Congress examines intelligence laws

WASHINGTON -- Laws restricting the CIA's work to foreign soil should be re-examined in an effort to thwart future terrorist attacks, experts told the House and Senate intelligence committees Thursday.

The lack of one central clearinghouse to analyze intelligence reports played a key role in the failure to detect the al-Qaida attacks last fall, they said.

"We need a center in government for all intelligence -- foreign and domestic -- to come together," said former Rep. Lee Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat who once led the House Intelligence Committee. "There is currently no place in the government where we put together data from all of our domestic and foreign sources."

The National Security Act passed by Congress in 1947 established the CIA and the framework for the nation's intelligence community. A key provision restricts the CIA from domestic spying.

Frederick P. Hitz, a former CIA officer and professor of public and international affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, said the laws governing domestic spying should be changed or clarified.

The Patriot Act, passed by Congress last fall, has accomplished some of that, Hitz said.

Hamilton proposed creating a new director of national intelligence who would report directly to the president. This new position would have control over the budgets of intelligence and power to make key appointments.

Now the FBI, the CIA and the nation's dozen other intelligence agencies amount to a "loose confederation," Hamilton said, which overlap in their duties and fail to share information.

Homeland security law may extend House session

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., matched Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's pledge to keep Congress in session to increase pressure on Senate Democrats to reach a compromise with President Bush on a new Homeland Security Department.

"It's very tough for us not to have that bill and go home," Hastert said. "We'll be here until they get their work done . . . in some way."

The speaker raised the possibility that the House would not adjourn for good prior to the Nov. 5 elections, instead holding sessions one day a week to allow time for negotiations to continue on one of Bush's top priorities.

Republicans sought to revive the stalled bill with a compromise Thursday they said would still give Bush the management powers he wants. Democrats quickly rejected it.

Candidate apologizes for comment on attack

TOPEKA, Kan. -- Democratic gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Sebelius apologized Thursday for saying that driving on Missouri roads is "much more terrifying to me than the attacks on the World Trade Center."

Sebelius, the state insurance commissioner, apologized at the beginning of a forum in Wichita.

"I would like to apologize to the people of Kansas and the memories of those who lost their lives on Sept. 11th and their families and loved ones," she said. "I take responsibility for my comments; I regret them and hope we can move forward."

Sebelius said she lost a friend in the attack on the World Trade Center, so "the last thing I want to do is minimize the tragedy."

She made the remark Wednesday during a candidate forum, in which she pledged to protect the transportation program from cuts.

British warplanes escort jet after hijacking fear

LONDON -- After a passenger aboard a British Airways flight from Baltimore overheard what was taken to be a suspicious conversation between two other travelers, Britain ordered warplanes into the skies on Thursday to escort the Boeing 767 to its landing site at Heathrow.

It was the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks that British warplanes had been mobilized for this purpose. The emergency was later described by police as a false alarm.

Two Tornado warplanes were scrambled to meet the plane about half an hour before it landed.

When the plane touched down at Heathrow, it was ringed by armed police officers; two men were escorted from the plane.

The men had been overheard referring to something they had been "planning for six months," raising suspicions among cabin crew members that they were plotting to hijack the plane. But police officials said later that the men -- an American father and son who were not identified by name -- said they had been referring to a family reunion.

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