US: The US Senate Majority Leader, Senator Tom Daschle, voiced support yesterday for an independent commission to investigate events leading up to the September 11th attacks.
Mr Daschle said he expected to reach a decision soon on when to bring to a vote bipartisan legislation calling for a commission.
The intelligence committees of the US House of Representatives and the Senate have begun a joint probe into events leading up to the attacks that killed more than 3,000 people.
The White House backs this investigation but a number of lawmakers, primarily Democrats, complain the investigation could become ensnared in election-year politics. To avoid this an independent commission should be established, they say.
They also contend that a commission of security experts would be better positioned to pursue an investigation.
Vice-President Dick Cheney said on Sunday the administration was prepared to work with the intelligence committees because of their expertise in handling classified information. But he suggested a broader probe by an independent commission could compromise security.
Calls for an independent commission mounted last week after it was disclosed President Bush received a briefing on August 6th that followers of Osama bin Laden might try to hijack US aircraft.
The White House insisted the warning was not sufficiently detailed to issue a public warning but Democrats on Capitol Hill demanded to know what the president knew, when he knew it and what he did about it.
The New York Times yesterday quoted government officials as saying Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller were told a few days after the September 11th attacks that the FBI had received a memo from its Phoenix office the previous July warning that followers of bin Laden could be training at US flight schools.
But neither Mr Ashcroft nor Mr Mueller briefed President Bush and his national security staff about it until recently, the newspaper quoted administration officials as saying.
"I'm very troubled," Mr Daschle said, when asked about the report. "I don't know what this implies (or) why that information wasn't provided. But it opens yet again more questions and all the more reason why those questions deserve better answers than we have gotten so far."
House Minority Leader, Mr Richard Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat, introduced legislation on Monday to create an independent commission but the proposal, similar to the one in the Senate, is not expected to get far in the Republican-controlled house.
US Attorney General, Mr John Ashcroft, and FBI Director, Mr Robert Mueller, were told just days after September 11th, and failed to tell the president, that an FBI agent had warned that al-Qaeda operatives could be training at US flight schools, the White House confirmed yesterday.
White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said that neither official alerted President Bush to the agent's memo until recently, confirming a story published by the New York Times.