Bush told in August of specific threat to US

The "smoking gun" briefing received by President George Bush just a month before 11 September carried the heading, "Bin Laden determined to strike in the US", and focused on al-Qa'ida's ability to strike within the US mainland, it was revealed yesterday.

Despite White House claims that the briefing document related primarily to the threat of an attack on a US target overseas, the document also made very clear Mr bin Laden's desire "to bring the fight to America". It also emerged yesterday that the FBI had been aware for several years that al-Qa'ida was using US flying schools to train its pilots and, as early as 1996, it was told of a specific threat to use a plane in a suicide attack against the CIA's headquarters.

The latest revelations could prove very damaging to Mr Bush, who has insisted that, had he known al-Qa'ida was planning such an attack, he "would have done everything in [his] power to protect the American people". Earlier last week, Mr Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, told reporters that the information given to the President was not specific.
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