F.A.A. Alerted on Qaeda in '98, 9/11 Panel Said - [update to] heavily redacted [blacked out]version was released by the Bush administration in January

F.A.A. Alerted on Qaeda in '98, 9/11 Panel Said - New York Times: "By ERIC LICHTBLAU | Published: September 14, 2005

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 - American aviation officials were warned as early as 1998 that Al Qaeda could 'seek to hijack a commercial jet and slam it into a U.S. landmark,' according to previously secret portions of a report prepared last year by the Sept. 11 commission. The officials also realized months before the Sept. 11 attacks that two of the three airports used in the hijackings had suffered repeated security lapses.
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A heavily redacted version was released by the Bush administration in January, but commission members complained that the deleted material contained information critical to the public's understanding of what went wrong on Sept. 11. In response, the administration prepared a new public version of the report, which was posted Tuesday on the National Archives Web site.

While the new version still blacks out numerous references to particular shortcomings in aviation security, it restores dozens of other portions of the report that the administration had considered too sensitive for public release.

The newly disclosed material follows the basic outline of what was already known about aviation failings, namely that the F.A.A. had ample reason to suspect that Al Qaeda might try to hijack a plane yet did little to deter it. But it also adds significant details about the nature and specificity of aviation warnings over the years, security lapses by the government and the airlines, and turf battles between federal agencies. ...