WASHINGTON

REPORT SPELLS OUT FBI’S MISSED OPPORTUNITIES BEFORE 9/11

The FBI missed at least five opportunities before the September 11, 2001, attacks to uncover vital intelligence information about the terrorists, and the bureau didn’t aggressively pursue the information it did have, the Justice Department’s inspector general says in a newly released critique of government missteps.

The inspector general faulted the FBI for not knowing about the presence of two of the September 11 terrorists in America and for not following up on an agent’s theory that Osama bin Laden was sending students to American flight training schools. The agent’s theory turned out to be precisely what Mr. bin Laden did.

“The way the FBI handled these matters was a significant failure that hindered the FBI’s chances of being able to detect and prevent the September 11 attacks,” the inspector general, Glenn Fine, said. When the bureau did discover the presence of hijackers Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar in America shortly before the attacks, “the FBI’s investigation then was conducted without much urgency or priority,” the report concluded.

– Associated Press

HOUSE PANEL VOTES TO REDUCE FUNDING FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING

A House subcommittee voted yesterday to sharply reduce the federal government’s financial support for public broadcasting, including eliminating taxpayer funds that help underwrite such popular children’s educational programs as “Sesame Street,” “Reading Rainbow,” “Arthur,” and “Postcards From Buster.”

In addition, the subcommittee acted to eliminate within two years all federal money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – which passes federal funds to public broadcasters – starting with a 25% reduction in CPB’s budget for next year, to $300 million from $400 million.

In all, the cuts would represent the most drastic cutback of public broadcasting since Congress created the nonprofit CPB in 1967. The CPB funds are particularly important for small TV and radio stations and account for about 15% of the public broadcasting industry’s total revenue.

Expressing alarm, public broadcasters and their supporters in Congress interpreted the move as an escalation of a Republican-led campaign against a perceived liberal bias in their programming. That effort was initiated by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s own chairman, Kenneth Tomlinson.

“Americans overwhelmingly see public broadcasting as an unbiased information source,” Rep. David Obey, a Democrat of Wisconsin, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said in a statement. “Perhaps that’s what the GOP finds so offensive about it. Republican leaders are trying to bring every facet of the federal government under their control. … Now they are trying to put their ideological stamp on public broadcasting.”

But the Republican chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education asserted that the panel was simply making choices among various worthy government programs, and that no political message was intended.

– The Washington Post

OFFICIAL: KERRY’S RECORDS SENT TO THE NAVY

A top official at the national repository for military personnel files confirmed yesterday that the full record of the Navy service of Senator Kerry, a Democrat of Massachusetts, was sent to the Navy to prepare responses to requests from Mr. Kerry and others for his service history. “We have sent the original file to the Navy,” the director of archival programs at the National Personnel Records Center, Bryan McGraw, said in an interview yesterday. The statement from the St. Louis-based center, which is part of the National Archives and Records Administration, undercuts claims by critics of the senator that he effectively withheld part of the file from news organizations.

Some critics of Mr. Kerry, who ran unsuccessfully for president last year, complained that privacy waivers he signed recently for selected news organizations were directed to the Navy Personnel Command in Millington, Tenn., which does not usually maintain detailed records on retired service members. However, Mr. McGraw said that is precisely where the original file was sent, though a copy was kept in St. Louis.” The request came from the Navy commander in Millington. The Navy has everything we have. They have had for some time,” Mr. McGraw said. He said Mr. Kerry’s record was sent to the Navy last year, well before the presidential election. Separately, a former Navy lawyer who raised questions about Mr. Kerry’s discharge said yesterday that an unexplained delay in Mr. Kerry’s separation from the service could have been the result of an administrative foul-up.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

HOUSE PANEL VOTES TO TAKE BACK UNSPENT 9/11 AID

A House panel voted yesterday to take back some $125 million in unspent September 11, 2001, aid to New York, a plan that has lawmakers from the state scrambling to hold on to those funds and $44 million more suddenly at risk. A House Appropriations subcommittee approved on a voice vote a larger spending bill that retrieves $125 million originally destined to handle post-September 11 workers’ compensation claims. Rep. James Walsh, a Republican, said he was preparing to add an amendment to the bill next week that would allow New York to keep all the workers’ comp money in question.

– Associated Press

SENATE APPROVES PRYOR FOR APPEALS COURT

The GOP-controlled Senate yesterday approved the former Alabama attorney general, William Pryor, for a seat on the U.S. Appeals Court, nearing the end of an unprecedented run of long-delayed judicial confirmations. With a vote of 53-45, Mr. Pryor was approved for 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Atlanta-based court that handles federal appeals from Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.

– Associated Press