Posted on 12/22/2001 11:35:53 AM PST by at bay
ASHINGTON, Dec. 21 — An instructor at a Minnesota flight school warned the F.B.I. in August of his suspicion that a student who was later identified as a part of Osama bin Laden's terror network might be planning to use a commercial plane loaded with fuel as a weapon, a member of Congress and other officials said today.
The officials, who were briefed by the school, said the instructor warned the Federal Bureau of Investigation in urgent tones about the terrorist threat posed by the student, Zacarias Moussaoui. Mr. Moussaoui, a French citizen of Morrocan descent, was indicted last week on charges of conspiring in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Representative James L. Oberstar of Minnesota, who received the briefing and is the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation Committee, said the instructor called the bureau several times to find someone in authority who seemed willing to act on the information.
Mr. Oberstar said the instructor's warnings could not have been more blunt. The representative said, "He told them, `Do you realize that a 747 loaded with fuel can be used as a bomb?' "
Mr. Oberstar described the instructor as "an American hero" whose actions resulted in Mr. Moussaoui's arrest and might have prevented another suicide hijacking.
Congressional officials said the account by the school, the Pan Am International Flight Academy in Eagan, outside Minneapolis, raised new questions about why the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies did not prevent the hijackings.
Officials said the Arizona branch of the school alerted the Federal Aviation Administration earlier this year after finding that a student spoke little English. The Saudi student, Hani Hanjour, has been described as being at the controls of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.
The instructor in Minnesota has not been identified. But Congressional officials said he was a former military pilot who grew suspicious after encounters in which Mr. Moussaoui was belligerent and evasive about his background and because he was so adamant about learning to fly a 747 jumbo jet despite his clear incompetence as a pilot.
Mr. Moussaoui, 33, was arrested in August on immigration charges. But despite the urging of the school and federal agents in Minnesota and despite a warning from the French that Mr. Moussaoui was linked to Muslim extremists, F.B.I. headquarters here resisted a broader investigation until after Sept. 11. Last week, he became the first person indicted for involvement in the events of Sept. 11, charged with conspiring with Mr. bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Mr. Moussaoui faces the death penalty.
Some federal law enforcement agents said they believed that Mr. Moussaoui was intended to be the 20th hijacker.
Until now, the bureau and the flight school have been unwilling to provide details on what raised suspicions about Mr. Moussaoui. But several weeks ago, the school offered to brief a handful of House members and their aides who were involved in aviation. Two lawmakers were from Minnesota, Mr. Oberstar and Martin Sabo, a fellow Democrat, and they first discussed the briefings today in The Star Tribune in Minneapolis.
In interviews today, Mr. Oberstar and a spokesman for Mr. Sabo said the lawmakers were alarmed by what they heard. They withheld information from the public about the briefings until this week, they said, because they did not want to interfere with the inquiry that led to Mr. Moussaoui's indictment.
Mr. Sabo, ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, was traveling today. His chief of staff, Michael S. Erlandson, who was at the briefing, said the flight academy's account was scary. "The Pan Am people," Mr. Erlandson said, "are heroes who worked very diligently to make themselves heard at the F.B.I."
He said Mr. Moussaoui raised the suspicions in a first encounter, when he told the instructor that he was from France but refused to converse in French with the instructor, who also spoke it. The suspicions grew, Mr. Erlandson said, when Mr. Moussaoui repeatedly proved himself incapable of understanding basic flying techniques but still insisted on learning how to fly a 747, the largest commercial jet.
Mr. Erlandson said the flight school had arranged the briefings. "They called up," he said, "and said that they were constituents and that they had an almost unbelievable story they would like to share."
A spokeswoman for the academy did not return calls for comment. Spokesmen for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Federal Aviation Administration also had no comment.
Mr. Oberstar said he was also troubled by the F.A.A. response to the Phoenix instructors' concerns about Mr. Hanjour, who enrolled speaking little English, which is required for all commercial pilots. According to the school, it contacted the F.A.A. this year to ask what it should to do with Mr. Hanjour. Mr. Oberstar said the agency offered the services of one of its employees to help tutor Mr. Hanjour.
So how were they to know that the guy was dangerous?
In the "real world", FBI agents outside Washington, are merely Federal Workers. Enough said?
Secondly, I don't see how they can charge this guy with the Death Penalty. Through his own stupidity, he was already in jail or arrested prior to 9/11. To have him put to death by the US Government for conspiracy doesn't sit right with me.
I'd rather he be hanged in his cell in the middle of the night by his own bedsheet.
I agree that heads should roll, but Clinton and Gore had been gone for more than half a year when the warning in question was given.
ML/NJ
"This is an entirely incompetent organization where agents can't even sneeze without direction from Washington."
"We need to renovate this agency from the top to the bottom"
The FBI is not loaded from top to bottom with incompetent, lazy, nor unintelligent people. It's a mistake to accept that as anywhere near the truth. Their entire careers are built around being suspicious and intelligent. They function with two primary guidelines ----- "Will there be any Risk to me or my career?" and "How can I benefit from this?"
All of the supposed incompetence is a ruse to achieve one of the above. The guidance they're given from up the food chain falls into those two guidelines.
Take one supposed "hero" FBI agent we're all familiar with. He wrote a book about a Democratic White House that is very assuredly accurate in depicting total chaos and criminality in the West Wing. But this is the same period when the same FBI turned over detailed records on an actually unknown number of people. The same agency that ran interference for the cover-up of Foster's murder.
This could continue, but you get the idea, I'm sure. They're NOT incompetent, They're Corrupt!
BTW, Good Posting.
Since it is accurately pointed out on this thread that the main concerns of most FBI agents are to cover their *sses and climb to the top of the greasy pole, we need to have someone in charge who will condition promotions--or firings--on genuine performance. For eight years clinton conditioned promotion on personal loyalty and obedience to him, especially in the commission or coverup of crimes; and the corrupt toe-kissers he promoted still crowd the top ranks. The new FBI director has already demonstrated that he is incompetent to deal with this difficult situation. Bush has really got to take back control over these organizations, or they will wreck his administration and undermine all his accomplishments. Clinton understood the importance of control; why can't Bush?
One simple test of loyalty or compentence could be - that all agents that can NOT bring an indictable and convictable case against someone in the Clinton Administation or major media spokesperson, gets FIRED.
Works for me!
Semper Fi
Yup.
His quote should be placed on memorial placards at WTC, Pentagon, and FBI building!
Mr. Oberstar said the instructor's warnings could not have been more blunt. The representative said, "He told them, `Do you realize that a 747 loaded with fuel can be used as a bomb?' "
:-(
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