US President George W. Bush said on Monday that US intelligence operations may need to be reformed because of weaknesses that allowed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to take place.
After the attacks, the FBI and the CIA were criticized for failing to "connect the dots" of the plot because of factors such as poor information sharing and inadequate analysis.
An Aug. 6, 2001, presidential intelligence document, made public by the White House on Saturday under pressure from the 9/11 commission, said the FBI had detected patterns of suspicious activity that pointed toward possible preparations for hijackings or other attacks.
It also said the FBI was conducting 70 full-field investigations into al-Qaeda's presence in the US. But US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, in her public testimony to the commission last week, pointed to structural problems in US intelligence that prevented all agencies from sharing information.
Bush, at a news conference with visiting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said he was hoping to hear recommendations about what needed to be changed from the commission investigating the hijacked airliner attacks.
"Now, the 9/11 commission hearings are going to analyze that which went on and hopefully bring recommendations forward to help this administration and future administrations do our solemn duty to protect the American people," he said. "And that's why I think the hearings are a good thing, particularly when they address any weaknesses in the system."
Bush, who originally opposed creation of the 10-member, bipartisan panel and only allowed Rice to testify under oath and in public after coming under pressure, pointed to her comment that "now may be a time to revamp and reform our intelligence services."
"And we look forward to hearing recommendations. We're thinking about that ourselves and we look forward to working with the commission," he said.
A Newsweek poll released on Saturday showed six out of 10 Americans felt the Bush administration underestimated the threat of terrorism prior to Sept. 11, 2001. The poll of 1,005 adults also showed a 51-percent disapproval rating for Bush's conduct of the war in Iraq, where violence has flared up in the last week.
California Republican Jane Harman, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and the author of intelligence reform legislation, said Bush's statement "signals that he and other top officials may finally be snapping out of their deep state of denial over our intelligence failures."
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