‘Global hints of threat came before Sept 11’

Clues filtering in from around the world since at least 1994 foreshadowed Osama bin Laden’s plans to attack the US, and intelligence information from Italy, Israel and elsewhere before September 11 warned that a terrorist strike might be imminent.

The White House acknowledged on Thursday that President Bush was briefed by the CIA on August 6 about an al Qaida hijacking threat. An earlier report by the Phoenix field office of the FBI that may never have reached the president’s desk warned that many Middle Eastern men were training at at least one US flight school.