Senate OKs Special Panel for Full-Scale 9/11 Probe

The Senate on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to form a special commission to investigate last year’s terrorist attacks, an inquiry that would compare in scale to the historic probes of the Pearl Harbor bombing and the John F. Kennedy assassination.

The 90 to 8 vote, a key step in creating the panel, reflected growing sentiment that nothing less than an exhaustive examination will suffice for an event of the magnitude of the Sept. 11 attacks.

In contrast to the current congressional probe that is limited to CIA and FBI lapses in counterintelligence, the 10-member National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States would be charged with making a “full and complete accounting” of the episode, exploring a range of issues--from immigration policies to aviation security.

“We are not interested in using this commission to point fingers,” said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), who joined Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in sponsoring the measure. “We need definitive answers that force us to face what happened and why--answers that ultimately will lead to a stronger and better America.”

The vote came on a day when the White House reduced the terrorist threat alert in the United States, which had been elevated amid concern about possible strikes timed to coincide with the first anniversary of last year’s attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The administration downgraded the terrorist warning code system from “orange”--which signals a high risk of attack--to “yellow.”

Meanwhile, testimony at a congressional hearing disclosed that a memo from a Phoenix FBI agent asking the bureau to investigate Middle Eastern men at U.S. flight schools focused on a sole suspect who had repeated contacts with one of the Sept. 11 hijackers. The suspect--whose identity was not disclosed--may have trained and screened pilots involved in the plot, agents said.

Lawmakers said the revelation offered further evidence that U.S. officials had the opportunity to derail the plot months before the attacks.

Also, in court documents unsealed Tuesday, federal prosecutors linked Al Qaeda suspect Zacarias Moussaoui to one of the 19 hijackers, an allegation that goes beyond charges laid out last year in the government’s indictment of the French-born militant. Authorities said a business card belonging to one of the hijackers and discovered in the wreckage of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania had a telephone number written on the back that matched a number Moussaoui had called.

The Senate measure that would create the independent commission to probe the attacks was proposed as an amendment to legislation creating a Department of Homeland Security. That bill remains under debate.

The House earlier this year approved a more limited commission that would probe only intelligence failures leading up to Sept. 11. But the strong bipartisan Senate vote, coming days after the White House dropped its opposition to an independent review, provides a big push to the idea of a commission with wide-ranging scope and the resources to conduct a full accounting of the circumstances surrounding the attacks.

A House GOP leadership aide said House members are likely to support the broader mandate now that the administration has dropped its opposition to the idea.

Don Kettl, a University of Wisconsin political scientist who has been studying the issue, agreed that momentum favored the Senate proposal. “It’s becoming much more likely that the commission’s focus will be broad and sweeping--not just limited to intelligence but licensed to examine the whole range of issues at play,” he said.

Even Sen. Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee and onetime skeptic of the commission idea, spoke out strongly in support of a broad probe by an independent panel.

“We now know our inability to detect and prevent the Sept. 11 attacks was not only an intelligence failure,” he said. “It was a failure of our entire government.... I’m convinced that an accounting on behalf of the victims, the families left behind and the American people must include a comprehensive examination of how every relevant agency of our government performed or failed to perform prior to the attacks.”

The commission would have a broad mandate to examine the findings of the congressional investigation into intelligence lapses, as well as the roles played by law enforcement agencies, aviation security, U.S. diplomacy, immigration and economic policies, including efforts to stem the flow of assets to terrorist organizations.

Under the Senate legislation, appointments to the commission would be evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans.

No current government officials could serve on the panel. But its members would be drawn from prominent citizens with experience in such professions as government, law enforcement, the military, law, intelligence gathering, commerce, aviation and foreign affairs. The House measure contained a requirement that members include relatives of Sept. 11 victims.

The commission would have a $3-million budget and the power to subpoena witnesses and documents.

The panel would submit its initial report six months after its first meeting, and a final report a year later.

Even some backers of the commission cautioned that such panels do not always settle matters.

Decades later, skepticism continues about the Warren Commission’s finding of a lone gunman in the Kennedy assassination. And historians have faulted the panel that probed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, in which 2,400 people were killed, for placing too much blame on the top military officers at the naval base in Hawaii and not enough on government officials in Washington.

The Bush administration initially opposed an independent commission for the Sept. 11 attacks because it feared the panel could distract and demoralize intelligence officials working to prevent another terrorist assault.

But the White House last week reversed itself and supported the independent review after families of Sept. 11 victims lobbied for the commission and congressional hearings focused new attention on intelligence lapses.

An independent commission could help to settle a dispute over reforms to intelligence agencies.

“So far, at least, the intelligence services have been able to fend off the really big question--reorganizing their relationships,” said Kettl. “A blue-ribbon commission report could be the one thing that changes that. That, in turn, could be the truly historic implication of such a commission.”