NEWSWEEK: Bush's Gung-Ho Post 9/11 Approach to War on Terror Has Met With Bureaucratic Resistance From CIA, FBI, Pentagon

NEWSWEEK: Bush's Gung-Ho Post 9/11 Approach to War on Terror Has Met With Bureaucratic Resistance From CIA, FBI, Pentagon

		NEWSWEEK The cover story in the September 15 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday September 8) focuses on the second anniversary of 9/11 and includes a moving tribute to the Americans who have died in the war on terror. Plus, an essay on the importance of service by Sen. John McCain, the state of homeland security, the future of Islam, a look at Howard Dean's campaign machine and a report on the "housing trap" facing many homebuyers. (PRNewsFoto)[KO] NEW YORK, NY USA

'9/11 Changed What We Do Forever,' Says CIA Official NEW YORK, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- More than most people may realize, the gung-ho approach of President George W. Bush and his war cabinet has been met with suspicion and pockets of real bureaucratic resistance from ordinary gumshoes in the FBI, CIA case officers in the field, generals at the Pentagon and men and women throughout the military and intelligence community, report Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas and Washington Bureau Chief Dan Klaidman in the September 15 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, September 8). (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030907/NYSU003 ) Last winter, a squad of FBI agents were assigned to watch a radical Muslim imam who had been detected making contact with suspected Qaeda terrorists around the world. They eavesdropped on his home phone, but, following the so-called right of sanctuary drummed into young agents, did not go into his mosque. The calculation, one FBI official told Newsweek, was simple: "I'm going to make sure I'm on solid legal ground here. I don't care how much the director wants to report the existence of an Al Qaeda cell to the president in a Matrix briefing. I'm not going to be suspended or fired over this." During the 1980s and 1990s, a culture of risk aversion became deeply imbedded in the national-security establishment and Newsweek's reporting suggests that it remains alive and well post 9/11. Within hours of Bush's statement that he wanted Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive," lawyers at the National Security Council, the State Department and the Pentagon launched a flurry of e-mails and calls warning that Bush's macho rhetoric could be viewed as a violation of the Geneva Conventions. CIA Deputy Director for Operations Jim Pavitt tells Newsweek that the agency is hiring more spies, running more risky covert operations and reaching out to more (sometimes unsavory) allies in the war on terror. "9/11 changed what we do forever. Forever," he says. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Newsweek that the Bush administration had been itching to take a more "forward leaning" approach to terrorism even before 9/11. The night of the 9/11 attacks, Bush told his top advisers that he wanted "boots on the ground" to go after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The president "left [CENTCOM commander] Gen. [Tommy] Franks without any doubt in his mind," said Rumsfeld. But a good many Army officers worry about what will happen if the political winds shift. As one serving three-star general told Newsweek: "Nobody relishes the prospect of appearing before the [Sen. John] Kerry congressional committee of inquiry in 10 years' time." (Read Newsweek's news releases at http://www.Newsweek.MSNBC.com. Click "Pressroom.")