Airlines Can't Interview FBI About 9/11: U.S. Judge

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Airlines can't interview FBI about 9/11: U.S. judge

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56F6M120090716

By Grant McCool
7/16/2009

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Aviation companies may not interview six current and former Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who worked on government probes into the September 11, 2001 hijacked plane attacks, a judge ruled on Thursday.

The ruling in extensive litigation following the attacks addressed three wrongful death cases and 19 property damage cases, leaves several issues remaining and set July 28 for the next pretrial conference.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in New York wrote that the aviation defendants, "wish to argue at trial that the terrorists would have succeeded in their plans and caused the damage of which plaintiffs complain regardless of the Aviation Defendants negligence."

They include UAL Corp, US Airways Group Inc, Delta Air Lines Inc, Continental Airlines Inc, AirTran Holdings Inc and Boeing Co.

A lawyer for the aviation companies could not immediately be reached for comment on the ruling.

Another defendant in the overall litigation is The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the lower Manhattan site where the famed World Trade Center twin towers stood and were destroyed in the attacks.

Members of al Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger airliners, crashed two into the twin towers, a third into the Pentagon in Washington and the fourth crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people, including all 19 hijackers, were killed.

"Permitting an inquiry into what fragments of information various government agents knew, or should have known, and at what time, but did not tell the defendants, threatens thoroughly to confuse and prejudice the jury, distract from the major issues of the case, and add to the trial substantial expense and delay," the judge wrote.

He allowed some testimony of two FBI agents from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, who is serving a life sentence for conspiring with the hijackers.

A motion to admit the 9/11 Commission Report, published in 2004 and ordered by Congress, was denied except for a chronology of the report.

The case is In Re September 11 Litigation 21-MC-101, 07-7051 and 08-10646 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan)

[Gold9472]

Judge: Airlines can't question FBI in 9/11 suits

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jzyny8uU1gE1jRpu9KtXN5fPfGngD99FR3D81

By HARRY R. WEBER (AP) – 3 hours ago

ATLANTA — A federal judge ruled Thursday that airlines and other companies in the industry that are being sued by families of terrorism victims can't question FBI agents about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The defendants wanted to depose the agents and sought access to other evidence related to the investigation of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in order to show at trial that the government's failure to catch the terrorists and prevent the attacks mitigates and excuses any alleged fault on the aviation companies' part.

The government objected.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in New York said the defendants have also argued that the terrorists likely would have succeeded even if the defendants had exercised due care.

"The issues to be tried relate to the acts and omissions of the aviation defendants, not the government," Hellerstein wrote in his ruling. "The government's failures to detect and abort the terrorists' plots would not affect the aviation defendants' potential liability."

There was no immediate comment from the defendants or their lawyers. Spokespersons for UAL Corp.'s United Airlines, AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and US Airways Group Inc. declined to comment. Lawyers for several airlines did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Other defendants include Delta Air Lines Inc., Continental Airlines Inc., AirTran Airways, Boeing Co. and several airport authorities and security companies.

The judge said he plans to set a trial date for the lawsuits involving three wrongful death cases and 19 property damage cases on July 28.
Many relatives of victims of the attacks received money from a special national fund established to compensate victims' families, though some relatives chose to sue instead.

The lawsuits claim negligence on the part of the defendants and seek to recover damages for injuries and fatalities, property damage and business loss that occurred as a result of the attacks. According to court papers, the plaintiffs have alleged or have indicated they are likely to allege that the aviation companies should have anticipated that terrorists would hijack planes and crash them into buildings in coordinated suicide attacks, and that the defendants should have put in place security procedures to effectively defend against such attacks.

The government urged the judge to block the aviation companies from interviewing six current and former FBI employees who the companies say would be able to testify as to what intelligence the FBI, CIA, Federal Aviation Administration and airlines had before the attacks regarding the terrorists' plans and capabilities, as well as how the entities shared and exploited the intelligence.

The government argued that it would be impossible to interview the employees without disclosing classified or privileged material that could cause serious damage to national security and interfere with pending law enforcement proceedings.

The largest investigation in FBI history has resulted in 167,000 interviews and more than 155,000 pieces of evidence and involved the pursuit of 500,000 investigative leads, the government noted.

The government said the FBI has turned over more than 33,000 pages of information to the aviation industry lawyers, including more than 10,000 pages of laboratory pictures and related information, witness interviews and descriptions of the hijackers' weapons.

The airlines and aviation companies have said they are defending themselves against lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages for injuries, fatalities, property damage and business losses related to the attacks.

The companies filed separate lawsuits against the CIA and the FBI seeking to force terrorism investigators to say whether the aviation industry was to blame for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Lawyers for the victims of the attacks have said the FBI should not be forced to provide more information.

In Thursday's ruling, the judge also denied the aviation defendants' motion for an order that the 9/11 commission's report as a whole, a staff monograph and selected staff statements, are relevant to the lawsuits. He said specific portions of the report may be admissible.

As to a motion by the defendants seeking to have testimony given by FBI agents during the trial of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacharias Moussaoui admitted in the lawsuits case, the judge granted the motion only as to the testimony of two agents in which they recount what they learned in their investigations.

"Testimony as to what their superiors did or did not do is not relevant, and is not admissible," the judge wrote.

Moussaoui, a French citizen, is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to helping plan the attacks.