The Phoenix Memo is a letter sent to

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

headquarters on July 10, 2001, by FBI Special Agent Kenneth Williams, recommending assembling a worldwide listing of civil aviation schools. Williams, then stationed in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

, was investigating students at some of these schools for possible

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

links.

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The memo states that its purpose is to:

Advise the Bureau and New York of the possibility of a coordinated effort by
Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...
to send students to the United States to attend civil aviation universities and colleges. Phoenix has observed an inordinate number of individuals of investigative interest who are attending or who have attended civil aviation universities and colleges in the State of Arizona.

The recommendations outlined by Williams were ignored or put aside because of other concerns. At least one dozen FBI officials, including John P. O'Neill, saw the memo. Still, it was never passed to acting director Thomas J. Pickard, his successor

Robert Mueller Robert Swan Mueller III (; born August 7, 1944) is an American lawyer who served as the sixth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013. A graduate of Princeton University and New York University, Mueller served a ...

, or the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

. In addition, the memo's existence was not made known to President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

and his senior national security staff until May 2002. Mueller told the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...

in an emotional hearing in May 2002 that the FBI's failure to act on the memo resulted from deficits in its analytical capabilities.

Coleen Rowley (2002)

The memo became the subject of another communiqué in June 2002, when FBI Agent

Coleen Rowley Coleen Rowley (born December 20, 1954) is an American former FBI special agent and whistleblower. Rowley is well known for testifying as to concerns regarding the FBI ignoring information of a suspected terrorist during 9/11, which led to a two- ...

took advantage of the federal Whistleblower Protection Act provisions to inform FBI Director

that his public statements about lack of "advance knowledge" by the bureau had no basis. In her memo, Rowley wrote about the alleged suppression of the investigation concerning

Zacarias Moussaoui Zacarias Moussaoui (, '; born 30 May 1968) is a French member of al-Qaeda who pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court to conspiring to kill citizens of the United States as part of the 9/11 attacks. He is serving life imprisonment without the ...

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Coleen Rowley (2002)

See also

References

Further reading