5 clues that might have helped stop Sept. 11 attacks

Posted on Mon, Apr. 12, 2004
5 clues that might have helped stop Sept. 11 attacks
By Shannon McCaffrey
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Here are five leads or clues that might have helped the FBI stop al-Qaida terrorists before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks:

-December 1999: Al-Qaida operative Ahmed Ressam is apprehended trying to enter the United States in Washington state with explosives in his car. After being convicted of a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport, he begins to cooperate with interrogators and to provide details about al-Qaida's tactics and desire to strike on U.S. soil.

-May 2001: The FBI investigates a call placed to the U.S. Embassy in the United Arab Emirates warning that supporters of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden are in the United States planning attacks with explosives, according to the newly declassified Aug. 6, 2001, intelligence briefing.

-July 2001: FBI agent Kenneth Williams of the Phoenix field office warns his supervisors that an unusually high number of Middle Easterners are receiving training at U.S. flight schools. He pushes for a national investigation but his recommendation goes nowhere.

-August 2001: The CIA provides the names of suspected al-Qaida operatives Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar, who went on to become two of the 19 hijackers, to the FBI and other government agencies, warning they should be stopped at the border. In fact, they are living openly in San Diego, where a roommate was an FBI informant. The information on the two reaches the FBI's San Diego field office after the attacks.

-August 2001: Zacarias Moussaoui is arrested in Minneapolis on immigration charges after raising suspicions at a flight training school. FBI headquarters denies the field office's request to search Moussaoui's computer.