Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: scotiamor
One problem with the Arizona FBI report - not a single Arab flight student named in his report was involved in terrorist activity - all were legitimate trainees for Arab airlines.

Do you have a cite for this? I believe you, but I need some proof to wave in front of my liberal "friends" to show that what this guy turned up wouldn't have saved us from anything.

16 posted on 05/18/2002 4:24:31 PM PDT by Timesink
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies ]


To: Timesink
Citation that Arizona students not linked to 9/11 FBI Director Discusses Aviation Memo By JESSE J. HOLLAND .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - FBI Director Robert Mueller says a memo about several Arabs who were training at a U.S. aviation school wouldn't have led officials to the Sept. 11 hijackers. The Associated Press reported last week that an FBI agent in Arizona told Washington in July of suspicions about several Arabs who were training at a U.S. aviation school. He urged that agents contact other schools where Middle Easterners might be studying. The FBI sent the memo to its terrorism experts and was considering a nationwide canvass of flight schools when the hijackers struck. The bureau had not yet alerted other federal agencies. ``Did we discern from that that there was a plot that would have led us to the Sept. 11 (attackers)? No,'' Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. ``Could we have? I rather doubt it. But should we have done more in regard to the Phoenix (memo)? Yes.'' ``I believe the Phoenix memo is going to come to be one of the most important documents in our national discussion about whether we did enough to protect America from the attacks of Sept. 11,'' said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. Mueller said it was unlikely that the FBI could have investigated all 2,000 aviation academies and their 20,000 students between July and September . ``It was perceived that this would be a monumental undertaking without any specificity as to particular persons,'' Mueller said. None of the people being investigated in Arizona were involved in the Sept. 11 attack, Mueller said, although he admitted that one or two might have had connections to terror organizations. Mueller said he did not believe that heads of the CIA or the FBI ever saw the contents of the Phoenix memo, which Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called ``much more consequential'' than the briefings she gets as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. ``I think that recommendations of the agent are something that we should have more aggressively pursued,'' Mueller emphasized. ``I do not believe that it gave the signpost of that which would happen on Sept. 11.'' Mueller also said: The Sept. 11 hijackers left no paper trail for law enforcers to pick up on. ``We have not yet uncovered a single piece of information, either here or in the treasure-trove of information that has turned up in Afghanistan and elsewhere, that mentioned any aspect of the Sept. 11 plot,'' Mueller said. ``As best as we can determine, the actual hijackers had no computers, no laptops, no storage media of any kind.''
24 posted on 05/19/2002 6:36:49 PM PDT by scotiamor
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson