- MI6 Warned US Of Al-Qaeda attacks
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- "The Americans knew of plans to use commercial aircraft
in unconventional ways, possibly as flying bombs," said a senior Foreign
Office source.
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- MI6 warned the American intelligence services about a
plot to hijack aircraft and crash them into buildings two years before
the September 11 attacks.
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- Liaison staff at the American embassy in Grosvenor Square
in London were passed a secret report by MI6 in 1999 after the intelligence
service picked up indications from human intelligence sources (Humint)
that Osama Bin Laden's followers were planning attacks in which civilian
aircraft could be used in "unconventional ways."
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- Information did not specify targets and would not necessarily
have enabled US agencies to prevent attacks on the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon, intelligence sources said.
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- Details of the MI6 warning, expected to emerge during
secret Congressional hearings this week in Washington into alleged intelligence
failings, will increase pressure on the Bush administration for a radical
shake-up of America,s counterterrorism efforts.
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- President George W Bush has already announced plans for
a new "homeland defence department" with a £25 billion
annual budget to combat terrorism. "We need to know when warnings
were missed or signs unheeded - not to point the finger of blame - but
to make sure we correct any problems," he said last week.
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- MI6 had information as early as 1998 that Al-Qaeda was
plotting fresh attacks. A series of warnings was passed to Washington,
some concerning threats to American interests in Europe, including the
US embassy in Paris. One message detailed heightened activity by suspected
Al-Qaeda terror cells.
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- "The Americans knew of plans to use commercial aircraft
in unconventional ways, possibly as flying bombs," said a senior Foreign
Office source.
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- A US government spokesman declined to comment.
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- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-321252,00.html
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