Congressman: FBI Ignored Repeated Warnings

NewsMax ^ | Monday, Dec. 24, 2001 | Phil Brennan

[Michael2001]

The FBI ignored several specific and sometimes frantic warnings of a Minnesota flight instructor who told the bureau that an Arab man could be planning to use a 747 jumbo jet as a flying "bomb."

The flight instructor notified the FBI about the unusual behavior of Zacarias Moussaoui, now under federal indictment for his membership in the Al-Qaeda network and his alleged role in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

The flight instructor at the Pan Am International Flight Academy near Minneapolis became suspicious when Moussaoui said he wanted to learn how to fly large jet aircraft, but insisted he did not need to know how to take off or land.

In October, reports first surfaced about the flight instructor's tip-off to the bureau.

But the New York Times reported this weekend that the instructor's information was much more specific and serious.

Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., and other officials were briefed by the flight school, and Oberstar's revelations paint a picture of the FBI's negligence.

Oberstar said the instructor made a very blunt warning to the FBI. Oberstar quoted the instrucor as telling the FBI: "Do you realize that a 747 loaded with fuel can be used as a bomb?"

Oberstar called the instructor an "American hero."

Oberstar said he was told by officials of a Minnesota flight school that the instructor called the FBI several times "to find someone in authority who seemed willing to act on his warning that Moussaoui appeared to be involved in terrorist activity."

Oberstar's revelations raise new questions about why the FBI and other agencies did not act to prevent the hijackings.

Oberstar's account of the incident confirmed an Oct. 8, 2001, NewsMax.com story that despite ample indications that the man was dangerous, FBI officials in Washington ignored pleas by their agents in Minnesota for permission to check the hard drive on his computer and launch a full-scale criminal investigation of the man.

As we reported then, FBI agents on the scene asked both the CIA and French intelligence for any information they had on Moussaoui.

French intelligence officials replied that their anti-terrorist files showed him to be both an extremist and a man with highly suspicious connections to terrorist groups, having reportedly traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan several times.

On Aug. 17, FBI agents in Minneapolis arrested Moussaoui, a French citizen, on immigration charges.

With Moussaoui in detention, agents asked FBI headquarters for permission to check his computer's hard drive and wanted to launch a full-scale criminal investigation.

Superiors at the FBI's Washington office flatly turned down the agents' request.

Only after the Sept. 11 attacks did FBI headquarters finally give approval for agents to examine Moussaouio's hard drive and open up a broader inquiry.

Reportedly, the FBI discovered that Moussaoui had compiled data on how wind patterns affect crop dusters, as well as a large amount of information on crop-dusting aircraft.

That was the critical information that led the government to ground all crop-dusting flights in the U.S. Law enforcement sources told the Times at the time that had the FBI leadership not stymied the Minneapolis probe of their local office, the information they may have unearthed, combined with other intelligence available to them, could have alerted the government to the coming disaster.

"The question being asked here is if they put two and two together, they could have gotten a lot more information about the guy – if not stopped the hijacking," one investigator told Newsweek magazine.

[Little Bill]

I give you a hand if you need it. The problem is I am going on vacation 1/30/02, in Mississippi, Ocean View.

[Amelia]

I hate to believe it, but you know the old saying about "where there's smoke, there's fire"? The wisps keep coming out of this story, just like the smoke from the WTC wreckage...

[LaineyDee]

The effect on his 7 year old son was devastating, even though the dropped wife handled everything as humanely and maturely as possible, under the circumstances. Everyone is re-married and have formed new families. The 7 year old, however, has grown up to be an alienated, undisciplined 19 year old who probably won't make it through college.

Unfortunately.... that really had nothing to do with the FBI in particular... because the scenario sounds like everywhere and anyone in America, nowadays.