New York: Ignorance and ineptitude of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) supervisors and lawyers in Washington blocked field agents around the country from pursuing evidence that might have helped provide the agency with "veritable blueprint for 9/11 attacks", says a new Senate report on intelligence failures before September 11.

The report by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is expected to be made public next month and is the result of an investigation that began shortly after the terrorist attacks, focuses on the mishandling of the case against Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged with involvement in the September 11 attacks.

The report suggests that while the Moussaoui case was particularly egregious, it may be indicative of the Bureau's bungling of other sensitive counter-terrorism cases before September 11.

The 'New York Times' said a draft copy of the report was provided to it by Congressional officials who did not want to be identified.

In the Moussaoui case, the report found, FBI counter-terrorism specialists and the Bureau's lawyers were so ignorant of Federal surveillance laws that they did not understand that they had ample evidence to press for a warrant to search the belongings of Moussaoui, a French national who was arrested weeks before the attacks.

Instead, the report found, the investigating agency supervisors and lawyers aggressively blocked the search warrant sought by desperate field agents in Minnesota who believed last August that they might have a terrorist on their hands who might use a commercial airplane as a weapon.

The Minnesota agents had sought the warrant under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which sets a relatively low standard for the evidence required for searches of suspected spies or terrorists.

PTI