Thank you for the link, John. >From the article: > From John King > CNN Washington Bureau > > WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush's daily intelligence briefings in the weeks > leading up to the September 11 terror attacks included a warning of the > possibility that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network would attempt to hijack a > U.S.-based airliner, senior administration officials said Wednesday. > > But, the officials said, there was no speculation about the use of an airplane > itself as a bomb or a weapon, and no specific, credible information about the > possibility of a hijacking of any sort. > ... > ...The disclosure also comes at a time Congress is examining the government's > preparedness prior to the terror attacks and whether an FBI agent's warning about > the possibility of potential terrorists attending U.S. flight training schools was > appropriately considered by agency superiors.
And, from the accompanying linked article at http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/05/15/inv.fbi.terror/index.html > The Phoenix document was the subject of a briefing for lawmakers last week, he > (Senator Bob Graham) said. > > The memo, he said, cited "an unusual number of Arab students" taking flight > lessons in Arizona and raised "the suspicion that they had been sent there in a > coordinated plot by Osama bin Laden in order to learn the U.S. civil aviation > procedures." > > Asked whether the September 11 attacks might have been averted had the Phoenix > document raised more red flags, Graham replied, "Well, it might have been if this > had been seen in the context of other information, which indicated that there was > a potential conspiracy to use commercial airliners as weapons of mass > destruction." ***** I'm uncomfortable defending George W, but it sounds like there was a failure here at much lower echelons to provide the decision makers with the information they needed. It's hard to blame the Bush administration for not taking specific action, when all they had were vague warnings. Somewhere out there is an FBI agent with an uncanny ability to sniff out criminal activity, but the Phoenix report that he or she wrote wasn't passed along to the appropriate people. That's where the blame lies, if there is any blame here. Kevin
