US had been warned before 9/ll

2005-02-10 09:35

New York - Federal aviation officials received dozens of warnings before the September 11 2001, attacks about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, including some that mentioned airline hijackings or suicide attacks, The New York Times reported.

In its Thursday editions, the Times said a previously undisclosed report by the commission that investigated the suicide airliner attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon detailed 52 warnings given to leaders of the Federal Aviation Administration from April to September 10 2001, about the radical Islamic terrorist group and its leader.

The commission report, written last August, said the warnings came from the FAA's own security branch. The paper said five security warnings mentioned al-Qaeda's training for hijackings and two reports concerned suicide operations not connected to aviation.

The Times said that a classified version and a partially declassified version of the 120-page report were given to the National Archives two weeks ago. The Times story cited the declassified version of the document.

Available to the public

Al Felzenberg, former spokesperson for the 9/11 commission, which went out of business last summer, said the government had not completed review of the report for declassification purposes until recently. He said the Justice Department delivered the two versions of the document to the Archives.

An Archives spokesperson said on Wednesday night the unclassified version of the document would not be available to the public until Thursday morning.

The Times gave these highlights from the commission report:

Aviation officials were "lulled into a false sense of security" and "intelligence that indicated a real and growing threat leading up to 9/ll did not stimulate significant increases in security procedures."

It takes the FAA to task for not expanding the use of in-flight air marshals or tightening airport screening for weapons. It said FAA officials were more concerned with reducing airline congestion, lessening delays and easing air carriers' financial problems than thwarting a terrorist attack.

Information in this report was available to members of the 9/11 commission when they issued their public report last summer. That report itself contained criticisms of FAA operations.

- AP