- 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."
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- In October, reports first surfaced about the flight instructor's
tip-off to the bureau.
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- But the New York Times reported this weekend that the
instructor's information was much more specific and serious.
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- 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.
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- 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?"
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- Oberstar called the instructor an "American hero."
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- 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."
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- Oberstar's revelations raise new questions about why
the FBI and other agencies did not act to prevent the hijackings.
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- 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.
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- As we reported then, FBI agents on the scene asked both
the CIA and French intelligence for any information they had on Moussaoui.
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- 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.
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- On Aug. 17, FBI agents in Minneapolis arrested Moussaoui,
a French citizen, on immigration charges.
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- 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.
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- Superiors at the FBI's Washington office flatly turned
down the agents' request.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- "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.
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