US: A US military intelligence team repeatedly tried to contact the FBI in 2000 with warnings about a terrorist cell that included the ringleader of the September 11th attacks, but their efforts were blocked, an army intelligence officer has claimed.information
Lieut Col Anthony Shaffer said Mohammed Atta and three other future hijackers were identified more than a year before the World Trade Centre attacks.
But he said military lawyers cancelled three meetings at the last minute, preventing the unit, known as Able Danger, from sharing the information with the FBI.
"I was at the point of near insubordination over the fact that this was something important, that this was something that should have been pursued," he said,
He was speaking in an interview with Fox News and the New York Times.