Key findings

Some findings of the congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks:

No specific information pointed to the Sept. 11 plot, although intelligence agencies had a great deal of information about Osama bin Laden and his terrorist activities. The agencies missed opportunities to disrupt the plot by denying entry or detaining would-be hijackers, two of whom are seen above going through security in Maine on the morning of Sept. 11, and to unravel the plot through surveillance or generating a heightened state of alert.

An FBI informant knew two of the hijackers, but the FBI agent who handled the informant hadn't been told they were suspected terrorists, even though intelligence officials had linked them to al-Qaida in January 2000.

Across the government, inadequate attention was paid to the threat of terrorist attack against the United States.

The military was reluctant to launch attacks on Osama bin Laden, left, in Afghanistan, partly because intelligence on his whereabouts was not specific or of questionable reliability.

A number of reports warned of attacks by al-Qaida in the United States and against aviation. One in December 1998 said "plans to hijack U.S. aircraft proceeding well. Two individuals . . . had successfully evaded checkpoints in a dry run at a NY airport."

Omar al-Bayoumi, who paid many of the expenses of two of the hijackers, "had access to seemingly unlimited funding from Saudi Arabia" and was suspected of being an agent for Saudi Arabia "or another foreign power."

There is some evidence of "foreign support for some of the Sept. 11 hijackers while they were in the United States" but the report doesn't identify the sources.

The FBI estimated the entire Sept. 11 operation cost between $175,000 and $250,000.

To date, no link has been found between the Sept. 11 attacks and the October 2001 anthrax mailings.

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