Seeking Proof Their Actions Were Reasonable In Face Of
Threat
Seven US airlines --
all facing lawsuits stemming from their alleged failure to take
steps to prevent the September 11, 2001 hijackings -- filed
complaints Tuesday with a US court, seeking testimony from FBI and
CIA agents in an attempt to show the government... and not the
airlines... should have done more to prevent the attacks.
Reuters reports the issue is one of 'who knew what, and when.'
The airlines are seeking testimony from two members of the Central
Intelligence Agency unit tasked with investigating Osama bin
Laden... and five FBI agents, some retired, who investigated al
Qaeda.
The carriers hope to show the government is culpable in failing
to prevent 9/11, and that airline security of the time was simply
working off the best information available. The complaints assert
the FBI and CIA had "far more intelligence information concerning
the terrorist threat" than the airlines, and knew two of the
suspected hijackers -- Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi -- were
in the United States, yet did nothing to restrict their travel.
Relatives of some 9/11 victims have filed personal injury and
wrongful death lawsuits against American Airlines, United, US
Airways, Delta Air Lines, Continental, AirTran, and Colgan Air --
which the two 9/11 conspirators traveled on. The relatives have
also sued Boeing, and are seeking reparatios from the Massachusetts
Port Authority, and the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority,
as well as a number of security companies.
By going after the
agents' testimony, the airlines hope to show "the inability of the
federal agencies to detect and stop the plot is a more significant
causal circumstance of the terrorist attacks than any allegedly
negligent conduct of the aviation parties." Both agencies have
refused to allow their agents to be questioned, outside of public
statements already given on their intelligence knowledge.
When asked to comment on the matter by Reuters, both FBI special
agent Richard Kolko and CIA spokesman George Little said they
wouldn't comment on ongoing litigation.
Forty-one cases are pending against the airlines, and six of
those are due to go to trial September 4. The plantiffs suing the
airlines declined to take part in the special victim's compensation
fund set up by Congress, which distributed $5.99 billion to 2,880
families of deceased victims.