Senator to offer amendment to create Sept. 11 panel

Throwing another divisive issue into the Senate's debate over homeland security, Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., hopes to add an amendment to the bill to establish a special commission to examine intelligence failures that contributed to last year's terrorist attacks.

"To me, it seems like a very relevant and germane amendment," Lieberman said Wednesday.

The amendment would be the latest congressional attempt to create an independent panel to look into the intelligence community in the wake of the strikes. Such a commission has the backing of key senators-including GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, and Senate Intelligence ranking member Richard Shelby, R-Ala.

However, a competing group of senators believe Congress alone should handle the investigation. It is also unclear if even some supporters of the new commission would support such an amendment on the homeland security bill.

On Tuesday, Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said he would oppose adding the independent commission amendment to the homeland bill, saying he would prefer to let congressional committees handle the matter.

"We were elected to do this job-let's just do it," Lott said. Creating a special commission would be an "abdication" of responsibility, he said.

Separately, Shelby said although he supports an independent commission, he has not decided if he would vote for an amendment on the Senate floor. Shelby said a special commission, such as the one that examined the events leading to Pearl Harbor in 1941, is needed because the Intelligence Committee will not be able to get all of the answers by the end of the year.

"I believe that after all is over with, that we will not have touched every base-we will not know everything we should know," Shelby said Wednesday. He added that the work of the Intelligence panel has been slowed because various intelligence agencies have been less than forthcoming with information.

"We are not getting the cooperation that we should be," he said.