An FBI pilot in Oklahoma City warned in May 1998 that "large numbers of Middle Eastern males" were getting flight training in Oklahoma and could be planning terrorist attacks.
The FBI on Wednesday disclosed the existence of a memo on the pilot's concerns.
The one- page memo -- titled "WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION" -- has been turned over to a congressional Joint Intelligence Committee.
The committee is investigating what might have been done to prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The memo is the latest example of possible clues the FBI had before 19 suicidal terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners.
FBI Director Robert Mueller announced Wednesday the law enforcement agency will be reorganized to focus on preventing terrorism.
The memo is dated May 18, 1998. It notes the FBI's chief pilot in Oklahoma City had "advised that he has observed large numbers of Middle Eastern males receiving flight training at Oklahoma airports in recent months."
The pilot, an FBI special agent, "states this is a recent phenomenon and may be related to planned terrorist activity."
The pilot "speculates that light planes would be an ideal means of spreading chemicals or biological agents," according to the memo.
The name of the pilot is blacked out. The FBI said the memo was written by another agent who had talked to the pilot and "went only to his supervisor."
Richard Marquise, the FBI's special agent in charge in Oklahoma City, said the pilot recalled that he based the observation mostly on what he heard on his plane radio.
"He said, 'You could tell. You could tell they were getting flight instruction. It was all over the state.'"
Marquise, who did not take over in Oklahoma City until 1999, said: "This whole issue has to do with all these little dots. How many dots were available before 9/11? If there was a dot in Oklahoma and a dot in Phoenix and a dot someplace else, how come those dots weren't connected?
"I think what the director is trying to say is we need to create a national capability" to share information and connect the dots.
Two of the 19 terrorists visited the Airman Flight School in Norman in July 2000. Terrorism defendant Zacarias Moussaoui took flight lessons there last year.
Marquise said he doesn't know whether it would have done "a whole lot of good" if FBI agents had collected names of Middle Eastern flight students because of the concerns in 1998.
"Would it have prevented 9/11? I don't know. We all wish we could have."
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