Bush Warned Before Sept. 11 of Bin Laden Plot to Hijack Planes
Published May 16, 2002 FoxNews.com
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The White House acknowledged Wednesday night that U.S. intelligence agents warned President Bush a month before Sept. 11 that Usama bin Laden’s terror network might hijack American planes, but officials said the president had no way of knowing that they would use the planes as missiles for suicide attacks on American landmarks.
“There has been long-standing speculation, shared with the president, about the potential of hijackings in the traditional sense,” White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. “We had general threats involving Usama bin Laden around the world and including in the United States.”
He said the administration, acting on the information received in early August, notified the “appropriate agencies” that hijackings “in the traditional sense” were possible. The warning was never made public, he said. ...
... The Associated Press reported earlier this month that FBI headquarters did not act on a memo last July from its Arizona office warning there were a large number of Arabs seeking pilot, security and airport operations training at at least one U.S. flight school and which urged a check of all flight schools to identify more possible Middle Eastern students.
A section of that classified memo also makes a passing reference to bin Laden, speculating that Al Qaeda and other such groups could organize such flight training, officials said. The officials said, however, that the memo offered no evidence bin Laden was behind the students that raised the concern.
Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, said through a spokesman Wednesday that the revelations in the memos marked an important discovery in Congress’ investigation into why the FBI, CIA and other U.S. agencies failed to learn of and prevent the Sept. 11 plot.
“It represents a failure to connect the dots,” Graham spokesman Paul Anderson said. “This was dismissed rather lightly at FBI headquarters.” ...
one newbie FBI agent sent to the flight school would have found out the young Muslims wanting to learn to fly didn’t care about learning to land the planes.. that would have uncovered the whole 911 plot.. but nobody inquired.. that’s what Trump is saying about not keeping us safe
Are you a MIHOP or LIHOP...?