Inquiry cites human error in FBI mixup

On the heels of the recent mishandling of visa notices by the Immigration and Naturalization Service concerning some of last September's terrorists come the FBI's report on the agency's failure to turn over thousands of pages of documents to Timothy McVeigh's lawyers until a few days before he was executed.

While the INS blamed computers for its snafu, the Justice Department's inspector general's office blamed human error for the FBI delay. An inquiry found FBI agents were aware of the McVeigh documents but chose not to tell their superiors for five months because they didn't know the scope of the problem and didn't want journalists to find out.

FBI director Robert Mueller said his agency is addressing this kind of thinking. Good. While the evidence in the documents didn't delay McVeigh's execution, similar foul-ups could have dire consequences.