While at a news conference with Attorney General John Ashcroft on September 14, 2001, FBI Director Robert Mueller said, regarding the hijackers: ” ‘The fact that there were a number of individuals that happened to have received training at flight schools here is news, quite obviously. If we had understood that to be the case, we would have–perhaps one could have averted this.’ ”
– Courtesy eMediaMillWorks, “Text: FBI Director Mueller, Attorney General Ashcroft,” The Washington Post, Sep. 14, 2001