Cheney: terror near

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday he is almost certain that terrorists will attack the United States again. "It's not a matter of if, but when," he said.\nCheney also acknowledged past failures in responding to signs of terrorism, but said he does not know if the Sept. 11 attacks could have been prevented "even if we had all those pieces together."\nThe vice president, in two talk show appearances, confirmed that U.S. intelligence is picking up hints that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network may be planning an attack. The information is vague, but should be taken seriously, he said.\n"I think that the prospects of a future attack on the U.S. are almost a certainty," Cheney said on "Fox News Sunday." "It could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week, it could happen next year, but they will keep trying. And we have to be prepared."\nCheney said he believes the United States has had success in disrupting the al-Qaida network, but it is impossible to prepare a perfect defense.\n"You try to read the tea leaves. We look for pieces of information and evidence, but you never get the complete picture," Cheney said on NBC's "Meet the Press."\nThe chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bob Graham, said the latest intelligence was similar to what has been seen over the past year.\n"It was nonspecific, didn't lead to you a particular course of action that could you take, other than a general increase in our level of sensitivity to possible terrorist activities," Graham, D-Fla., said on CBS's "Face the Nation."\nPresident Bush, returning Sunday to the White House from Camp David, did not respond to a question about whether Americans should be on a higher state of alert.\nCheney's appearances followed disclosures that Bush had been told in an Aug. 6 intelligence briefing that al-Qaida might attempt a hijacking aimed at Americans. The administration has said the information was not specific enough for it to take concrete action -- an explanation similar to Cheney's about the difficulty of responding to the latest intelligence reports.\nCheney said he reviewed the Aug. 6 memo and saw nothing that should have prompted immediate action. He said terrorists have been hijacking planes for 30 years and that the warning was based on old intelligence.\n"You're going to shut down the nation's aviation system based on that report? You wouldn't," he said.\nDemocrats and some Republicans have cited the Aug. 6 briefing as one of several warning signs that, together, might have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks. \nAmong the others were a July memo by an FBI agent in Phoenix warning of a large number of Arabs training in U.S. flight schools, and the arrest in August of Zacarias Moussaoui while training at a Minnesota flight school. He has now been charged as a conspirator in the attacks.\n"There's no question that there were failures," Cheney said. He cited a lack of coordination between domestic law enforcement and U.S. intelligence agencies, and problems in analyzing intelligence data. Many of those problems are being addressed, he said.\n"But I can't say at this point that even if we had all those pieces together that it would have led to the conclusion that they were going to hit the Trade Center, the Pentagon, et cetera," he said.\nSome lawmakers want an independent commission to investigate the attacks. Cheney noted that the administration is cooperating with a joint investigation by the House and Senate intelligence committees. He said he opposes an independent inquiry because it would tie up too many officials involved in fighting terrorism and could lead to the release of classified information.