feds were warned, but asleep

[Khoder bin Hakkin]

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1576/913687.html
	
Published Dec 21 2001

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When a Twin Cities flight instructor phoned the
FBI last August to alert the agency that a terrorist might be taking
lessons to
fly a jumbo jet, he did it in a dramatic way:

"Do you realize how serious this is?" the instructor asked an FBI agent. "This
man wants training on a 747. A 747 fully loaded with fuel could be used as a
weapon!"

The aviation student he was talking about was Zacarias
Moussaoui, who was arrested the following day and last
week was charged in a federal indictment with
conspiring with Osama bin Laden and others to carry
out the Sept. 11 attacks.

New details of how Moussaoui raised suspicions at the
Pan Am International Flight Academy in Eagan -- and
the company's eerily prescient tip -- are emerging from
the briefings the school recently gave to congressional
offices. 

The still-unidentified flight instructor became wary of Moussaoui immediately,
according to Minnesota Rep. Jim Oberstar and others with direct knowledge
of the briefings.

Moussaoui first raised eyebrows when, during a simple introductory
exchange, he said he was from France, but then didn't seem to understand
when the instructor spoke French to him. 

                 Moussaoui then became belligerent and evasive about his
background,
                 Oberstar and other sources said. In addition, he seemed
inept in basic flying
                 procedures, while seeking expensive training on an
advanced commercial jet
                 simulator. 

                 Besides alerting the FBI about Moussaoui, the school's
Phoenix office called
                 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) early this year
about another
                 student -- Hani Hanjour, who was believed to be the pilot
of the plane that
                 flew into the Pentagon on Sept. 11. The school had raised
questions about
                 Hanjour's limited ability to speak English, the universal
language of aviation.

                 An FAA representative sat in on a class to observe
Hanjour, who was from
                 Saudi Arabia, and discussed with school officials finding
an Arabic-speaking
                 person to help him with his English, said Oberstar and
others with direct
                 knowledge of the school's briefings. 

                 Oberstar and Minnesota Rep. Martin Sabo, who also was
briefed by the
                 school, praised Pan Am for its efforts to safeguard the
skies and for passing
                 federal authorities clues to possible terrorist activities
before Sept. 11.

                 They said that, with the benefit of hindsight, it appears
that the FBI and the
                 FAA could have responded more vigorously.

                 "From what I've heard, the school was clearly more alert
than federal
                 officials," Sabo said.

-----
Whose more incompetent, the politicos who made
us such enemies or the feds who can't protect
against them?