London - United States officials knew months before September 11, 2001, that the al-Qaeda network planned to use planes to commit a terrorist attack, according to a former FBI translator interviewed by a British newspaper on Friday.
Sibel Edmonds told the Independent daily that a claim by US President George Bush's national security advisor Condoleezza Rice that there had been no such warnings was "an outrageous lie".
The former translator with the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that she has provided information about her claims to a US commission investigating the September 11 attacks.
Edmonds told the Independent: "There was general information about the timeframe, about methods to be used - but not specifically about how they would be used - and about people being in place and who was ordering these sorts of terror attacks.
"There were other cities that were mentioned. Major cities - with skyscrapers."
The 33-year-old Turkish-American translator said that based on documents she had seen during her time with the FBI, after September 11, it was "impossible" that US intelligence officials had no forewarning of the attacks.
Bush's administration is currently under investigation for its anti-terrorism policies before and after the strikes on New York and Washington that claimed some 3 000 lives.
The Independent reported that the administration had sought to silence Edmonds and had obtained a gagging order from a court.
Edmonds was one of many language experts who answered appeals for translators in the days following the attacks using hijacked airliners.
She was tasked with translating documents and recordings from FBI wire taps.
From the documents, she said, it was clear that there was sufficient information in spring and summer 2001 to indicate that an attack was being planned.
"President Bush said they had no specific information about 11 September and that is accurate but only because he said 11 September," Edmonds told the Independent.
There was, however, general information about the use of airplanes and that an attack was just months away.
A White House official said on Thursday that Rice would testify under oath on April 8 before the commission investigating September 11.
Bush's administration was last week accused by former White House anti-terrorism chief Richard Clarke of not giving the al-Qaeda threat enough priority.
Clarke, who left the White House last year, testified in public before the September 11 commission last week, just after the publication of his book which was highly critical of the Bush administration for its counter-terrorist efforts. - Sapa-AFP