05/19/2002

-- REPUBLICANS ARE SELLING photos of President Bush speaking to Dick Cheney from Air Force One on Sept. 11, 2001. If I were the Republican National Committee, I'd store the pictures and change the subject.

Al Gore's political tin ear must be going bad. He says that using the tragedy to raise campaign cash is "disgraceful." Gore doesn't seem to notice the parade of shockers about the sorry state of America's security apparatus. And the failures fall comfortably within the Bush II era. Did you catch that, Al?

Taxpayers spend $30 billion a year on intelligence alone. They might want something to show for it. Some deficiencies occurred before Sept. 11 and some after. And, frankly, Sept. 11 was not Bush's finest hour. The picture on Air Force One serves as a reminder that the president spent that awful day up in the air, running from Florida to Louisiana to Nebraska. The only official offering immediate reassurance to a scared public on Sept. 11 was New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

That man-in-charge photo is probably meant to underscore the administration's obvious post-Sept. 11 success -- the military campaign in Afghanistan led by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. But placed next to the security chaos within our borders, it only says that incompetence stops at the water's edge.

Consider these missed intelligence opportunities:

Months before the terrorist attacks, Bush received a briefing that Osama bin Laden's network planned to hijack American airliners.

In July, an FBI agent in Arizona sent a memo to headquarters noting that many Arab students were showing up at U.S. flight schools for pilot training. He speculated that bin Laden might be sponsoring their education.

In August, a suspicious instructor at a flight school in Minnesota told the FBI that a student of Moroccan origin, Zacarias Moussaoui, wanted to learn how to fly a 747 jumbo jet but not land it. The French told the FBI that Moussaoui was linked to terrorist groups. The FBI did not inquire further.

CIA director George Tenet said in February 2001 that his agency received warnings of a "spectacular threat" against the United States that could lead to "massive casualties."

When Bush took office, Osama bin Laden was already suspected of ordering suicide bombers to attack the USS Cole, in October 2000. The United States wanted him on terrorism charges.

The buck keeps trying to stop on Bush's desk, but he keeps sending it on. It's a well-traveled buck.

Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer carries around an encyclopedia of excuses. "The information the president got dealt with hijackings in the traditional sense -- not suicide bombers, not using planes as missiles," he said. "I think it's fair to say that no one envisioned that as a possibility."

Why not? Perhaps our informers failed to specify the flight numbers and menus for lunch. But one might expect an intelligence community to use its imagination. While it's not always easy to connect the dots, there were an awful lot of dots. And $30 billion ought to buy a lot of dot connections.

All that was before Sept. 11. What about after?

Recent reports do not inspire confidence. It appears that the Agriculture Department can't find dangerous biological agents that are supposed to be in its stockpiles. The Energy Department, meanwhile, doesn't know the whereabouts of radioactive fuel rods lent to countries in the Atoms for Peace program.

The Transportation Department's inspector general warns of an "alarming threat" posed by continuing and rampant fraud in issuing commercial drivers' licenses. Seven months after airline hijackings cost 3,000 lives, 104 convicted felons, fugitives from justice and illegal immigrants were found to be holding jobs in Washington-area airports.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service wants its workers to check the names of applicants seeking papers against data supplied by the FBI and other government agencies. Problem is, the INS doesn't have the computers needed to do this, and its staff isn't trained for the job.

Not enough computers!?! Why doesn't the INS have the resources to do something as basic as checking the criminal records of immigrant applicants?

And why aren't the heads of lazy bureaucrats rolling all over Washington and stopping traffic? Sooner or later, the boss will be held accountable. If Republicans want to remind voters that the president was literally up in the air on Sept. 11, Democrats would be fools to stop them.

Froma Harrop is a Journal editorial writer and syndicated columnist. She may be reached by e-mail at: fharrop@projo.com.

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Froma Harrop is a Journal editorial writer and syndicated columnist. She may be reached by e-mail at: fharrop@projo.com.