9/11 Commission report lists US security failings

It has been revealed by the 9/11 Commission that the Bush Administration had received 52 warnings in daily intelligence summaries about possible terrorist activities in the weeks prior to the September 11 attacks.

In the report made available to the New York Times, between April and September 2001, the FAA had been made aware of potential al-Qaeda terror activities, including five warnings that suspected terrorists were being trained in hijacking techniques and two warnings that included details on suicide operations, though these were not linked to a terrorist operation involving aviation.

The Commission's report, written in August last year, said that FAA officials had a "false sense of security" in that the intelligence warnings had not served to "stimulate increases in security procedures".

This was despite an FAA warning to US airports in early 2001 the report noted that it was not widely held that an attack was planned on a domestic US target, though in hindsight the activities of certain terrorists should have aroused heightened suspicions.

The report highlighted a plethora of security failings and a lack of planning in regard to attack from aircraft on internal US flights in what the report termed the "domestic arena", though the possibility had been considered, threat planning only included incoming aircraft from overseas.

Though fighter aircraft had been scrambled in the Washington airspace, they had no targeting information and had simply been tasked to "ID and tail". This was also a false sense of security as the only viable immediate defence response, a "shootdown authorisation", was not received by NORAD, the military air defence centre, until 28 minutes after United Airlines Flight 93 had crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

The delay in "declassifying" the report, until the US presidential elections were completed, has been criticised by US politicians and by the families of some of those who died in the attacks.

(SP)