WASHINGTON, July 22 (AFP) - A national panel probing the September 11, 2001, attacks capped a 20-month inquiry Thursday with a remarkably bipartisan report that blasts US defenses but spares George W. Bush a large dose of political pain.
The eagerly anticipated, 567-report broadly criticized "failures of imagination, policy, capabilities and management" in various sectors of the US government and recommended an overhaul of intelligence services.
But conspicuously absent was any harsh political judgments that have fueled an election-year debate over President Bush's handling of the fight against terror before and since nearly 3,000 people died on September 11.
The 10-member commission, evenly split among Republicans and Democrats, went out of its way to spread the blame for the country's lack of preparedness over Bush's Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton as well as the Republican.
"Terrorism was not the overriding national security concern for the US government under either the Clinton or the pre-9/11 Bush administration," the panel said in its executive summary.
Saying the 9/11 attacks "were a shock but they should not have come as a surprise," the commissioners cited failings back to 1998, more than two years before Bush was elected to the White House.
The panel also handed Bush a small gift in its conclusions on links between the al-Qaeda terrorists and Baghdad, a hotly disputed contention used by the White House as a main justification for last year's invasion of Iraq.
A commission staff report last month made headlines when it said it found no evidence of a "collaborative relationship" between Osama bin Laden's group and the regime of Saddam Hussein.
But the final document rounded the edges and said there was no sign of any "collaborative operational relationship" on the terror attacks, leaving open the possibility of contacts and cooperation in others areas.
Chairman Thomas Kean said, "There was no question in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda. At one point, it was thought maybe even al-Qaeda would find sanctuary in Iraq."
Such words were likely to provide comfort and political cover to Bush and aides such as Vice President Dick Cheney, who have stood by their claim that Saddam had to be removed as a dangerous al-Qaeda patron.
Bush, who is campaigning for re-election as a "war president" with unfinished work to make the country safe, will also benefit from widespread bipartisan appeals to rally around the commission's recommendations.
Few can dispute the call for stepped-up efforts to root out terrorist sanctuaries around the world or revamp US intelligence services, even if there is disagreement over details of its proposal for a new national intelligence director.
Lawmakers of both parties praised the commission. "In this town racked by partisanship, to come up with bipartisan recommendations is an amazing accomplishment in itself," said Democratic New York Senator Chuck Schumer.
Republican Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, agreed: "The most important thing about this report, it doesn't look in the rearview mirror and point fingers of blame. It gets on beyond that," he told CNN.
The Bush campaign was quick to embrace the commission's report as a vindication of the president's anti-terror policies, which the Democrats have described as recklessly aggressive and misdirected.
Bush met with panel leaders at the White House and vowed to work with them to improve the country's defenses. "They recognise what I recognise and the Americans recognise, that there is still a threat," he said.
His Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry, pledged to press for national security reforms and chided the administration for bureaucratic infighting that he said had hampered the process.
But even Kerry was more muted in his remarks than the Democrats' shrill cries in recent days of "massive failures" on the security front. "This is not a time for bickering," he said. "This is not a time for politics."