The report singles out as the intelligence community’s “best chance” to unravel the plot connections that two of the hijackers, Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar, made as they settled in the San Diego area in January 2000. Both men were among the hijackers who flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.
CNN previously reported Alhazmi and Almihdhar, while in San Diego, lived in a house belonging to a man who was an FBI informant but who, sources have said, had no information about the men’s intentions.
But one FBI agent who was responsible for the informant in San Diego told the joint inquiry that he was unaware that intelligence information was available on the two hijackers before September 11.
“It would have made a huge difference,” the agent said. “We would have immediately opened … investigations.”
