New Jersey: Relatives of Flight 93 victims to hear cockpit recordings

Relatives of the 40 passengers and crew killed aboard United Flight 93 will be allowed to listen to the recordings of what went on in the cockpit Sept. 11 when some passengers apparently rushed the hijackers, the FBI says.

The highly unusual decision was approved by FBI Director Robert Mueller, according to an FBI official speaking on condition of anonymity Monday.

The jetliner crashed near Shanksville, Pa., after some passengers apparently fought back with the cry, “Let’s roll!”

The FBI official said that families of the crash victims will be allowed to listen to the audio recordings in a single, private session on April 18 in Princeton.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates aviation accidents, has never allowed relatives to listen to cockpit tapes, spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said.

Under federal law, the safety board cannot release the tapes and can only give out transcripts during a public hearing or when a majority of factual reports on the crash are completed, Lopatkiewicz said.

Afghanistan: Peacekeepers under threat for booby-trapped vehicles

Suspected al-Qaida and Taliban fighters planned to kill international peacekeepers by setting off car bombs in Afghanistan’s capital, authorities said Monday.

Six cars were rigged with booby-traps to be detonated near peacekeeper security patrols, according to Flight Lt. Tony Marshall, a spokesman for the security force.

The vehicles were placed under surveillance, but no arrests have been made, he said.

However, the international security force chose to make the plot public after a French captain revealed details of it to French journalists, officials said.

Although Kabul has been relatively quiet for months, Western and Afghan authorities have been concerned about the possibility that al-Qaida and Taliban holdouts would try to infiltrate the city and stage attacks against the 4,500-member peacekeeping force.

The reports of fresh threats come just days after Afghanistan’s former king last week delayed his scheduled return home for the first time since his 1973 ouster, citing security concerns.

Atlanta: Health conference focuses on bioterrorism threats

Hundreds of health officials descended this week on Atlanta for an annual conference on emerging infectious diseases and were warned that terrorists might try to spread deadly germs through the food supply.

Terrorists could try to make the biological attack even more dangerous by taking down critical communications systems, according to experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The national system was overwhelmed” by the anthrax scare last fall, said Dr. James Hughes, chief of infectious diseases at the Atlanta-based CDC.

“Clearly we learned that we were not adequately prepared. This was a small attack.”

The conference agenda, usually filled with sessions on obscure diseases and small outbreaks, is dominated this year by information on anthrax and smallpox  considered among the most dangerous terrorist agents.