ARAB-US RELATIONS - May 31 - Sept. 11 Attacks 'Might Have Been Prevented'.

A report in The IHT says: "The director of the FBI, Robert Mueller 3d, has acknowledged for the first time that the attacks of Sept. 11 might have been prevented if officials in his agency had responded differently to all the pieces of information that were available". Mueller is quoted as saying: "I cannot say for sure that there wasn't a possibility we could have come across some lead that would have led us to the hijackers". He also said that while there was no specific warning, "that doesn't mean that there weren't red flags out there, that there weren't dots that should have been connected to the extent possible". He said he was beginning an overhaul of the FBI to aim more resources towards the prevention of new terrorist operations. The changes, he said, are designed to bolster the bureau's capability to analyse information about terrorist threats and anticipate possible attacks. He said the changes he is putting into place, including reassigning hundreds of agents from the war on drugs to the war on terrorism, are designed to produce "a refocused FBI". At the heart of the changes, he said, is an effort to strengthen the bureau's analytic capability by creating an Office of Intelligence to co-ordinate information. More than 400 new analysts would be added to the bureau, both in the field offices and the Washington headquarters.