Congress plans unusual look at U.S. intelligence

WASHINGTON -- The Senate and House intelligence committees plan an unprecedented joint investigation into the U.S. intelligence community's response to terrorism over the past 16 years, including the Sept. 11 attacks.

Although joint select committees have headed major congressional inquiries before -- including the 1945 investigation into the Pearl Harbor attack -- this is the first time House and Senate intelligence panels led by members of different political parties have combined for an investigation.

The decision could mark a significant compromise between the White House and congressional leaders over a matter that has received scant scrutiny by full-time investigators. The administration has agreed to an expanded, bipartisan committee's investigation of key decisions made by agencies. Senate Democratic leaders, meanwhile, face the creation of a forum that, unlike a Senate committee, they won't control.

The joint committee will concentrate the investigation in a single forum whose members are accustomed to keeping quiet about classified matters. The arrangement avoids -- for now, at least -- the spectacle of competing and often sharply partisan congressional inquiries, such as those under way concerning Enron Corp. The inquiry will cover President Bill Clinton's administration as well as those of Republicans Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and the current president.

Civilian toll estimate: hundreds

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Authorities here have not calculated Afghanistan's civilian death toll in the war on terrorism, and the dimension of this tragedy is not fully known.

Although estimates have placed the civilian dead in the thousands, a review by the Associated Press suggests the toll may be in the mid hundreds, a figure reached by examining hospital records, visiting bomb sites and interviewing witnesses and officials.

The number of confirmed deaths will surely rise as more exhaustive tallies are compiled by independent bodies. Neither the U.S. nor the Afghan government is attempting to tally the civilian dead, but two Afghan nongovernmental groups are undertaking a count. The New York-based Human Rights Watch also plans a study.

One factor contributing to inflated estimates was the distortion of casualty reports by the Taliban regime. Afghan journalists have told the AP that Taliban officials systematically doctored reports of civilian deaths to push their estimate to 1,500 in the first three weeks of the war in an attempt to galvanize opposition to the bombing.

In the course of the air war, the U.S. military has several times owned up to errors that killed civilians, but the Pentagon stressed repeatedly that they were never deliberately targeted.

AP reporters visited areas that had been targeted during the course of the war and gathered data on civilian casualties. Their reporting and other reliable counts -- by no means complete -- in the months since then suggest a civilian death toll ranging from 500 to 600.

U.S. wants Argenbright out

WASHINGTON -- The government is trying to put troubled Argenbright Security out of the security business at U.S. airports.

The Federal Aviation Administration is seeking bids from other security companies to take over Argenbright's airline security operations. Argenbright has 40 percent of the market.

Argenbright, which handles security at Airside D at Tampa International Airport, staffed security checkpoints at Newark and Washington Dulles airports, where two of the planes hijacked on Sept. 11 took off.

In October, federal prosecutors charged that the company continued to hire felons despite being fined more than $1-million in May 2000 for doing just that.

Treasure trove found in rubble

NEW YORK -- Enough cash to fill 60 garbage bags was found in the World Trade Center rubble over the weekend and is believed to be part of an $11-million sum reported missing by Bank of America.

The U.S. and foreign currency was found Friday while compacted material six stories underground was being excavated, said Port Authority Lt. John Ryan. He said he did not know the exact amount found.

Bank of America's 11th floor office had a walk-in vault and provided foreign currency to other banks.

More in the news

PAKISTAN PEERS AT ITS SPY SERVICE: Authorities in Pakistan have detained two former members of the country's intelligence service in the hope that they can provide information about the kidnapping of the American journalist, Daniel Pearl, Pakistani officials said on Monday.

The action represents an unusual assault on the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, the powerful and semiautonomous military institution whose ties to Islamic militants have been a problem and an embarrassment for the current and previous governments of Pakistan.

The most prominent of the two men known to have been detained is Khalid Khawaja, until recently a midranking member of the intelligence agency.

Among other things, Khawaja, a former air force officer, is said by Pakistani officials to have once served as a pilot for Osama bin Laden, who received logistical support from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United States during his work for the anti-Soviet mujahedeen during the 1980s.

DASCHLE SAYS BUSH'S "AXIS' LABELING WRONG: Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said President Bush was wrong to label Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an "axis of evil," the first major criticism from a leading Democrat about the war.

In an interview Monday on PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Daschle said the comment has had repercussions around the world.

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