2004-7-23
This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English.
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United
States, better known as the 9-11 Commission, gave its final report
Thursday. The document is almost six hundred pages. It follows
twenty months of investigation into what went wrong on September
eleventh, two-thousand-one, and how to prevent future attacks.
The five Republicans and five Democrats on the commission said
they came together to present the report "without dissent." By
agreement, copies are being sold through bookstores. The report can
be read free of charge on the Internet.
Commission Chairman Thomas Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton
presented the report to President Bush. Mister Bush said he looked
forward to studying what he called "some very constructive
recommendations" by the commission.
The attacks killed three-thousand people. Al-Qaida hijackers flew
planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the military
headquarters at the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in a field in
Pennsylvania after a rebellion by passengers.
Chairman Kean, in public comments, said the United States
government was not active enough in dealing with the terrorist
threat. He said the commission cannot say whether any measures would
have prevented the attacks. But Mister Kean said the Clinton and
Bush administrations must share blame for not recognizing the
threat.
The commission found what it called a "failure of imagination."
It says agencies failed to share information and made mistakes. It
says they missed ten chances to discover the plot. It also
criticized Congress for poor supervision of intelligence gathering.
The report calls for the appointment of a national intelligence
director and the creation of a new national anti-terrorism center.
It calls for changes in immigration policies in an effort to keep
terrorists out of the country. And it says the United States needs
to do more through its foreign policy to reach out to moderate
Muslims around the world.
The commission said it found no proof that Iraq cooperated with
al-Qaida in any attacks against the United States. Fifteen of the
nineteen hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. But the commission said
it found no evidence of Saudi government involvement. Still, it said
the United States must face problems with Saudi Arabia and, in its
words, "build a relationship beyond oil."
The commission said the United States continues to face one of
the greatest security threats in its history. It called for urgent
action on its proposals. In Congress, House Speaker Dennis Hastert
said he would ask for hearings over the next several months to
consider possible legislation.
In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk.
This is Steve Ember.