CIA report on 9/11 complete two years after deadline

Washington

The CIA inspector general’s report on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has finally been completed – nearly two years after its congressionally set deadline – but has yet to be sent to Capitol Hill because CIA Director Porter Goss is still deciding how to respond to its findings, according to administration and congressional sources.

Inspector General John Helgerson’s voluminous report, triggered in December 2002 by a recommendation of the House-Senate inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks, was completed in June and delivered last month to Goss for his review, according to a note sent by the CIA to members of Congress on July 22. It is expected to go to the House and Senate intelligence committees soon, according to one senior administration official.

One reason for the long delay, according to agency officials, has been the original requirement by the joint committee that Helgerson “determine whether and to what extent personnel at all levels should be held accountable for any omission, commission or failure to meet professional standards” in relation to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

‘Intuitive view’ links London attacks

London

Britain’s most senior police officer said Friday that government investigators intuitively suspected that the groups responsible for two bomb attacks on the London transport system last month may have been linked, although he stopped short of saying that they had evidence establishing any direct connection.

“At the moment we have nothing that links the two groups, but the investigation still continues and there is an intuitive view that says that each group of four are so similar that we must have concerns, and we do,” said Ian Blair, Metropolitan police commissioner, in an interview with the Evening Standard newspaper.

Also Friday, the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian electrician mistakenly killed by British anti-terror police on the day after the failed attack, issued an emotional appeal demanding Blair’s resignation.

“My family want the truth for the sake of my family, for the sake of the people of London,” said de Menezes’ cousin, Alessandro Pereira, in a statement. “In Jean’s name I say that those responsible should resign. Ian Blair should resign.”

Sniper trials move to Maryland

Washington

John Allen Muhammad, already condemned to die in Virginia, will soon be transferred to Maryland for prosecution by the county where the 2002 sniper shootings cut their widest swath.

A judge in Virginia ordered Friday that Muhammad be moved to Montgomery County, Md., where he and Lee Boyd Malvo have been indicted on murder charges in six slayings. Sussex County, Va., Circuit Court Judge Allan Sharrett did not set a date for the transfer, which Muhammad had challenged.

Lyndia Person Ramsey, Sussex County’s commonwealth attorney, said Muhammad would be moved to Maryland “probably immediately.” Montgomery County Sheriff Raymond M. Kight said the transfer “could come today, it could come tomorrow, it could come Monday.”

If convicted, Malvo could face six consecutive life terms in prison, and Muhammad could face the death penalty.

King in good spirits, but recovery slow

Atlanta

Coretta Scott King – wife of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. – managed to say a few words on Friday and “clearly wants to communicate,” but her physician said she might not recover fully from a stroke.

King, 78, suffered the stroke Tuesday morning when a blood clot became lodged in the part of her brain that controls speech, said Dr. Margaret Mermin. She has not been able to walk or speak since then.

“Emotionally, she’s doing as well as she can be expected. She gets frustrated at times,” said Mermin, King’s personal physician for 10 years. “She can point to pictures and words when she wants to communicate … and her spirits are actually very good.”

Judge orders wolf protection efforts

Montpelier, Vt.

A federal judge Friday ordered the Bush administration to step up efforts to restore the gray wolf to four northeastern states, a ruling environmentalists called a major victory.

“The wolves are howlin’ ” in celebration, said Patrick Parenteau, director of the environmental law clinic at Vermont Law School.

Judge J. Garvan Murtha found that the Department of the Interior violated federal law in 2003 when it issued a rule saying no further efforts to restore the wolf were needed. The ruling covers Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York state.

Efforts to restore wolves had been successful in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The government wanted to lump those states in with the Northeast in a new, 21-state eastern region and declare that enough had been done to restore wolf populations throughout the eastern United States.