Posted on 05/20/2002 9:40:40 AM PDT by mombonn
Edited on 04/22/2004 11:46:31 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WASHINGTON -- A week before the Sept. 11 attack, investigators told the Federal Aviation Administration that student-pilot Zacarias Moussaoui had been arrested and was under investigation as a potential terrorist with a particular interest in flying Boeing 747s. But the agency decided against warning U.S. airlines to increase security.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I hope investigators didn't tell GWB, because if they did, we would have to impeach him.
Ah, Clintonian illogic freezes another investigative agency. The Clintonian legal philosophy is- You can't investigate until you have proof. Well you have proof now.
Duh, oh! Ya think? Homer Simpson could have come up with that conclusion.
I think that basically the airline and the FBI blew him off until after 9/11. Then they came knocking real fast as I recall.
"The flight I took was actually on August 1," said Woods, who spoke publicly about the encounter for the first time on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor."
After spotting four Arab-looking men with no carry-on luggage who seemed to be behaving suspiciously, he took action.
"I took it upon myself to go to the flight attendant and asked to speak to the pilot of the plane," Woods said. "The first officer came out. I reported to him that I felt that these four men.... I said, I think they're going to hijack this plane."
"I found out later that not only did he make a report but the flight attendant also made a report of my suspicions to the FAA," he added.
Woods said that when he got home that night friends asked how his flight went. He replied jokingly, "Well, aside from the terrorists and the turbulence it was fine."
Though nothing came of his vigilance for the next 40 days, Woods said that on the morning after the attacks, the FBI was outside his house waiting to talk to him at 7:15 a.m.
"Since then I have identified for sure two of them (on my flight) as two of the terrorists who actually were not on Flight 11, but one was on Flight 175 and one was on Flight 77."
United Airlines Flight 77 slammed into Tower Two of the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m. on 9/11. American Airlines Flight 175 hit the Pentagon some 45 minutes later.
Woods said that someone "in a higher level of government" has told him that all four of the Middle Eastern men he observed in August participated in the 9/11 attacks in some way.
The politically conservative actor said that earlier accounts suggesting he reported the suspected terrorists to the FBI before 9/11 - and that the bureau failed to take his report seriously - were erroneous. Woods said instead that the flight crew may have made an FBI report.
A secondhand account of Woods' encounter with the 9/11 terrorists first surfaced in Cindy Adams' New York Post column just days after the attacks. (See: Twin Tower Terrorists May Have Made Dry Run )
But Woods himself has never publicly described the chilling encounter before.
Actor Woods Fingered 9/11 Kamikaze Terrorists on Previous Fight
He spoke with the FBI AFTER the attacks on the morning of 9-11.
In a different thread I had said that the FBI, CIA (because they didn't share info), FAA and airports all share the responisibility. Lack of proper security and as you pointed out, better checking of passenger lists. But, upgrading security would have dug into their profits!
"June 2001 - German intelligence, the BND, warns the CIA and Israel that Middle Eastern terrorists are "planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture. " [Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 14, 2001.]
A French secret service report on September 7 warned of possible attacks, and that the order to act would come from Afghanistan. Le Figaro says very precise information on targets for attack was communicated to the CIA.
Summer 2001 - An Iranian man phones U.S. law enforcement to warn of an imminent attack on the World Trade Center in the week of September 9th. German police confirm the calls but state that the U.S. Secret Service would not reveal any further information. [Source: German news agency "online.ie", September 14, 2001]
August 2001 - The FBI arrests an Islamic militant linked to Bin Laden in Boston. French intelligence sources confirm that the man is a key member of Bin Laden's network and the FBI learns that he has been taking flying lessons. At the time of his arrest the man is in possession of technical information on Boeing aircraft and flight manuals. [Source: Reuters, September 13]
Summer 2001 - Russian intelligence notifies the CIA that 25 terrorist pilots have been specifically training for suicide missions. This is reported in the Russian press and news stories are translated for FTW by a retired CIA officer."
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