Specifically, she said, she was alarmed that the bureau and the Justice Department had failed to try to question either of the two about their Al Qaeda contacts, choosing instead to focus entirely on prosecution.

The commission also noted, correctly, that the bureau failed to allow for substitution.

Once American Management won, the bureau failed to monitor its work properly, according to an audit in August 1990 by State Comptroller Regan's office.

In addition, the bureau has failed to acquire easements to 132,000 acres with 800 million board feet of mature timber valued at $302 million, the audit said.

Despite this assessment, the bureau failed to win an increase in the Justice Department spending request submitted shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks.

In the months just after the F.B.I. received an anonymous letter in May 2001, saying that the men had gone to Afghanistan to train at Qaeda camps, the bureau failed to substantiate the charges.

House Republicans have also been quick to call for investigations when they believed the bureau was withholding information or failing to make an attempt to count everyone.

The bureau also failed to institute better methods of sharing information and coordinating with other agencies.

The inspector general recently completed a separate investigation into a former F.B.I. translator's accusations that the bureau failed to address widespread problems in its ability to translate terrorist-related intelligence.

The team was formed in response to criticism by the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks and from others that the bureau had failed to think imaginatively about how an attack might be carried out.