A US national commission probing the 11 September attacks has found widespread failures by the US government and has recommended a sweeping overhaul of intelligence services.
The 567-page report concluding two years of investigation by the
ten-member congressional commission contains a broad indictment of US intelligence and air defence in the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon.
The report's summary says that none of the measures adopted by the US government from 1998 to 2001 disturbed or even delayed the progress of the al-Qaeda plot.
It goes on to identify what it describes as 'failures of imagination,
policy, capabilities and management' throughout the government.
President George W Bush, who received a copy of the report, had insisted yesterday that there was no way he could have foiled the strikes.
The conclusion that there was no operational link between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein also undermined one of Bush's main justifications for invading Iraq last year and intensified Democratic assaults on the president's credibility.
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United
States, named by Bush under pressure for a full-scale probe of
11 September, interviewed thousands of witnesses and scoured more than two million pages of documents.
Through a series of public hearings and 17 detailed staff reports, it painted a chilling picture of how 19 hijackers foiled US defences to strike at the heart of US economic and military power.
The panel identified numerous breaches of the US security network, including botched analyses, poor communications or overly timid action by agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Video shows hijackers cleared to fly
Meanwhile, a video has emerged in the US of four hijackers of the plane that crashed into the Defence Department in Washington on 11 September 2001.
The video shows them undergoing additional security checks at Washington's Dulles Airport prior to the attack.
Four of the five set off metal detectors and were taken aside by security guards. One had his hand luggage examined. All were cleared and allowed to make their way to the aircraft.
Commenting on the video, US aviation expert, Todd Curtis, said the benefits of hindsight were obvious but, at the time, the men were not breaking the law.
