By KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - CIA (news - web sites) Director George Tenet defended his agency's counterterrorism efforts Thursday, detailing its secret successes against al-Qaida while acknowledging that it could have better handled some information on two future Sept. 11 hijackers.
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Tenet and FBI (news - web sites) Director Robert Mueller appeared before the House and Senate intelligence committees, culminating five weeks of public hearings on intelligence failures leading up to the attacks.
Before Sept. 11, he said, the CIA had a large number of reports that a large al-Qaida operation was in the offing, but didn't know where Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s operatives would strike.
"In the months leading up to 9/11, we were convinced bin Laden meant to attack Americans, meant to kill large numbers and that the attack could be at home, abroad and both. And we reported these threats urgently," he said in prepared testimony.
"But the reporting was maddeningly short on actionable details," Tenet conceded. "The most ominous reporting hinting at something large was also the most vague."
However, the CIA director also said the agency should have had two future Sept. 11 hijackers put on watchlists preventing their entry into the United States after they were first associated with al-Qaida, in early 2000, instead of August 2001.
"The error exposed weaknesses in our internal handling of watchlisting which have been addressed," Tenet said. "Corrective steps have been taken."
Regarding criticism that the CIA should have given more warning that terrorists intended to use planes as weapons, Tenet said in seven years the agency received, and passed on, all 12 reports of such terrorist planning, even those from dubious sources. In comparison, counterterrorism officials received 20 times as many reports of potential car bombings, he said.
Tenet also said the CIA lost about 18 percent of its budget and 16 percent of its personnel in the post Cold War budget cutbacks. Training new intelligence officers to replace them will take time, he said.
He also described some previously secret successes against al-Qaida, including the thwarting of planned attacks in Yemen, Jordan and elsewhere in the Middle East.
The CIA record "will show a keen awareness of the threat, a disciplined focus and persistent efforts to track, disrupt, apprehend and ultimately bring to justice bin Laden and his lieutenants," Tenet said.
Responding to criticism that the CIA and FBI have not shared information with each other, Tenet said the agency's alliance with the bureau "has produced achievements that simply would not have been possible if some of the recent media stories of all-out feuding were true."
The director of the National Security Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, and other intelligence officials, also were scheduled to appear.
The committees' joint inquiry has not uncovered any evidence that by itself could have prevented the attacks. But lawmakers have criticized agencies for not sharing information about potential threats that, if linked, might have uncovered the plot.
The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Richard Shelby (news, bio, voting record) of Alabama, said Wednesday that Tenet "was in denial."
"He was denying that there were intelligence failures. It's interesting to see if he's changed his mind," Shelby said.
Intelligence officials suggested Shelby must have misunderstood Tenet's testimony in February.
Rep. Timothy Roemer, D-Ind., said he didn't want to see the CIA and Congress as adversaries.
"But we want to hear what was done prior to 9/11 and how it could have been done better and what have we done to change things post-9/11," he said.
As the committees end their inquiry, efforts to create an independent commission to conduct a longer, broader investigation remain at an impasse.
About 10 relatives met on Capitol Hill with lawmakers and two White House officials, Nicholas Calio and Jay Lefkowitz, in an unsuccessful attempt to break a deadlock.
After initially opposing the independent commission, the White House now says it supports it. But it has differences with the families and congressional leaders about the commission's structure.
Rep. Porter Goss (news, bio, voting record), R-Fla., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has said he won't let the commission be considered in Congress until an agreement is reached with the White House.
"Our frustration level has never been higher," said Beverly Eckert of Voices of Sept. 11.
The main sticking points continue to be provisions governing the commission's subpoena power and leadership, which the White House fears could lead to partisan squabbling and finger-pointing. Bush objects to a provision that would allow five members of the 10-person commission, split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, to issue a subpoena. The administration also wants its only member on the commission to be the sole chairman, instead of being co-chair with a Democratic appointee.
Under the plan worked out by Democratic and Republican lawmakers, the commission would last two years and would explore a wide range of issues related to the Sept. 11 attacks, including intelligence, aviation security and immigration. The one-year congressional investigation is examining only issues related to intelligence.
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Associated Press Writer John J. Lumpkin contributed to this report.