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US begins inquiry into 11 September

Rupert Cornwell
Tuesday 04 June 2002 00:00 BST
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The US Congress begins its first major investigation today into the failure to prevent last year's devastating terrorist attacks, but in a format that falls well short of the blue-riband independent commissions that investigated Pearl Harbor and the assassination of President Kennedy.

Material for the joint investigation by the House and Senate Intelligence Committee is certainly not lacking, with a string of clues missed by the FBI, and the recent revelation that the CIA failed to alert US immigration agencies when it identified two of the hijackers at an al-Qa'ida meeting in Malaysia in January 2000.

A year later Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi entered the US and on 11 September helped fly flight AA77 into the Pentagon.

Despite the fact that the joint committee will hold its most sensitive hearings behind closed doors, with no public sessions likely before the middle of this month, it is possible that the inquiry could degenerate into bipartisan squabbling, as Democrats try to embarrass the Bush administration in the run-up to important congressional elections this autumn.

The hearings will take place in a specially modified Senate chamber with soundproofed walls. But these precautions are no safeguard against leaks to the press afterwards. For that reason, many senior politicians of both parties have demanded an independent outside commission. But the White House vehemently opposes the idea, on the ground it might jeopardise intelligence operations against al-Qa'ida.

It might interfere, moreover, with military action against Iraq. According to the CBS programme 60 Minutes, the US has rejected two offers by Baghdad to hand over the accused 1993 World Trade Centre bomber, Abdul Rahman Yasin, who is now in an Iraqi jail. Mr Yasin fled to Iraq after being questioned by the FBI. Iraq says the offer to hand him over is proof that it had nothing to do with the 11 September attacks.

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