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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Teresa Lo who wrote (1334)	9/13/2001 1:35:22 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 27666

FBI ignored advance warning: Report: FBI Ignored French Warning on Extremist PARIS (Reuters) - The FBI (news - web sites) arrested an Islamic militant in Boston last month and received French intelligence reports linking him to Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) but apparently did not act on them, a French radio station said on Thursday. Europe 1 radio reported that U.S. police arrested a man with dual French and Algerian nationality who had several passports, technical information on Boeing aircraft and flight manuals. The man had been taking flying lessons, it added. Asked for information by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, French security services provided a dossier clearly identifying him as an Islamic militant working with bin Laden. ``He has a pedigree as long as your arm, an investigator said,'' the radio reported. ``He belongs to the Pakistani-Afghan network that trains Osama bin Laden's soldiers.'' Bin Laden, who is Afghan-based, is the prime suspected mastermind behind Tuesday's devastating plane attacks on New York and Washington. Two of the four commercial airliners hijacked in the suicide operation took off from Boston. Many Algerian militants fought against Soviet troops in Afghanistan (news - web sites) in the 1980s and have since used their military background for guerrilla attacks in Algeria, France and other countries, intelligence sources say. French officials could not immediately confirm the Europe 1 report. It said the man, who is in jail but has refused to cooperate with investigators, was a ``soldier without borders'' who had made several trips to potential hotspots around the world in recent months. ``He has the profile of someone who could prepare or lead terrorist operations,'' it said. ``This information was transmitted by French security services to the FBI but apparently got lost in the enormous American police machinery,'' it added. ``The inquiry that might have been able to avoid everything was not started. There was no special alert transmitted to airport authorities in the U.S.,'' it concluded.