F.B.I. Ignored Report of Suspicious Activity By September 11 Hijackers

According to the Financial Times of London's November 30, 2001 edition:

"In August, actor James Woods told the FBI he had observed suspicious activity on American Airlines flight 11. He said he was alone in first class with four men of apparent Middle Eastern descent. The men neither ate nor drank during the six-hour flight, and spoke to each other only in whispers.

"Later that month, [Mohammed] Atta used a Visa card to buy two first class one-way tickets from Portland, Maine to Los Angeles on the American Airlines website. Khalid al-Midhar and Majed Moqued, part of the Washington hijacking group, tried to buy their tickets on-line too. When their card failed to go through, because of a mismatched mailing address on the Visa credit card, they drove to Baltimore-Washington International airport and paid cash for their one-way tickets - without, apparently, raising suspicions among the airline sales staff."

Maybe national security is not the real reason for the secrecy surrounding the investigation of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. Maybe the real reason is to cover up the incompetence of the United States security services. The Financial Times article also states that "Intelligence services monitored his [Mohammed Atta's] movements in Prague, Frankfurt and Cairo over the last two years." This means that the hijackers were already being watched.

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Contact: Joshua Leinsdorf