FBI agent warned of possible hijacking before September 11

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2006

ALEXANDRIA, United States (AFP) — An FBI agent said his bosses repeatedly disregarded warnings that September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui was a "very dangerous" terrorist who could hijack an airliner.

Agent Harry Samit testified at the French Al-Qaeda acolyte's death penalty trial that he became "desperate" after "criminally negligent" superiors blocked his probe into what he thought was a wider plot.

The admissions, extracted under cross-examination by lawyers for Moussaoui, came as the case resumed after a week in peril of being thrown out by the judge over a witness-coaching scandal.

"You needed people in Washington to help you out?" defense counsel Edward MacMahon asked Samit, who arrested Moussaoui after he attracted suspicion at a flight school,...