But the agent, Kenneth Williams, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he believed that if the bureau had implemented his recommendation to interview hundreds, if not thousands, of Middle Eastern students at American flight schools, the effort would not have thwarted the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, said lawmakers who attended the session.
One law enforcement official said on Sunday that evidence against Dr. Ivins might be made public as early as Wednesday, if the bureau could persuade a federal judge to unseal the evidence and if agents could brief survivors of the anthrax attacks and family members of those who died.
Here, if the bureau is to be believed, the company's performance is perfect.
"If the bureau is sick on the inside, it can't fight the war on terrorism".
It is not as if the bureau picked this moment to reweight the index just because inflation was uncomfortably high.
Technically speaking, however, if one bureau finds an error as the result of a dispute, it must alert the other two bureaus.
But they said that if the bureau's recommendations were acted on, the number of designations should dwindle and the ones remaining be more meaningful.
(Haggler aside: Can you imagine if the bureau gave every accredited company an A-plus, and had never kicked out an accredited business?) "Are we perfect?
If the bureau allows drilling to go ahead in the contested area while the suit is pending, an association spokesman said, his group may seek a restraining order.
