Congressional Report on Sept. 11 Attacks Investigation

by Cynthia Kirk
Broadcast: July 26, 2003
This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS.
This week, a joint¹ congressional committee released its final report about the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. The report criticizes the way officials dealt with intelligence in the months before the attacks in New York and Washington. But the committee also found that intelligence agencies had no direct evidence of the plot.
1)Hijackers flew two planes into the World Trade Center. A third hit the 2)Pentagon, the headquarters of the Defense³ Department. A fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The September eleventh attacks killed three-thousand people.
The report is based on a ten-month investigation⁴ last year by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. Some findings were announced when the committees completed their investigation in December. But most of the details remained secret.
Congressional members and intelligence agencies had been struggling over what information could be made public. A nine-hundred page version of the report was released Thursday.
The report says that before the attacks a number of agencies had a great deal of information about Osama bin⁵ Laden's al Qaida group and the future hijackers. These agencies included 3)the Federal Bureau of Investigation and 4)the Central Intelligence Agency. But the report says none of the intelligence showed exactly how, when or where the attacks would take place.
Still, the report criticizes intelligence agencies for failing to share and act on information they had in the months before the attacks. It says they missed chances to deny entry to those involved in the plot, to observe their movements or to increase security in the United States.
The report says American intelligence agencies received information as early as nineteen-ninety-four that terrorists were considering using airplanes in attacks.
The document also says two of the September eleventh hijackers had many contacts with an F-B-I informant in California in two-thousand. It says the C-I-A knew the two men had ties to al-Qaida, but never shared the information with the F-B-I or put the men's names on a terrorism watch list.
The report offers nineteen suggestions. These include better cooperation among intelligence agencies and more aggressive efforts to investigate threats.
Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudis. But much of the report's information that deals with the Saudi government was not made public.
The White House says information was withheld⁶ to protect national security interests. Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham is a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He say the White House did not want to make an important 5)ally look bad. But other committee members, including some Democrats⁷, say they have no evidence of that.
This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember.

注释：
1) hijacker² [5haidVAkE] n.强盗，劫盗，劫持犯（尤指劫持飞机）
2) Pentagon [5pentE^En] n.五角形，五边形，这里是美国五角大楼
3) the Federal Bureau of Investigation  联邦调查局
4) the Central Intelligence Agency  中央情报局
5) ally [E5lai] n.同盟国，支持者

1 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

2 hijacker   

n.拦路抢劫者

参考例句：

• We needed a credibIe hijacker who knew the pIane. 也需要一个懂飞机的让人相信的劫机犯。
• I've never heard of a hijacker Ietting passengers deboard before. 以前也从没听说过有劫机犯让乘客离开。

3 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

4 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

5 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

6 withheld   

withhold过去式及过去分词

参考例句：

• I withheld payment until they had fulfilled the contract. 他们履行合同后，我才付款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There was no school play because the principal withheld his consent. 由于校长没同意，学校里没有举行比赛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》