The FAA Had 52 Warnings Before 9/11!

[Nickdfresh]

Feb 10, 10:48 AM EST

Report: FAA Had 52 Pre-9/11 Warnings

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Aviation Administration received repeated warnings in the months prior to Sept. 11, 2001, about al-Qaida and its desire to attack airlines, according to a previously undisclosed report by the commission that investigated the terror attacks.

The report by the 9/11 commission that investigated the suicide airliner attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon detailed 52 such warnings given to FAA leaders from April to Sept. 10, 2001, about the radical Islamic terrorist group and its leader, Osama bin Laden.

The commission report, written last August, said five security warnings mentioned al-Qaida's training for hijackings and two reports concerned suicide operations not connected to aviation. However, none of the warnings pinpointed what would happen on Sept. 11.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the agency received intelligence from other agencies, which it passed on to airlines and airports.

But, she said, "We had no specific information about means or methods that would have enabled us to tailor any countermeasures."

Brown also said the FAA was in the process of tightening security at the time of the attacks.

"We were spending $100 million a year to deploy explosive detection equipment at the airports," she said. The agency was also close to issuing a regulation that would have set higher standards for screeners and, for the first time, give it direct control over the screening work force.

Al Felzenberg, former spokesman for the 9/11 commission, which went out of business last summer, said the government had not completed a review of the 120-page report for declassification purposes until recently.

A published report says aviation officials had many warnings about al-Qaida before the Nine-Eleven attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Neighbor Says Atta Seemed 'Disturbed'

The unclassified version, first reported by The New York Times, was made available by the National Archives Thursday.

According to the 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."

-Of the FAA's 105 daily intelligence summaries between April 1, 2001 and Sept. 10, 2001, 52 mentioned Osama bin Laden, al Qaida, or both, "mostly in regard to overseas threats."

-It notes that the FAA did not expand the use of in-flight air marshals or tighten 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.

- A proposed rule to improve passenger screening and other security measures ordered by Congress in 1996 had been held up by the Office of Management and Budget and was still not in effect when the attacks occurred, according to the FAA.

-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.

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[ELVIS]

:rolleyes:

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by ELVIS
:rolleyes:

Idiot:rolleyes:

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by ELVIS
:rolleyes:

Well spoken and eloquent as usual!

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
Well spoken and eloquent as usual!

It is his favorite response when unable to argue the facts:D

[ELVIS]

An article like this can be written on any subject four years after the fact with 20/20 hindsight...

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by ELVIS
An article like this can be written on any subject four years after the fact with 20/20 hindsight...

And people in government that don't take the threat seriously.
http://www.topplebush.com/humor/Bush_Golf_2004-06-02.jpg

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
However, none of the warnings pinpointed what would happen on Sept. 11.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the agency received intelligence from other agencies, which it passed on to airlines and airports.

But, she said, "We had no specific information about means or methods that would have enabled us to tailor any countermeasures."

[/B]

Let's go ahead and assign an F-15 or F-16 to every aircraft and blow them out of the sky the moment they stray off course. :rolleyes:

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by BigBadBrian
Let's go ahead and assign an F-15 or F-16 to every aircraft and blow them out of the sky the moment they stray off course. :rolleyes:

That wasn't the answer and you know it. There should have been more of an investigative imperative put on this stuff, from the top. Tell me they were unaware of this shit at the executive level! The signs were there, and "Homeland Security" does nothing to rectify this.

I wonder what other facts will be declassified?

[Sgt Schultz]

The Federal Aviation Administration warned the nation's airports and airlines in late 1998 about a possible terrorist hijacking 'at a metropolitan airport in the Eastern United States' and urged a 'high degree of vigilance' against threats to US civil aviation from Osama bin Laden's terrorist network," the Globe revealed in May 2002.

New documents, the paper said, "appear to show that US intelligence agencies communicated to the FAA specific concerns about threats, including hijackings, to domestic airliners dating back to the Clinton administration."

One FAA official cited by the Globe acknowledged privately that a warning involving a "metropolitan airport" in the Eastern United States effectively applied to fewer than 20 airfields.

Two out of three of the 1998 FAA circulars obtained by the Globe specifically warned about hijacking plans by Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

In an Oct. 8, 1998 advisory, airports and airlines were instructed to maintain a "high degree of alertness" based on statements made by bin Laden and other Islamic leaders. It also cited intelligence gathered in the wake of President Clinton's cruise missile attacks against suspected Al Qaida bases in Afghanistan and Sudan.

Bin Laden, the circular states, had praised Ramzi Yousef, who was arrested in a failed 1995 plot to blow up airliners over the Pacific, which later became the blueprint for the 9/11 attacks.

The Clinton-era circular warned that "militants had been mobilized to strike a significant US or Israeli target, to include bringing down or hijacking aircraft."

The document also noted that "one of the incarcerated suspects in the bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi that he received aircraft hijack training . . . The arrest and pending extradition of bin Laden cadre raises the possibility of a US airliner being hijacked in an effort to demand the release of incarcerated members."

