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Bush asks Daschle to limit Sept. 11 probes
January 29, 2002 Posted: 9:26 PM EST
(0226
GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush
personally asked
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle Tuesday to limit the
congressional investigation into the events of September 11,
congressional and White House sources told CNN.
The request was made at a private meeting with congressional
leaders Tuesday morning. Sources said Bush initiated the
conversation.
He asked that only the House and Senate intelligence committees
look into the potential breakdowns among federal agencies that
could have
allowed the terrorist attacks to occur, rather than a
broader inquiry that some lawmakers have proposed, the sources
said
Tuesday's discussion followed a rare call to Daschle from Vice
President Dick Cheney last Friday to make the same request.
"The vice president expressed the concern that a review of
what
happened on September 11 would take resources and personnel away
from the effort in the war on terrorism," Daschle told
reporters.
But, Daschle said, he has not agreed to limit the
investigation.
"I acknowledged that concern, and it is for that reason that
the
Intelligence Committee is going to begin this effort, trying to
limit the scope and the overall review of what happened," said
Daschle, D-South Dakota.
"But clearly, I think the American people are entitled to know
what happened and why," he said.
Cheney met last week in the Capitol with the chairmen of the
House and Senate intelligence committees and, according to a
spokesman for Senate Intelligence Chairman Bob Graham, D-Florida,
"agreed to cooperate with their effort."
The heads of both intelligence committees have been meeting to
map out a way to hold a bipartisan House-Senate investigation and
hearings.
They were discussing how the inquiry would proceed, including
what would be made public, what would remain classified, and how
broad the probe would be.
Graham's spokesman said the committees will review
intelligence
matters only.
"How ill prepared were we and why? We are looking towards the
possibility of addressing systemic problems through legislation,"
said spokesman Paul Anderson.
Some Democrats, such as Sens. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut
and Robert Torricelli of New Jersey, have been calling for a broad
inquiry looking at various federal government agencies beyond the
intelligence community.
"We do not meet our responsibilities to the American people if
we do not take an honest look at the federal government and all of
its agencies and let the country know what went wrong," Torricelli
said.
"The best assurance that there's not another terrorist attack
on
the United States is not simply to hire more federal agents or
spend more money. It's to take an honest look at what went wrong.
Who or what failed? There's an explanation owed to the American
people," he said.
Although the president and vice president told Daschle they
were
worried a wide-reaching inquiry could distract from the
government's war on terrorism, privately Democrats questioned why
the White House feared a broader investigation to determine
possible culpability.
"We will take a look at the allocation of resources. Ten
thousand federal agents -- where were they? How many assets were
used, and what signals were missed?" a Democratic senator told
CNN.
-- CNN Capitol Hill Producer Dana Bash
and CNN
Correspondents Jon Karl and John
King contributed to this report.
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