Newly released portions of September 11 Commission report reveal shortcomings

Airline Industry Information, Sept 14, 2005

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was warned about a threat from al-Qaida as early as 1998, according to a report prepared last year.

The previously secret parts of the report prepared by the September 11 Commission reportedly state that al-Qaida could "seek to hijack a commercial jet and slam it into a US landmark". Additionally, officials were aware months before the attacks in 2001 that two of the three airports that were used in the hijackings had suffered security lapses, the online edition of the Houston Chronicle reports.

The report apparently also states that FAA officials were warned in 2001 that the ability of airport screeners to detect possible weapons had "declined significantly" in recent years. Despite this, not much was done to rectify the problem, according to the commission.

There has been a conflict over the release of information on the failures of the aviation sector for more than a year, particularly on the part of the White House and many members of the commission. Although a heavily edited version was released in January this year, commission members pointed out that deleted material included information that was critical to the public's understanding of the things that went wrong on 11 September 2001.

The administration prepared a new public version of the report, posted yesterday (13 September) on the National Archives website, and although this version too has deleted many references to specific failures and shortcomings in aviation security, there are other restored portions that were previously not included as they were considered too secret for public release.

((Comments on this story may be sent to aii.feedback@m2.com))