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Pre-Attack Memo Cited Bin Laden
NYT(posted by Guido) - 15.05.2002 17:18
The memorandum said terrorist groups like Mr. bin Laden´s might be sending students to the schools as the first step in what could be a concerted effort to place Islamic militants in the civil aviation industry around the world as pilots, security guards or aircraft-maintenance workers.
"WASHINGTON, May 14 — The classified memorandum written by an F.B.I. agent in Phoenix last summer urging bureau headquarters to investigate Middle Eastern men enrolled in American flight schools also cited Osama bin Laden by name and suggested that his followers could use the schools to train for terror operations, government officials said for the first time today."
"Robert S. Mueller III, who did not become director until two weeks before the attacks, has acknowledged that the bureau gave the memo too little attention. Mr. Mueller has said the bureau lacked adequate analytical capabilities to evaluate it, a failing that he has tried to correct by establishing new analytical units within the F.B.I. and staffing them with new personnel."
"But several lawmakers who have read the Phoenix memorandum described it as the most significant document to emerge in Congressional inquiries into whether the government might have been warned about possible hijackings. Several senators said the letter represented a warning that went unheeded.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/15/national/15INQU.html
 E-Mail: pannekoekrobert@hotmail.com
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