9/11: release of FAA report confirms whistle-blower charges.(Insider Report)(Federal Aviation Administration)(Bogdan Dzakovic)

A previously undisclosed report of the 9/11 Commission shows that in the months prior to September 11,2001 terrorist attacks, Federal Aviation Administration officials reviewed dozens of intelligence reports concerning Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, some of which specifically discussed airline hijackings and suicide operations. Release of the report had been blocked for five months by the Bush administration, angering some of the commission members, who had urged that the information be made public. The declassified report that was released on February 9 has many references blacked out, and commission members are urging that the administration release the full report.

Among other things, the report says that leaders of the FAA received 52 intelligence reports from their security branch that mentioned bin Laden or al-Qaeda from April to September 10, 2001. That represented half of all the intelligence summaries in that time. Five of the intelligence reports specifically mentioned al-Qaeda's training or capability to conduct hijackings, the report said.

The declassified report reinforces the claims of FAA whistle blower Bogdan Dzakovic, who testified before the 9/11 Commission concerning the FAA's stubborn refusal to implement security reforms, even in the face of repeated warnings. (Mr. Dzakovic was the principal subject of our October 18, 2004 article, "Unfriendly Skies.") At the time of the 9/11 attacks, Dzakovic was a 14-year veteran of the Security Division of the FAA. Since 1995, he had served as a Team Leader of the FAA's elite Red Team, which conducted undercover tests on airport security through simulated terrorist attacks.