White house releases secret bin Laden memo

A secret US government memo released early today reveals President George Bush was told more than a month before the September 11 attacks that al-Qaida had reached America’s shores and the FBI had detected suspicious activity that might involve a hijacking plot.

Since 1998, the FBI had observed “patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks”, according to the declassified memo prepared for Bush.