Memo told of hijack plan
2004-04-11 15:36
Wasgington - A White House memo has confirmed the FBI suspected plane hijackings were being planned in the United States a month before the September 11 attacks, Sky News reports.
The document, which was given to President George W Bush in August 2001, has been publicly released following pressure from the official inquiry into the atrocities.
The sensitive page-and-a-half document entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US" has been declassified.
It was prepared for Bush and is dated August 6, 2001.
The memo is seen as a key to what information the US government had that might have helped it prevent the attacks, in which more than 3 000 people died.
Part of the document says that FBI information "indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks".
And one item in the memo referred to "recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York".
Bush's government insists it did everything it could to prevent the attacks with the information available to it.
- News24