# France Warned US of Hijacking Plot BEFORE 9/11 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 16, 2007, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-warned-us-of-hijacking-plot-before-9-11/400362 "2007-04-16T17:49:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2007, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-warned-us-of-hijacking-plot-before-9-11/400362/1 "2007-04-16T17:49:27Z")
[They did **not** , however, know of plans to crash planes.](http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/france-told-us-of-alqaeda-plans-report/2007/04/17/1176696771679.html) > [@](#): > > French intelligence warned their American counterparts, eight months before the September 11, 2001 attacks, that Al-Qaeda planned to hijack a US-bound plane, the Le Monde newspaper reported yesterday. > > Details of the plot by Osama bin Laden’s group was passed to the Central Intelligence Agency’s Paris bureau, the newspaper said. So it goes. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2007, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-warned-us-of-hijacking-plot-before-9-11/400362/2 "2007-04-16T20:26:01Z")
> [@](#): > > The plan was to hijack a plane flying to the United States from Frankfurt in Germany and take it to Kandahar in Afghanistan, according to a file compiled by the DGSE external intelligence service and seen by AFP. That’s not what ended up happening at all. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2007, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-warned-us-of-hijacking-plot-before-9-11/400362/3 "2007-04-16T21:39:34Z")
No, it’s not, but it certainly indicates that airport security should have been beefed up once the French informed the CIA. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2007, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-warned-us-of-hijacking-plot-before-9-11/400362/4 "2007-04-16T21:43:37Z")
OK, I understand tha many mistakes were made prior to 9-11, but a terrorist threat about a plane that was to be hijacked in Germany and flown to Afghanistan probably did not warrant a noticable increase in airport security in the states. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2007, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-warned-us-of-hijacking-plot-before-9-11/400362/5 "2007-04-16T21:54:33Z")
Actually, it does. There were a _number_ of plots to hijack planes unearthed, including one to fly planes into buildings in France, so we _knew_ that AQ was looking at that pretty closely. We also _knew_ in the months leading up to 9/11 that AQ was planning _something_ in the US. Put those two facts together, and it’s prudent to beef the security up at airports. Whether the efforts made would have been enough to stop 9/11 is another matter entirely, and impossible to answer. ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2007, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-warned-us-of-hijacking-plot-before-9-11/400362/6 "2007-04-16T22:01:20Z")
This an interesting “FRONTLINE” episode: [“The Man Who Knew”](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/view/) ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2007, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-warned-us-of-hijacking-plot-before-9-11/400362/7 "2007-04-16T23:36:54Z")
This was an interesting Discovery Channel program: “The Man Who Predicted 9/11” [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482544/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482544/) It’s about Rick Rescorla, the director of security of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in 1993 when first Trade Center bombing occurred. At that time he and an old friend concluded that the people responsible for the bombing had been trying to topple the towers. They figured that they’d be back to finish the job and the next attack would be from the air. On 9/11 Rescorla died evacuating some people. President Clinton has admitted turning down more than one convenient opportunity to get Bin Laden. > [@Tuckerfan](#): > > Put those two facts together, and it’s prudent to beef the security up at airports. People complain bitterly about security now, **after** 9/11. **Before** 9/11, how many people would have considered it prudent? > [@](#): > > Whether the efforts made would have been enough to stop 9/11 is another matter entirely, and impossible to answer. As you bring up more reports which are obvious only with 20/20 hindsight, why not apply the same perspective to such hypothetical efforts? It wouldn’t be because a Democrat was president for most of the time between the two Trade Center attacks, would it? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2007, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-warned-us-of-hijacking-plot-before-9-11/400362/8 "2007-04-16T23:55:48Z")
[QUOTE=rowrrbazzle] People complain bitterly about security now, **after** 9/11. **Before** 9/11, how many people would have considered it prudent? [/quote] People complained about it **before** , witness George Carlin’s rant on _You Are All Diseased_ which came out, IIRC 1999 (It definately predates 9/11 as that was one of the first things I thought of that day.). However, the airports the hijackers departed from were all picked because of the lax security. In **1990** , I went to the Nashville airport to pick my brother up, forgetting I had boxcutters in my back pocket until I got to security. The guards made me throw them away before I could proceed to meet my brother at the gate (according to at least one Doper here, in some countries you _couldn’t_ meet your party at the gate **before** 9/11). > [@](#): > > As you bring up more reports which are obvious only with 20/20 hindsight, why not apply the same perspective to such hypothetical efforts? It wouldn’t be because a Democrat was president for most of the time between the two Trade Center attacks, would it? Uh, no. We _can’t_ say for certain that if stronger measures had been taken it would been effective, since the terrorists could have changed their tactics. The plot reports, however, are an entirely different matter. As you point out, we’d already had one terrorist attack from AQ folks on our soil, and _should_ have increased security then (but didn’t seem to), so when we got word of the hijack plots we _definately_ should have increased security. If you’ll note, nowhere in this thread have I said that _this_ Administration was solely to blame for the attacks on 9/11 occuring.