WASHINGTON Ñ Congress is questioning how well the United States understands Islam and the Arab world.

Leading members of the House and Senate have pointed to a deficiency in Arabic language skills in the U.S. military and intelligence services. They said the services appeared to miss warnings of an attack by Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden in the Arab media.

At a hearing on Thursday, members of the House Government Reform committee complained that the U.S. intelligence community is able to gather tremendous amounts of information. But they said a lion's share of the information is ignored because of a lack of analysts, Middle East Newsline reported.

We have tons of information," Rep. John Mica, a Florida Republican, said. "We don't have the people who can interpret it or even understand the language that it has been relayed in."

Rep. Major Owens, a New York Democrat, agreed. Owens questioned whether policymakers in the White House or Pentagon have the proper tools to make decisions regarding Islamic terrorism or the Arab world. He said so far Congress has been given little information of the level of knowledge of the Arab and Islamic world by U.S. intelligence and defense agencies.

"There are some basic and simple questions that we can all ask ..." Owens said, "Basic questions like how many high level people do you have in decision making positions, who have background and understand Islamic culture? Are there people at top places who are making these decision that really understand? If they're not there or if they are there, what kind of resources do they draw on? Is there a think tank?"

Critics in Congress cited a recent report by the General Accounting Office that argued that the government has been deficient in counterterrorism efforts. The GAO report said the administration has failed to set priorities in the fight against terrorism.

The congressional members said the United States will have to produce students who are proficient in the language and cultures of the Middle East and the Islamic world. These people will be required in diplomacy as well as law enforcement.

After the Sept. 11 suicide attacks, the FBI advertised for Americans fluent in Farsi. The results of the campaign have not been disclosed. The U.S. military has increased training for Arab, Farsi and Urdu linguists in the wake of the bombing of the USS Cole in October 2000. The Pentagon operates a language school in Monterey, Calif.

In additions, contracts have been awarded over the last year to private companies to provide analysis and translate open-source information Ñ such as newspapers and broadcasts Ñ in U.S. Central Command. The command covers the Persian Gulf and much of the Middle East.

But House members said this did not prevent a failure in obtaining warnings in the Arabic press of a Bin Laden agent. They said the administration never followed up on plans by the Reagan administration to educate students in high schools in Middle East languages.

"When this chaos of the last week started, all four networks talked about an Arabic newspaper in London and they wondered why wasn't somebody looking at that?" Rep. Stephen Horn, a California Republican, said. "And I've asked the question of a number of people that should have known and they say, 'Oh well, we just don't have the Arabic skills that we ought to have.'"

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