Gibbons says Bush did not have specific Sept. 11 information

Benjamin Grove

Friday, May 17, 2002 | 10:20 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush last summer did not have specific information about times, dates or places of a likely terrorist attack, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said Thursday.

Gibbons, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, jumped into a growing political fracas on Capitol Hill as questions swirled about whether Bush knew more information about the Sept. 11 attacks than previously thought.

Gibbons said Bush did not withhold vital information from Americans. Gibbons said the fact that Bush was getting intelligence briefings about possible terrorist activity has been well-known.

"There is nothing new here," Gibbons said. Key Democrats are using news reports this week to score political points, Gibbons said. He blasted the "political antics" of House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, whom he said were irresponsibly stirring up a controversy by calling for more facts about what Bush knew.

Gibbons has access to a daily 9 a.m. briefing paper that outlines possible terrorist threats. Other members of the House and Senate Intelligence panels, along with top House and Senate leaders, get the same information, Gibbons said. The briefings are summaries of what President Bush sees every morning, but are not as detailed, Gibbons said.

The volume of reported possible threats had ebbed and flowed in the months leading up to Sept. 11, Gibbons said.

Gibbons confirmed that intelligence briefings suggested that terrorists may be plotting to hijack planes and take passengers hostage.

But never did the reports include specifics about dates or targets, or indicate that terrorists would fly planes into U.S. buildings, Gibbons said.

President Bush on Aug. 6 was told only that Osama bin Laden followers might hijack American planes, according to White House sources.

"It was vague information that was probably inactionable," Gibbons said of the August briefing given to Bush.

Still, politicians in both parties Thursday began asking a long-familiar question in Washington: What did White House officials know and when did they know it?

Gibbons said he was angry about comments made by Gephardt and Daschle, who said Americans deserved to know what White House officials knew -- and what they did about it.

The two are trying "to advance their presidential aspirations," Gibbons said.

Gibbons acknowledged that a key question remains unanswered: did pieces of the U.S. intelligence network fail? Both House and Senate Intelligence panel members are investigating what was known, and whether more could have been done to prevent the attacks.

Gibbons said he is more interested in identifying and fixing intelligence and communication gaps than finding someone to blame for the attacks.