A US congressional panel has found no single piece of intelligence data that could have prevented the September 11th attacks on the United States, The Washington Postreported today.
"As far as I know, there is no smoking gun," Democratic Senator Evan Bayh, a member of the bicameral committee was quoted as saying.
After six months of investigating all pertinent intelligence information received before September 11th the lawmakers concluded that with no evidence pointing to a single intelligence breakdown, it was better to focus on fixing systemic problems in the US intelligence system, panel members said.
"Now we need to pivot and focus on where we need to go," said the Indiana Senator. "I hope we're in the process of shifting from a place where people were looking to assign blame and instead focusing on systemic problems and improvements."
Some committee members, however, cautioned that the investigation was not complete and that "a smoking gun" could still turn up.
Finger pointing to apportion blame for failing to predict the attack began in early June, when it was disclosed that the FBI had not investigated a report by its Phoenix office that suspected terrorists were training at US flight schools.
The FBI was again in the crosshairs when it was leaked that it blocked a request by its Minneapolis, Minnesota, office to search the computer of Zacarias Moussaoui - the so-called 20th hijacker who was arrested before September 11th.
And President George W. Bush got mixed up in the blame game when it became known that he had been briefed about possible attacks by the al-Qaeda terrorist group in the US, including the possibility of hijacking airplanes.
The reported intelligence failures prompted Congress to call for revamping the FBI and CIA, while the Bush administration proposed creating a Home Security Department.
AFP