Lawmakers call for more steps to thwart terrorist attacks

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and ranking member Kit Bond, R-Mo., on Tuesday recommended steps the government should take to help stop terrorists from carrying out deadly plots inside the United States, including requiring airlines to more quickly check the no-fly list and finding a way to regulate informal transfers of money.

"It's clear we're facing a new kind of attacker who's already here, able to hide in plain sight," Feinstein told reporters after her panel was briefed by Obama administration officials on the arrest and interrogation of Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen charged in the attempted car bombing in New York City's Times Square.

"We need to think about new defenses," she said.

But in a rebuke to Attorney General Eric Holder, Bond said he had not yet seen conclusive evidence that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attempted bombing. Holder said Sunday the group helped facilitate and direct the May 1 attack.

"The definitive statements I heard on Sunday I do not believe have been confirmed even as of this date," Bond said.

But Feinstein observed that "there is a very high likelihood that there were interactions between this suspect and the Pakistani Taliban."

A riff has developed between the two senators over the Justice Department's role in overseeing the investigation into the bombing plot.

Bond said at least three intelligence agencies have told the committee staff they are under Justice Department orders not to provide information.

"Right now I keep hearing the attorney general is running the intelligence community," Bond said. "When you have a terrorist attack, I think the intelligence community needs to be operating not as a law enforcement group preparing for a prosecution but as an intelligence gathering, analyzing organization to provide action to make sure further attacks or possibly related attacks can be stopped."

Feinstein countered that the investigation is being led by the FBI, which is in the Justice Department. It's a criminal case and the attempted attack occurred inside the United States, she said.

Shahzad's arrest, barely two days after the bombing attempt, follows the arrest of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian with a U.S. visa who allegedly tried to blow up an a plane as it neared Detroit on Christmas Day.

Feinstein said both men "are prototypes of people that we may see more of ... which suggests that the individual with no suspicion about him is going to be the individual that may be the new lone wolf of the future in this country."

She said the Homeland Security Department should require airlines to check the U.S. no-fly list every 30 minutes. The department last week began requiring airlines to check the list every two hours, after disclosure that Shahzad was placed on the list but managed to board an airline and nearly escaped to Pakistan.

Feinstein also called for the department to accelerate the Secure Flight program for international airlines. Under the program, the department -- not the airlines -- would vet passengers against the no-fly list.

But the program is not scheduled to go into effect for all international carriers until the end of the year.

"I think we have to move it up," Feinstein said. "I think it's a matter of really protecting our country, to be able to have immediate registration, immediate checking, and move just as quickly as possible."

She and Bond also called for better regulation of money flows. "I think the bottom line in a lot of this is to follow the money. We have to find better ways of doing that," Feinstein said.

"I think there is a need to go further into how money is transferred from this country into groups, as well as from groups who would do us harm back to individuals," she added. "We need to have some process for the regulation of these money transfers so that they're not all anonymous, unknown, no audit trail, no record."

But Bond noted the difficulty in regulating the informal money transfer system called hawala, which has its origins in Islamic law. He said the U.S. government is "hard pressed" to find a way to regulate that system.