Seeking Proof Their Actions Were Reasonable In Face Of Threat

Seven US airlines -- all facing lawsuits stemming from their alleged failure to take steps to prevent the September 11, 2001 hijackings -- filed complaints Tuesday with a US court, seeking testimony from FBI and CIA agents in an attempt to show the government... and not the airlines... should have done more to prevent the attacks.

Reuters reports the issue is one of 'who knew what, and when.' The airlines are seeking testimony from two members of the Central Intelligence Agency unit tasked with investigating Osama bin Laden... and five FBI agents, some retired, who investigated al Qaeda.

The carriers hope to show the government is culpable in failing to prevent 9/11, and that airline security of the time was simply working off the best information available. The complaints assert the FBI and CIA had "far more intelligence information concerning the terrorist threat" than the airlines, and knew two of the suspected hijackers -- Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi -- were in the United States, yet did nothing to restrict their travel.

Relatives of some 9/11 victims have filed personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits against American Airlines, United, US Airways, Delta Air Lines, Continental, AirTran, and Colgan Air -- which the two 9/11 conspirators traveled on. The relatives have also sued Boeing, and are seeking reparatios from the Massachusetts Port Authority, and the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority, as well as a number of security companies.

By going after the agents' testimony, the airlines hope to show "the inability of the federal agencies to detect and stop the plot is a more significant causal circumstance of the terrorist attacks than any allegedly negligent conduct of the aviation parties." Both agencies have refused to allow their agents to be questioned, outside of public statements already given on their intelligence knowledge.

When asked to comment on the matter by Reuters, both FBI special agent Richard Kolko and CIA spokesman George Little said they wouldn't comment on ongoing litigation.

Forty-one cases are pending against the airlines, and six of those are due to go to trial September 4. The plantiffs suing the airlines declined to take part in the special victim's compensation fund set up by Congress, which distributed $5.99 billion to 2,880 families of deceased victims.

FMI: www.fbi.gov, www.cia.gov