An advisory issued two months later was equally specific, warning: "The FAA has received information that unidentified individuals, who are associated with a terrorist organization, may be planning a hijacking at a metropolitan airport in the Eastern United States."

The third FAA advisory obtained by the Globe, issued Dec. 29, 1998, warned airline and airport security officials to "remain vigilant," based on statements made by bin Laden following the Aug. 1998 cruise missile attacks.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Sgt Schultz
'at a metropolitan airport in the Eastern United States' and urged a 'high degree of vigilance' against threats to US civil aviation from Osama bin Laden's terrorist network," the Globe revealed in May 2002.

New documents, the paper said, "appear to show that US intelligence agencies communicated to the FAA specific concerns about threats, including hijackings, to domestic airliners dating back to the Clinton administration."

One FAA official cited by the Globe acknowledged privately that a warning involving a "metropolitan airport" in the Eastern United States effectively applied to fewer than 20 airfields.

Two out of three of the 1998 FAA circulars obtained by the Globe specifically warned about hijacking plans by Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

In an Oct. 8, 1998 advisory, airports and airlines were instructed to maintain a "high degree of alertness" based on statements made by bin Laden and other Islamic leaders. It also cited intelligence gathered in the wake of President Clinton's cruise missile attacks against suspected Al Qaida bases in Afghanistan and Sudan.

Bin Laden, the circular states, had praised Ramzi Yousef, who was arrested in a failed 1995 plot to blow up airliners over the Pacific, which later became the blueprint for the 9/11 attacks.

The Clinton-era circular warned that "militants had been mobilized to strike a significant US or Israeli target, to include bringing down or hijacking aircraft."

The document also noted that "one of the incarcerated suspects in the bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi that he received aircraft hijack training . . . The arrest and pending extradition of bin Laden cadre raises the possibility of a US airliner being hijacked in an effort to demand the release of incarcerated members."

An advisory issued two months later was equally specific, warning: "The FAA has received information that unidentified individuals, who are associated with a terrorist organization, may be planning a hijacking at a metropolitan airport in the Eastern United States."

The third FAA advisory obtained by the Globe, issued Dec. 29, 1998, warned airline and airport security officials to "remain vigilant," based on statements made by bin Laden following the Aug. 1998 cruise missile attacks.

Another high-ranking Massport official, however, said FAA information circulars routinely prompted word to go out to the 80 State Police officers and other security personnel at the airport to be extra vigilant, and sometimes officials restrict access past security checkpoints to ticketed travelers and ban curbside parking.

''The information circulars mattered, but the critical thing was whether the FAA followed up with an order to do something specific,'' the official said.

It was unclear whether the warnings were ever forwarded to the three major private security companies hired by the airlines to conduct passenger screening.

Officials at Argenbright Security in Atlanta and Huntleigh Corp. in St. Louis did not return telephone calls seeking comment, but a representative of Irving, Texas-based Globe Aviation Services, speaking on condition of anonymity, said last week that a check of the company's files turned up no evidence that the company had received the 1998 circulars.

According to last week's FAA summary, the 2001 circulars warn of the possibility of danger to US aircraft and citizens overseas due to general tensions in the Middle East, described a plot to bomb a baggage claim area at Los Angeles International Airport, warned about new techniques for smuggling weapons aboard aircraft and how one particular unnamed ''weapons system'' might be used against US aircraft, and alerted airlines about recent bombings in Spain by the Basque separatist group ETA.

Sean Murphy of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.Link (http://prisonplanet.com/Bulletins_warned_airports_in_98.htm)

[i]Nice right-wing cut -n- paste job Schultz, can never resist covering up for your beloved Dubya and his band of merry incompetents, can you?
http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/images_tv/hogans.jpg

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Sgt Schultz
'at a metropolitan airport in the Eastern United States' and urged a 'high degree of vigilance' against threats to US civil aviation from Osama bin Laden's terrorist network," the Globe revealed in May 2002.

New documents, the paper said, "appear to show that US intelligence agencies communicated to the FAA specific concerns about threats, including hijackings, to domestic airliners dating back to the Clinton administration."

One FAA official cited by the Globe acknowledged privately that a warning involving a "metropolitan airport" in the Eastern United States effectively applied to fewer than 20 airfields.

Two out of three of the 1998 FAA circulars obtained by the Globe specifically warned about hijacking plans by Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

In an Oct. 8, 1998 advisory, airports and airlines were instructed to maintain a "high degree of alertness" based on statements made by bin Laden and other Islamic leaders. It also cited intelligence gathered in the wake of President Clinton's cruise missile attacks against suspected Al Qaida bases in Afghanistan and Sudan.

Bin Laden, the circular states, had praised Ramzi Yousef, who was arrested in a failed 1995 plot to blow up airliners over the Pacific, which later became the blueprint for the 9/11 attacks.

