US airlines sue for access to 9/11 investigators

08 August 2007

US airlines, airport authorities, security companies and aircraft manufacturers have sued the CIA and the FBI on 7 August, because the agencies have refused to let them officially interview two secret agents, one of whom is the 2001 head of the CIA's special Osama bin Laden unit, as well as six FBI agents who had key information about al-Qaida and bin Laden. They are asking the court to allow them access to information that they say would very likely show that they acted reasonably on the day of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.

The two lawsuits, filed in a US district court in Manhattan, New York, are part of the defence that aviation companies are seeking to build against lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages for deaths, injuries, property damage and business losses related to the 9 / 11 attacks. The potential defendants said they had a right to present evidence to show that the terrorist attacks did not result from negligence, and that there were other causes for them.

They said that the depositions were likely to result in evidence showing the terrorists were sophisticated, ideologically driven and well financed, and would have succeeded regardless of any action taken. "…the inability of the federal intelligence agencies to detect and stop the plot is a more causal circumstance of the terrorist attacks than any allegedly negligent conduct of the aviation parties," the lawsuit against the FBI said.

American Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways, Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines, and the Boeing Company have asked to interview the deputy chief of the CIA's bin Laden unit in 2001 and an FBI special agent assigned to the unit at that time. Both the names are secret. They have also asked to interview five former and current FBI employees who had participated in investigations of al-Qaida and al-Qaida operatives before and after 11 September 2001.

The lawsuits seek to speak to Harry Samit, an FBI agent in the Minneapolis office, who was part of a team that arrested Zacarias Moussaoui in August 2001. They said he had earlier testified that he suggested to his superiors that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) be notified that Moussaoui was involved in a plot to hijack a commercial airliner.

Also on the list is Coleen M Rowley, the former top FBI lawyer in its Minneapolis office, who is said to have sent a scathing letter to FBI Director Robert S Mueller in May 2002, complaining that a supervisor in Washington interfered with the Minnesota investigation of Moussaoui weeks before the 9 / 11 attacks.