On August 15, 2001, an alert civilian instructor at a Minnesota flight school called the FBI and said, "Do you realize that a 747 loaded with fuel can be a bomb?" The next day, Zacarias Moussaoui was arrested. After investigating Zacarias Moussaoui's past, the FBI (with the help of French Intelligence) learned that he had Islamic extremist connections. They also knew that he was interested in flight patterns around New York City, and that he had a strong desire to fly big jets, even though at the time he didn't have so much as a license to fly a Cessna.
And then, what happened?
The FBI office in Minnesota attempted to get a FISA warrant, but they were rebuffed. A crucial mistake, because Zacarias Moussaoui's possessions contained evidence that would have exposed key elements of the September 11 plot.
-joan
Max B. Sawicky wrote:
> I remember the injunction against looking into the computer.
> I don't remember anything about "plans" being on it.
>
> mbs
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-admin at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-admin at lbo-talk.org]On
> Behalf Of joand315
> Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2003 12:46 AM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Dick Morris
>
>
> Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>
>>Dick Morris just said on the Daily Show that the FBI had Moussaoui's
>>computer a month before 9/11, which contained plans for the Pentagon
>>attack, but those dreadful pre-Patriot laws prevented them from looking
>>at it. Does anyone know what he's talking about?
>
>
> The FBI HQ in Washington, if I remember correctly, refused the request
> from the FBI in Minneapolis, to ask for a search warrant from the FISC,
> so that they could look at the computer, because they had just been
> reprimanded by that court for lying to it several times when asking for,
> as it turned out, less important search warrants. Back in those days,
> you remember you had to have a search warrant to look at other people's
> stuff and you weren't supposed to lie about the reason for requesting
> it. Those were the Pre-Patriot days.
> -joan
>
>
>>Doug
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