May 6, 2002

Associated Press Newswires
Copyright 2002. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Wyden pushes terrorist database to track threats

By AMALIE YOUNG
Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden on Thursday touted his bill to require federal agencies to share information about terror threats after it was revealed that President Bush was told a month before Sept. 11 that American planes might be hijacked.

The bill, cleared by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, would create a database of known or suspected terrorists and terroristgroups, with information drawn from the entire U.S. Intelligence community.

"What may seem like a scrap of information to one agency could be much more valuable to another agency," said Wyden, D-Ore. "It's easier to prevent terrorist attacks when people in law enforcement on the ground know who the biggest threats are in their area."

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said federal agencies and airlines were quietly alerted last summer that there were "nonspecific" threats of hijackings by Osama bin Laden's terrorist group.

After those warnings were issued, Bush was told of the threats during a CIA briefing during the first week of August, Fleischer said.

The president and U.S. Intelligence did not know that suicide hijackers were plotting to crash the planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Fleischer said.

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said his agency had received "general information relating to threats."

But a spokesman for the trade group that represents the country's major airlines, Michael Wascom of the Air Transport Association, said he was not aware of "any warnings or notifications in advance" of the terrorist attacks.

For his part, Wyden said he's "not interested in some kind of orgy of fingerpointing. What I am interested in are concrete steps."

Under his plan, the Director of Central Intelligence would be required to release the identities and biographical information of known and suspected terrorists.

The DCI oversees the CIA and intelligence gathering at the FBI, Department of Defense, National Security Agency and other agencies.

Data would be collected from the Federal Aviation Administration, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the FBI, the CIA, Customs Department, the Drug Enforcement Agency, as well as state and local
police.

The Terrorist Identification Classification System would be made available to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.