Congress plans unusual look at U.S. intelligence
Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 12, 2002


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WASHINGTON -- The Senate and House intelligence committees plan an unprecedented joint investigation into the U.S. intelligence community's response to terrorism over the past 16 years, including the Sept. 11 attacks.
WASHINGTON -- The Senate and House intelligence committees plan an unprecedented joint investigation into the U.S. intelligence community's response to terrorism over the past 16 years, including the Sept. 11 attacks.

Although joint select committees have headed major congressional inquiries before -- including the 1945 investigation into the Pearl Harbor attack -- this is the first time House and Senate intelligence panels led by members of different political parties have combined for an investigation.

The decision could mark a significant compromise between the White House and congressional leaders over a matter that has received scant scrutiny by full-time investigators. The administration has agreed to an expanded, bipartisan committee's investigation of key decisions made by agencies. Senate Democratic leaders, meanwhile, face the creation of a forum that, unlike a Senate committee, they won't control.

The joint committee will concentrate the investigation in a single forum whose members are accustomed to keeping quiet about classified matters. The arrangement avoids -- for now, at least -- the spectacle of competing and often sharply partisan congressional inquiries, such as those under way concerning Enron Corp. The inquiry will cover President Bill Clinton's administration as well as those of Republicans Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and the current president.

Civilian toll estimate: hundreds