Several lawmakers, including Richard Shelby, a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, have already singled out the FBI for blunt criticism after Williams' memorandum came to light several weeks ago.
The Phoenix memorandum is one of two documents that are under heavy scrutiny by congressional investigators. The other is a daily intelligence report, shown to Bush on Aug. 6. The report mentions the threat of al-Qaeda mem-bers' carrying out hijackings in the US. The White House has refused to produce the document, and administration officials have said that the information was too vague to act on.
Mueller has acknowledged that the bureau's failure to evaluate the Phoenix memorandum fully was an analytical failure that the FBI has tried to correct.
The Phoenix memorandum remains classified, and much of its contents are unknown. But officials have confirmed that it expressed concern that bin Laden and other groups could be using the flight schools to prepare for terror attacks. It urged FBI officials to check the visas of foreigners at American aviation academies. But no action was taken before Sept. 11.
The memorandum was sent to counterterrorism offices in two cities -- one copy went to John O'Neill, then the top counterterrorism agent in the FBI's New York office. O'Neill retired from the FBI in late August. He had just begun a job as the security chief of the World Trade Center when he was killed in the attacks.
Usually, internal investigative proposals that involve agencywide resources are reviewed by high-level FBI officials. But in this case FBI officials have said that officials who read the memo were distracted by other cases, a plot against American interests in France and the investigation of the October 2000 attack on the destroyer Cole.
Two or three days after the attacks, Dale Watson, who was then assistant director for counterterrorism, brought the memorandum to the attention of Pickard, who had returned to his job as deputy director after a stint as acting director, officials said. Pickard and several other agents then briefed Mueller and Aschroft on its existence, the officials said.
The Phoenix agent's memorandum was not based on intelligence that was developed, but instead its concerns and recommendations were based on "conjecture and assumptions," said a senior official who has read it.
Officials at the CIA have said that they did not receive a copy of the memorandum until several weeks ago.
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