NYT/AP: Official: FAA Didn't Know Moussaoui's Plans

[DeepModem Mom]

Official: FAA Didn't Know Moussaoui's Plans
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 22, 2006

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- A former top security official at the Federal Aviation Administration testified Wednesday that numerous security measures could have been implemented to protect against hijackings had officials known of Zacarias Moussaoui's terrorist plans.

Robert Cammaroto said the FAA could have redeployed federal air marshals, tightened security checkpoints and directed flight crews to resist hijackers if they had known that al-Qaida terrorists were training pilots to take over planes and fly them into buildings.

Cammaroto was responsible for issuing security directives to carriers in 2001 when officials became aware of various threats. Cammaroto was designated by prosecutors as a substitute witness to replace two other government aviation witnesses barred from the trial after they were improperly coached on their testimony by government lawyer Carla Martin....

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Cammaroto testified at Moussaoui's death-penalty trial that security directives could be implemented almost immediately once the FAA learned of a threat and that they could be kept in place indefinitely.

Earlier, a manager at an Arizona flight school that trained one of the Sept. 11 pilot-hijackers testified she called the FAA with concerns over his qualifications for a pilot license, but her concerns were dismissed by an agency official....

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Moussaoui.html


ON EDIT: Link to "Flight instructor warned FAA, breaks down on stand in Moussaoui trial," posted in GD and containing WP article --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x727768