FAA says it cautioned airlines of hijack threat before attacks

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Federal Aviation Administration last summer alerted airlines of the potential threat of al Qaeda hijackings, a government official told CNN Thursday.

The official, who works closely in transportation issues, said the FAA told airlines the situation in the Middle East was tense and terrorists might attack U.S. interests.

The FAA mentioned Osama bin Laden or al Qaeda in alerts the agency sent to domestic airlines. "These people had been trained to do hijacking," said the official, quoting the FAA's message to the airlines.

A spokesman for United Airlines, which had two planes hijacked in September, confirmed the airline had received "alerts or cautions" regarding possible terrorist attacks. But United spokesman Joe Hopkins said they were "always general in nature."

MORE STORIES Government officials, politicians and those touched directly by the September 11 attacks spent spent Thursday assigning blame for what one senator termed their failure to "connect the dots"  in the days leading up to the attacks.

A spokesman for the Air Transport Association, a trade group representing domestic carriers, said he never received FAA warnings mentioning suicide hijackings before the attacks.

"I am not aware of any warnings or notifications in advance of September 11 concerning specific security threats to any of our airlines," spokesman Michael Wascom said Thursday.

In an earlier news briefing, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice outlined several of the FAA alert bulletins: