FBI Agent Warned of Arabs’ Training

The summer before the Sept. 11 attacks, the FBI in Arizona alerted Washington that several Arabs were suspiciously training at a U.S. aviation school and urged that agents nationwide contact other schools where Middle Easterners might be studying.

The FBI sent the intelligence in July 2001 to its terrorism experts for analysis and was considering a nationwide canvass of flight schools when the suicide hijackers struck, officials told Associated Press.

The bureau had not yet alerted other federal agencies, such as those that handle pilot licenses or immigration visas, although its Phoenix office recommended sharing the information, officials concede.

“FBIHQ should discuss this matter with other elements of the U.S. intelligence community and task the community for any information that supports Phoenix’s suspicions,” an Arizona counterterrorism agent recommended in a July 2001 memo to FBI headquarters that was obtained by Associated Press.

At least one leader of the 19 hijackers, Hani Hanjour, received flight training in Arizona, but his name had not surfaced with the Arizona FBI memo, officials said.

None of the information in the Arizona memo pointed to the suicide plot that leveled the World Trade Center and killed thousands in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, officials said.

“None of the people identified by Phoenix are connected to the Sept.11 attacks,” said FBI Assistant Director John Collingwood.

“The Phoenix communication went to appropriate operational agents and analysts, but it did not lead to uncovering the impending attacks.”

Officials said FBI counterterrorism agents in Phoenix were suspicious about several Arab men seeking airport operations, security information and pilot training.

The Arizona agent who wrote the memo recommended that the FBI compile a list of flight schools nationwide, instruct local field offices to make “appropriate liaison” with the schools and begin alerting local offices when Middle Eastern nationals sought new visas for flight training at local aviation schools.

“FBIHQ should consider seeking the necessary authority to obtain visa information from the USDOS [State Department] on individuals obtaining visas to attend these types of schools and notify the appropriate FBI field office when these individuals are scheduled to arrive in their area of responsibility,” the memo said.