French intelligence has pieces of 9-11 plot

Jerusalem Post:

A French intelligence service learned as early as January 2001 that al-Qaida was working on a plot to hijack US airliners, and it passed the information on to the CIA, Le Monde reported Monday.

The newspaper said it had obtained 328 pages of classified documents on Osama bin Laden's terror network that were drawn up by the French foreign intelligence service, the DGSE, between July 2000 and October 2001.

The Defense Ministry did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Le Monde reported that the documents included a note dated January 5, 2001, which said al-Qaida had been working on a hijacking plot for months. The intelligence note reported that bin Laden had attended a meeting in Afghanistan in October 2000, where a final decision to carry out the plot was made, the newspaper said.

French intelligence officials apparently had no idea that al-Qaida was plotting to crash hijacked planes into buildings, as what happened in the September 11 attacks.

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This probably explains some of the reasons for the heightened state of alert anc concern prior to the attack. It does present some problems for Rosie O'Donald and other conspiracy buffs who think the government took down the towers. Even bin Laden's confessions are not enough for some people.