The Clinton-era circular warned that "militants had been mobilized to strike a significant US or Israeli target, to include bringing down or hijacking aircraft."

The document also noted that "one of the incarcerated suspects in the bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi that he received aircraft hijack training . . . The arrest and pending extradition of bin Laden cadre raises the possibility of a US airliner being hijacked in an effort to demand the release of incarcerated members."

An advisory issued two months later was equally specific, warning: "The FAA has received information that unidentified individuals, who are associated with a terrorist organization, may be planning a hijacking at a metropolitan airport in the Eastern United States."

The third FAA advisory obtained by the Globe, issued Dec. 29, 1998, warned airline and airport security officials to "remain vigilant," based on statements made by bin Laden following the Aug. 1998 cruise missile attacks...

...Another high-ranking Massport official, however, said FAA information circulars routinely prompted word to go out to the 80 State Police officers and other security personnel at the airport to be extra vigilant, and sometimes officials restrict access past security checkpoints to ticketed travelers and ban curbside parking.

''The information circulars mattered, but the critical thing was whether the FAA followed up with an order to do something specific,'' the official said.

It was unclear whether the warnings were ever forwarded to the three major private security companies hired by the airlines to conduct passenger screening.

Officials at Argenbright Security in Atlanta and Huntleigh Corp. in St. Louis did not return telephone calls seeking comment, but a representative of Irving, Texas-based Globe Aviation Services, speaking on condition of anonymity, said last week that a check of the company's files turned up no evidence that the company had received the 1998 circulars.

According to last week's FAA summary, the 2001 circulars warn of the possibility of danger to US aircraft and citizens overseas due to general tensions in the Middle East, described a plot to bomb a baggage claim area at Los Angeles International Airport, warned about new techniques for smuggling weapons aboard aircraft and how one particular unnamed ''weapons system'' might be used against US aircraft, and alerted airlines about recent bombings in Spain by the Basque separatist group ETA.

Sean Murphy of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.Link (http://prisonplanet.com/Bulletins_warned_airports_in_98.htm)

Nice right-wing cut -n- paste job Schultz, can never resist covering up for your beloved Dubya and his band of merry incompetents, can you?
http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/images_tv/hogans.jpg

[Sgt Schultz]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
...Another high-ranking Massport official, however, said FAA information circulars routinely prompted word to go out to the 80 State Police officers and other security personnel at the airport to be extra vigilant, and sometimes officials restrict access past security checkpoints to ticketed travelers and ban curbside parking.

''The information circulars mattered, but the critical thing was whether the FAA followed up with an order to do something specific,'' the official said.

It was unclear whether the warnings were ever forwarded to the three major private security companies hired by the airlines to conduct passenger screening.

Officials at Argenbright Security in Atlanta and Huntleigh Corp. in St. Louis did not return telephone calls seeking comment, but a representative of Irving, Texas-based Globe Aviation Services, speaking on condition of anonymity, said last week that a check of the company's files turned up no evidence that the company had received the 1998 circulars.

According to last week's FAA summary, the 2001 circulars warn of the possibility of danger to US aircraft and citizens overseas due to general tensions in the Middle East, described a plot to bomb a baggage claim area at Los Angeles International Airport, warned about new techniques for smuggling weapons aboard aircraft and how one particular unnamed ''weapons system'' might be used against US aircraft, and alerted airlines about recent bombings in Spain by the Basque separatist group ETA.

Sean Murphy of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.Link (http://prisonplanet.com/Bulletins_warned_airports_in_98.htm)

Nice right-wing cut -n- paste job Schultz, can never resist covering up for your beloved Dubya and his band of merry incompetents, can you?
http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/images_tv/hogans.jpg

Hey that's a cool pic of Hogan and Schultz.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Sgt Schultz
Hey that's a cool pic of Hogan and Schultz.

I'm thinkin' avatar of Col. Hogan next week!

[ODShowtime]

I liked the hamburgler

[Nickdfresh]

Bump! Whose fault is it again?

[steve]

There is no doubt whatsoever that the Bush administration didn't heed warnings from the previous one about the danger of Al Queda. It's chronicled in Bob Woodward's book how dismissive Rumsfeld was to Cohen regarding Al Queda, even when Cohen told him it was America's gravest danger.

That said, even IF the Bush administration had tried to change airline security before 9/11...SOCIETY would not have let them.

Even IF the Bush administraion had focused our military on invading Afghanistan...NO ONE IN AMERICA would have let them do it.

Simply put...there was ZERO political mandate to do anything to confront terrorism and Al Queda(aka: Islamic extremism) in this country before 9/11.

Now...THAT said...it IS disturbing that the Bush administration was so dismissive of a decade's worth of analysis on Al Queda just because they feared aligning themselves with anything regarding Clitnon/Def Sec. Cohen and his staff.
And it is precisely why I have very little confidence in this administration to protect US citizens from Islamic extremism/Al Queda.

[Nickdfresh]

Bump!