Next for Sept. 11 panel: How to prevent future attacks

Friday, June 18th 2004, 6:02 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The many missed chances to disrupt the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks spanned years: The hijackers methodically devised and implemented their plot beginning in 1996. One of the hijacked jetliners flew undetected for 36 minutes because of a radar glitch.

Yet nearly three years later, the United States remains vulnerable to a sophisticated al-Qaida organization ready to exploit security gaps, the commission investigating the attacks said in its final hearing Thursday.

``Its intent to inflict harm is clear; its capability today to harm us is unclear _ and our efforts to collect intelligence on al-Qaida can and must improve,'' said Democratic vice chairman Lee Hamilton, a former representative from Indiana.

The 10-member commission held a two-day hearing on the Sept. 11 plot and the nation's emergency response that was geared toward ``closing the circle'' on the panel's 1 1/2-year investigation. The group's final report is due July 26.

In the report it released Thursday, the panel depicted the Federal Aviation Administration as slow to alert the military to the hijackings _ even failing to pass along word that one of the planes had been seized.

In testimony before the panel, Gen. Ralph Eberhart said military pilots would have been able to ``shoot down the airplanes'' if word of the hijackings had been immediate. The commission, though, made no such claim.

Some military pilots ``were never briefed about the reason they were scrambled,'' the panel said. The Secret Service, worried about a plane approaching the capital, went ``outside the chain of command'' to ask for warplanes to be sent aloft.

President Bush, in Florida when the terrorists struck, was not immune to communications woes. The commander in chief later told interviewers he had been frustrated that day at delays in establishing secure phone links with officials in a capital city feared under attack.

``There was a real problem with communications that morning,'' the commission's Republican chairman, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, told reporters. ``There were a lot of people who should have been in the loop who were not in the loop.''

The commission sketched this picture near the end of its extensive investigation into terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000. Terrorists seized four planes on a single day, flying two of them into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon.

The fourth, headed for Washington, crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside after passengers struggled with their hijackers.

``The nation owes a debt to the passengers. ... Their actions saved the lives of countless others and may have saved either the U.S. Capitol or the White House from destruction,'' the commission's report said.

Among other findings over the two-day hearing:

_Because of a radar glitch, air traffic controllers didn't realize American Airlines Flight 77 _ which took off from Dulles Airport outside Washington _ might be hijacked when it mysteriously started veering off course at 8:54 a.m. The plane traveled undetected for a critical 36 minutes.

_The plot originally envisioned up to 26 hijackers taking over 10 planes that would strike additional targets such as CIA and FBI headquarters, nuclear plants and tall buildings in California and Washington state. That plan was rejected by Osama bin Laden as too complex.

_The hijackers were able to carry out the devastating attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people at a cost of just over $500,000.

_No evidence exists that the Saudi government funded al-Qaida, although it might have ``turned a blind eye'' to active fund-raising activities there.

The commission will now focus on reaching agreement on its final report, a draft of which is under review.

Commissioners say there is general consensus on a factual accounting of events that sharply criticizes the FBI and CIA. But members haven't agreed on widespread reforms that could include a new domestic intelligence agency modeled after Britain's MI5.

``Now we have the full picture of the origins of al-Qaida and the nation's response. We know the threat is not a passing phenomenon. Simply killing Osama bin Laden isn't enough,'' said Republican commissioner John Lehman, a former Navy secretary.

``It's a deeply rooted phenomenon, and it's going to take a lot to address,'' he said.