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Former intelligence officials confirmed to the Associated Press Monday a Le Monde newspaper report that France's foreign intelligent service had heard about an al Qaeda plot which was "likely to involve a US airplane." The French paper also reported that France informed the Central Intelligence Agency prior to the attacks on September 11, 2001, in which nearly 3,000 were killed.

However, it is uncertain whether the intelligence was alluding to the specific plot hatched on 9/11.

The DGSE external intelligence service wrote a total of nine reports between September 2000 and August 2001 on Al-Qaeda threats against the US and passed all of them on to the Central Intelligence Agency's Paris bureau, the French newspaper reported.

Le Monde based its report on 328 pages of classified documents leaked by DGSE sources, showing that Osama bin Laden's network had been infiltrated by foreign agents long before the September 2001 attacks.

In a file dated January 5, 2001, also seen by AFP, the DGSE said it had learned of a plan to hijack a plane bound for the United States from Frankfurt in Germany and take it to Kandahar in Afghanistan.

Le Monde said that file was passed onto the CIA in January of the same year.

"Pierre-Antoine Lorenzi, the former chief of staff for the agency's director at the time, said he remembered the note and that it mentioned only the vague outlines of a hijacking plot — nothing that foreshadowed the scale of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks," the AP reports.

The former French intelligence official told the AP, "It wasn't about a specific airline or a specific day, it was not a precise plot. It was a note that said, 'They are preparing a plot to hijack an airplane, and they have cited several companies.'"

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A 2004 report by the US Congress on the events leading up to September 11 highlighted failures by US intelligence services to gather and share information that might have helped prevent the attacks.

But Le Monde said no mention was made in that report of the information that the DGSE passed on to the CIA in early 2001.

Le Monde said sources close to the DGSE said the agency had as early as 1995 set up a cell to watch bin Laden.

On September 11, 2001, 19 men, mostly Saudi nationals, hijacked four airliners in the United States.

They crashed two of them into the World Trade Center in New York, which caused the centre's twin towers to collapse, and a third into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Defense Department in Washington.

The fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers tried to retake control of the aircraft.

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However, it is uncertain whether the intelligence was alluding to the specific plot hatched on 9/11.

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Madtowntripper said:

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However, it is uncertain whether the intelligence was alluding to the specific plot hatched on 9/11.

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Madtowntripper said:

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However, it is uncertain whether the intelligence was alluding to the specific plot hatched on 9/11.

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zappaisgod said:

French intelligence? Now there's an oxymoron if I ever heard one

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zappaisgod said:

or are we to make reasonable assessments of the threat level

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Viveka said:

Oh well then I just cannot understand why the U.S. did not just stop all international and domestic flights for good, right then and there. How could those bastards ever let a plane into the sky again after receiving intelligence like that?

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You can't just ground all planes instantly when you get an abiguous report on hijacked planes.

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Nephlyte said:

Also we should've arrested all the muslims(arab and non arab) in the country immediately, as they may have something to do with it, maybe.

I'm being sarcastic of course. You can't just ground all planes instantly when you get an abiguous report on hijacked planes. You have to balance freedom and security somewhere.

BTW, this is not a defense for the US gov't (who at least lent a blind eye to 9/11 or at worst were directly responsible for it). I'm just defending this particular statement.

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GabbaDj said:

WARNING AMERICA!


Terrorists want to blow up major landmarks and financial headquarters in the US.































4 years from now people will remember that the Shroomery warned America.

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GabbaDj said:

WARNING AMERICA!


Terrorists want to blow up major landmarks and financial headquarters in the US.

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