[Reformatted] feds were warned, but asleep

[Anonymous]

hakkin at sarin.com (Khoder bin Hakkin) writes:

> 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?