Scottish Sunday

Britain Warned Bush of Al-Qaeda Hijackings Before 9/11

Britain gave President Bush a categorical warning to expect multiple airline hijackings by the al-Qaeda network a month before the September 11 attacks which killed nearly 3000 people and triggered the international war against terrorism.

The confirmation of repeated British intelligence warnings about al-Qaeda hijackings -- first established by the Scottish Sunday in 1999 -- comes amid claims that the US intelligence community has now received further information of an imminent second wave of terrorist attacks on America.

British Warning Contained in Crucial Briefing

According to US government officials, the British warning of al-Qaeda plans to hijack US airliners was contained in a crucial briefing sent to Bush on August 6, a month before the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

Bush is under severe pressure over accusations that his administration failed to act on intelligence reports before September 11 that highlighted the possibility of hijacked planes being used to attack buildings in the US.

British Intelligence and UK Security Services

The revelation that British sources passed on information about possible hijackings now raises the question of how much the UK security services knew about al-Qaeda plans and what action they took to prevent them.

According to US officials, the warning that bin Laden's followers might hijack planes was based on 1998 intelligence data drawn from a single British source.

String of Alerts from the UK

The British warning is one of a string of alerts that the UK flagged over bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network. In August 1999, British and American airlines went on red alert after intelligence warnings that bin Laden supporters were planning a Lockerbie-style bomb attack in the West.

After the September 11 attacks, it emerged the UK was the nerve center for al-Qaeda operations in the west.

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