Bush warned of hijacks before September 11

The failure of American intelligence to prevent the September 11 attacks came back to haunt President Bush yesterday after the White House admitted that the president was warned beforehand of a possible hijacking by terrorists linked to Osama bin Laden.

Congressional critics pounced on the admission and the issue dominated the US news agenda yesterday. "Bush knew" said the headline in the tabloid New York Post. However, the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, insisted that the president was given only the vaguest warning, with no indication of where or when, still less about the nature of the attacks.

"For decades, governments have taken steps about warnings on hijackings," Mr Fleischer said when he came under sustained fire on the subject yesterday at his daily press conference. "Never did we imagine what would take place on September 11, where people used those airplanes as missiles and as weapons."

The warnings appear to have come in two stages. Throughout last summer, the president was told of increasing concern about a terrorist attack on an American target, most probably overseas. The mention of a possible hijack came in at least one of his daily intelligence briefings in August, when Mr Bush was at his Texas ranch.

"All appropriate action was taken based on the threat information that we had," Mr Fleischer said. "The president did not receive information about the use of airplanes as missiles by suicide bombers."

Though the questioning was directed at the White House, the blame was being deflected away from Mr Bush on to the CIA and FBI, the two agencies responsible for assessing terrorist threats. Officials of both can expect a rough ride next month when the House and Senate intelligence committees begin hearings on events leading up to the disasters.

Bob Graham, the Democratic chairman of the Senate committee, has zeroed in on the "Phoenix memo", drafted in July by the FBI's Phoenix office, which mentioned the un usual number of Arab students taking flying lessons in Arizona, and suggested a link to Osama bin Laden. Senator Graham said he wanted to know "why these dots weren't seen and connected". The Phoenix memo reportedly never made it beyond the desk of a mid-level official.

Some critics yesterday also raised a warning from the Philippines government, in 1996, that Middle Eastern pilots were undergoing training to dive-bomb a US public building. The FBI investigated the matter, but dropped it.

Both agencies feel aggrieved that critics understand little of the huge quantity of data they have to sift through: the CIA alone has handed over 15,000 pages of relevant documents to the intelligence committees.

The trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged "20th hijacker", is reportedly in danger of being delayed, or even abandoned, because he has refused to meet the psychiatrist appointed to decide whether he is sane enough to defend himself, as he has demanded.