Capabilities of U.S. intelligence agencies questioned

The logo of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is swept clean in Langley, Virginia March 3, 2005.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence agencies set up after the September 11, 2001 attacks still have trouble with sharing information that could help them thwart plots like the one to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, a senior counterterrorism official said on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama has taken ultimate responsibility for the intelligence failures that were exposed by the failed attempt to blow up a U.S. transatlantic passenger jet as it prepared to land in Detroit last month.

Congressional critics have singled out the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), established as part of a sweeping intelligence overhaul after the September 11 attacks.

"I do not (have), nor do I believe the DNI as currently constructed has, all of the authorities to move all of the information in a way that will maximize the likelihood of detecting these plots," NCTC Director Michael Leiter told the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee.

The chairman of the committee, Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, asked Leiter to send to the committee a request outlining the authorities he needed. "I'm happy to do that and I will work with the DNI," Leiter said.

"I don't have any particular authorities right now that would quickly ensure that every bit of this data is shared with every other element of the intelligence community," he said.

U.S. intelligence agencies and the State Department had information about the alleged Detroit bomber and the threat posed by his al Qaeda trainers in Yemen, but officials said the agencies failed to put the puzzle pieces together.

The plot failed when the explosives failed to detonate.

Turf battles between within the U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism bureaucracy are nothing new.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, is ultimately responsible for integrating foreign, military and domestic intelligence.

Blair and CIA Director Leon Panetta have squabbled for months behind-the-scenes over the DNI's oversight role. Officials say 2004 legislation overhauling the intelligence system left some of the DNI's authorities vague.

Seeking to ease tensions between the DNI and the CIA, the White House recently brokered a deal under which the CIA will keep Blair's office informed about its secret activities, but differences remain, intelligence officials said.

The National Counterterrorism Center was established in 2004 to serve as the main processing center for counterterrorism intelligence gathered by more than 16 government agencies, including the CIA.

(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky and Adam Entous; Editing by David Storey)