Failings targeted in 9/11 attacks

WASHINGTON — The Sept. 11 commission's final report concludes the hijackers exploited "deep institutional failings within our government" over a long period but does not blame President Bush or former President Clinton for the mistakes, administration officials familiar with the findings said Wednesday.

The report describes the patience and determination of the 19 hijackers and said they probed for weaknesses in airline and border procedures, taking test flights to gauge security.

A surveillance video that surfaced Wednesday shows four of the hijackers passing through security gates at Dulles International Airport shortly before boarding the plane they would crash into the Pentagon. In the video, the hijackers can be seen undergoing additional scrutiny after setting off metal detectors, then being permitted to continue to their gate.

The Sept. 11 commission has spent 20 months looking into how the hijackers were able to mount the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, killing nearly 3,000 people and demolishing the World Trade Center's twin towers.

White House officials and congressional leaders were briefed Wednesday on the panel's findings, and Bush is to receive a copy of the 575-page report today, just before it is released to the public.

Bush, bracing for a report sharply critical of the government's intelligence-gathering, said he looked forward to reading the report and the administration is doing everything possible to prevent another terrorist attack.

"Had we had any inkling whatsoever that terrorists were about to attack our country, we would have moved heaven and earth to protect America," he said. "I'm confident President Clinton would have done the same thing. Any president would."

One administration official said the report concludes that Bush and Clinton took the threat of al-Qaida seriously and were "genuinely concerned about the danger posed by al-Qaida." It finds that neither president was to blame for failing to stop the attacks, which were the culmination of years of planning.

"It does not place blame on particular individuals or particular incidents, but in fact it identifies institutional failings that have grown up over time about the way our government is organized," the official said.

While administration officials offered a preview of the report, their summary was far from a complete accounting of the commission's findings.