Can FBI and CIA cooperate?

Still another school of thought says it is personnel – and their mentality – that needs changing. An older FBI agent will never really stop focusing on "bank robbers and Russian spies," says Senator Hart, who favors hiring younger, savvier agents and giving them autonomy.

Few changes will happen, however, without White House clout. So far, President Bush is taking a go-slow approach.

"There are an awful lot of folks in Congress who have strong opinions about the answer" to agency cooperation, says a senior administration official. "And I'm not sure we've correctly identified the problem yet." He says the White House is "working to optimize processes" – rather than upend agencies just to make it appear that things are happening.

But Hart says the administration is being too cautious. "If there's another attack tomorrow, the American people are going to get angry real fast." Ironically, he says, that could ultimately be the thing that sparks real change.

Meanwhile, the agencies appear caught up in a blame-avoiding contest.

Last week, scrutiny was on the FBI for bungling clues about Al Qaeda men training in US flight schools – and because of FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley's letter criticizing her agency's top brass.

Then, last weekend, Newsweek reported that the CIA had been tracking two 9/11 hijackers for months, including at a January 2000 Al Qaeda meeting in Malaysia – but that it didn't tell the FBI when the men later came to the US. The FBI then claimed it might have been able to uncover the plot had it been informed by the CIA about these men. But Monday, the CIA reportedly said it has proof it did tell the FBI.

USAToday reported yesterday the CIA may have had operatives inside Al Qaeda – but still wasn't able to prevent the attack. And Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told the New York Times Monday that his intelligence service had a mole in Al Qaeda and tried to warn US officials before 9/11.

The tit-for-tat CIA-FBI rivalry isn't new. At one low point three decades ago, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and CIA chief Richard Helms simply stopped talking to each other.But many inside the two agencies say the mythic clash of cultures – between tweedy CIA analysts and square-jawed FBI gumshoes – is often overblown in the media. "It's nonsense," says Oliver "Buck" Revell, a former top FBI official. The difference in their traditional missions, he says, has created the gulf.

Now, however, both agencies have a top priority of preventing future attacks. So their missions are dovetailing – and there may be an opportunity to improve the relationship. But the question remains how best to create the change.

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