't made any
conclusions yet."
A Senate Democratic aide said one objection to limiting the
investigation is that "most of what the Intelligence Committee does is
behind closed doors and never sees the light of day. If there is an issue,
the public deserves to know about it."
The two intelligence committees are planning a joint, bipartisan
investigation. The Democratic aide said lawmakers are expected to look
into what was known before Sept. 11 about the possibility of a major
attack, "why our intelligence wasn't better -- why we didn't know," how
different parts of the government responded, and perhaps whether the
government is prepared for a future attack.
Investigation
