Agent warned FBI about Moussaoui, hijack plan

0 Comments | USA TODAY, March, 2006 | by Kevin Johnson

ALEXANDRIA, Va.--The FBI agent who arrested confessed al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui testified Monday that three weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the agent warned his supervisors that Moussaoui likely was part of a plot to take over a commercial jet using small knives to subdue the crew.

The testimony by Special Agent Harry Samit in Moussaoui's sentencing trial shed new light on how the U.S. government failed to seize upon a range of clues that suggested the 9/11 plot was unfolding.

Samit said Monday that he wrote at least 70 pages of memos during the three weeks before the attacks expressing concern that Moussaoui was involved in a hijacking plot, but the Minnesota-based agent said his superiors never acted on the repeated warnings.

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