12 April 2004	Monday	21 Safar 1425

WASHINGTON, April 11: At least a month before the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, the FBI sent a memo to President Bush warning him that terrorists might hijack planes and carry out terrorist attacks in the United States.

The information was included in a written briefing sent to Mr Bush on Aug 6, 2001, which the White House declassified here on Saturday night in response to a request from the independent commission probing the Sept 11 attacks.

The title of the memo 'Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US,' was alarming enough to make the American president have a closer look at it but somehow he did not pay much attention to the information.

The memo also informed Mr. Bush that the FBI had received enough information about Al Qaeda's activities in the US to have ordered "70 full field investigations."

In May 2001, a caller warned the US Embassy in the UAE that a group of Bin Laden's men was in the US, planning attacks with explosives, Bush was warned. The Aug 6, 2001 memo also cited a report from a foreign intelligence service, saying Bin Laden wanted his followers to "retaliate in Washington" for 1998 US missile attacks on his "base in Afghanistan". The foreign intelligence service was not identified.

The FBI informed Mr Bush that a group of Bin Laden's men were seen surveying federal buildings in New York. The White House initially resisted declaring the contents of the Aug 6 memo, stating that it had little current information on which the president could have acted.

But the memo released Saturday night by the White House showed that President Bush was clearly warned that al-Qaeda was actively preparing for an attack in the United States.

The FBI had picked up "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks," the memo warned. Two White House officials, who briefed reporters about the memo, said they would not divulge Mr Bush's response to the Aug 6, 2001 memo as it was "confidential."

These officials said the memo was "based largely on background information" and there was nothing in the memo to link it to the 9/11 attacks. The declassified memo, however, indicated that the Bush administration knew about widespread Al Qaeda activity in the US and that the group apparently maintained "a support structure that could aid attacks."

The declassified document cites "Bin Laden implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and 'bring the fighting to America'".