CIA Did Not Share Terror Leads With FBI

W A S H I N G T O N, June 3, 2002 -- The CIA knew that two of the Sept. 11 hijackers met with al Qaeda operatives in Malaysia in January 2000 — more than 18 months before the attacks — but apparently did not convince the FBI to track them until less than three weeks before the attacks, FBI officials and intelligence sources told ABCNEWS.

FBI officials say they did not know about Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar until last Aug. 23 — just over two weeks before they helped hijack American Airlines Flight 77 and crash it into the Pentagon — when the CIA added their names to a watch list distributed to the bureau, the State Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Soon after the names were added to the watch list, the INS discovered Alhazmi was already in the country, and FBI officials learned the CIA had tracked him to Los Angeles.

In June 2001, the State Department — unaware Almihdhar was a suspected terrorist — issued him a new multi-entry visa.

The disclosure, reported in this week's Newsweek magazine and confirmed by ABCNEWS, is the latest in a series of missed opportunities United States intelligence officials had to prevent the attacks, and has the CIA and FBI pointing fingers at each other.

CIA sources told ABCNEWS that the agency did in fact inform the FBI of Almidhar and Alhamzi, saying the FBI was informed in January 2000, and that there is e-mail message traffic between the agencies that proves it. FBI officials said they are checking on the assertion.

It was that month that the two first registered on the CIA radar, sources said. Malaysian authorities had monitored a meeting in an apartment complex headed by a senior al Qaeda leader, who, it turned out later, was planning the attack on the USS Cole, sources said.

From there, the two men flew directly to San Diego, a principal U.S. Naval base, and the CIA did not tell the FBI or Naval intelligence. After the Cole bombing in October 2000, the CIA didn't sound the alarm again, sources said.

And the pair did not try very hard to hide. Alhazmi listed himself in the phone book.

It wasn't until just weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks that the CIA, picking up increasing signs of an attack, told the FBI to be on the lookout for the two men. On Sept. 10, the bureau was frantically searching for the two in New York, sources said.

‘Big Failures of Intelligence’

The latest revelations of missed signals to a stunning attack on the United States comes as a spokesman for al Qaeda told an Egyptian newspaper that America is going to be attacked again, and that "by the will of God" it will be worse than what happened on Sept. 11.

President Bush, speaking at a rally in Little Rock, Ark., today, acknowledged that there have been problems, but said changes were being made in intelligence gathering to better protect the nation.

"So when you read about the FBI, I want you to know that the FBI is changing its culture," Bush said, in front of a backdrop of an American flag. "The FBI, prior to Sept. 11, was running down white-collar criminals, and that's good. It was worrying about spies. That's good. But now they've got a more important task, and that is to prevent further attack. And so the FBI is changing. And they're doing a better job of communicating with the CIA. They're now sharing intelligence."

The missed opportunities before the attacks will be the subject of congressional hearings that begin this week, including a closed-door session of the House and Senate intelligence committees expected to begin Tuesday.

"I believe that you're going to see a lot more instances like this where, if they had acted upon the information that they had and followed through, maybe things would be different. We don't know," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said today on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "But there have been massive failures of intelligence at the CIA."

He described CIA Director George Tenet as being "in denial" about the failures of the agency.

"But I believe he's totally wrong and facts will be brought out to prove that," Shelby said.

Intelligence officials dispute some of the details of the FBI's account. They say the FBI agents working in the CIA's Counterterrorism Center knew about Alhazmi's participation in the Malaysia meeting and should have known that the intelligence agency had tracked him to the United States.

As a result of the intelligence failure, Alhazmi lived in the United States for nearly two years, using his real name to get a driver's license and take flying lessons.

"I think what we've been seeing lately with the FBI, you will see coming out with the CIA, NSA and others. We've had big failures of intelligence," Shelby said. "A lot of it is because they have not communicated with each other and with some, they have not followed up on leads that have sat in their laps."

‘Focused on the Future’

Attorney General John Ashcroft would not comment directly on the report, but said he will do whatever it takes to make sure that sort of thing never happens again.

"That's my job, that's my responsibility," he said on Fox News Sunday. "That's why I'm focused on the future more than I am on the past right now."

Key lawmakers say this was yet another missed opportunity.

"It might have caused further intelligence to be gathered and at the end of the day, might have avoided Sept. 11," said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham, D-Fla.

FBI Director Robert Mueller admitted again on Sunday that there is a chance the attacks could have been prevented.

"Could," he said on the NBC broadcast. "I still don't think it is at all likely, but could, yes."

‘Beware, America, Get Ready’

Though the Pentagon and the Bush administration have said repeatedly over the last several months that al Qaeda's operations have been significantly disrupted by the war on terrorism, in the statement quoted by the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat on Sunday, the terror network's spokesman said it is still working to carry out new attacks.

"We confirm our continuation in working to attack Americans and Jews, and targeting them, both people and buildings," Al-Hayat quoted Sulaiman Abu Gaith as saying in an article that the newspaper said was published on the Web site www.alneda.com.

"What will come to the Americans, God willing, won't be less than what has come. So beware, America, get ready. Get prepared. Fasten the seat belts, as with the will of God, we will come to them from where they didn't expect," Abu Gaith said, according to the newspaper.

A spokesman for the White House Office of Homeland Security said Sunday that he was not familiar with the report and could not comment on whether it was credible, but added that such threats shouldn't come as any surprise.

"We have said for some time that al Qaeda is still interested in attacking the United States," Homeland Security spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "We have been working since Sept. 11 to try to prevent and disrupt their organization from attacking the United States and also to strengthen our critical infrastructure and response capabilities against future attacks."

ABCNEWS' John Yang contributed to this report.