On the Intelligence Inquiry I think this commission needs to be a great deal more independent than it is.
Tim Roemer, the Indiana Democrat who sponsored the House legislation, said it called for a full intelligence inquiry.
A11 Blair Starts Intelligence Inquiry Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that he had set up an inquiry into Britain's prewar intelligence on Iraq's illicit weapons.
Mr. Goss is among those who have argued that any new intelligence inquiry should look forward, rather than dwell on any past mistakes.
The investigation has also spawned a secondary intelligence inquiry of huge proportions intended to glean fresh threats in the United States and overseas.
The joint House and Senate intelligence inquiry into lapses by the F.B.I. and C.I.A. before the attacks concluded this month that a cabinet level officer should oversee intelligence throughout the government, but the panel did not recommend a new intelligence agency.
In fact, he said, Intelligence Committee staff members were aggressively working on what is known as the Phase 2 intelligence inquiry, so named because the panel completed its initial work on the quality of the intelligence in July 2004.
Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah and one of five senators who sit on both panels, said at the hearing that the Judiciary Committee's work "could complement" the intelligence inquiry.
Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Republican leader, said last week that he was not yet ready to tell the panel to back off, though he wants the focus to remain on the intelligence inquiry.
Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said last week that he would not stand in the way of an independent intelligence inquiry as long as it did not interfere with the months-long investigation by his panel, which plans to distribute a draft report to members of Congress on Thursday.
