So if the FAA was warned as I would assume they were when Ari Fleischer says the 'proper agencies were notified', why didn't they beef up security at the airports? Were the airports/airlines warned as well? Why was nothing done? Even if they didn't have specific details of the terrorist's intention, shouldn't they have at least been on some kind of alert? Seems to me as though security was pretty lax prior to 9/11.

President Gave Terror Attack Warning

May 16, 2002

America's security agencies were warned last summer by President George Bush that attacks on US passenger aircraft were being planned.

A White House spokesman has revealed that intelligence reports, indicating that terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden was preparing to hijack planes, were brought to the attention of the president.

Ari Fleischer confirmed that the information was then notified to "the appropriate agencies." He said the information received by the president dealt with conventional hijackings, not the use of planes to attack buildings like the World Trade Center and The Pentagon.

"We had general threats involving Osama Bin Laden around the world and including in the United States," he said.

A shake-up in the FBI is planned after US intelligence agencies were heavily criticized for their role in the September suicide attacks on New York and Washington which are believed to have been carried out by followers of Bin Laden.

http://news.airwise.com/stories/2002/05/1021547499.html

Here are the answers:

US warned airlines about possible hijackings

By John Crawley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. airlines were warned by the Bush administration about general threats of hijackings in the months before the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, according to the White House.

"Domestically, through normal security channels, the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration were made aware of general information that, while mentioning hijackings, did not include specific and detailed warnings," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said on Thursday.

He told reporters the information was passed on to carriers through a series of briefings and notifications.

http://www2.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&eid=1155042