The independent commission probing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has found evidence suggesting the attacks were intended to be carried out in May or June of that year, but were postponed by al Qaeda leaders because lead hijacker Mohamed Atta was not ready, according to sources privy to the panel's findings.
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That scenario would mark a dramatic revision of the commonly understood narrative of the Sept. 11 attacks and contrasts sharply with prevailing theories of FBI (news - web sites) agents investigating the plot. Until now, federal investigators have said the evidence indicates that the attacks were likely planned for a narrow time frame around Sept. 11.

Chairman Thomas H. Kean said the timing issue will be addressed, but he declined to comment on any conclusions. He said this week's hearings "will be two of the most interesting hearings that we've had, from the point of view of what we reveal about the plot and plotters and what we reveal about the response. . . . There will be new information."

One official who has seen the findings to be released Wednesday said they are based on "intelligence coming in that they wanted an earlier date. It's something really new."

The new evidence indicates that the original timing of the attacks was postponed for readiness reasons and not in reaction to heightened security in the early summer of 2001, when the CIA (news - web sites), FBI and other agencies were on high alert for a possible al Qaeda strike, several sources said.

Bin Laden had been pushing for the hijackings to be carried out in May or June, but he was persuaded by Mohammed to agree to a delay because Atta and his conspirators were not prepared, one source said. The leading hijackers did not begin making reconnaissance flights for the hijackings until May, when they began flying transcontinental routes passing through Las Vegas, according to evidence compiled by FBI investigators.

"We've never had a theory that September 11 was supposed to occur earlier than September 11," one law enforcement official said. "There is a theory that it was supposed to be later but was moved up because of [Moussaoui's] arrest."

Journalists and terrorism experts speculated widely on the possible significance of the date, noting, among other things, that it is the anniversary of the day Britain took over Palestine in 1922 under a League of Nations mandate and that "911" is the common U.S. emergency response number.

For example, one senior law enforcement official said, before the 19 hijackers bought their tickets from Aug. 25 to Aug. 31, 2001, they spent days researching flights and tickets, according to records of e-mails and computer activity. The searches included many dates, not just Sept. 11, and included East Coast airports other than those used on Sept. 11.

The hijackers were looking for Boeing 757 and 767 jetliners, for which the pilots had trained and on which a half-dozen hijackers had flown as passengers in reconnaissance missions earlier in the summer. The only days they avoided in their research were weekends, the official said.

"You can see them looking for flights, but they're not looking for Sept. 11, and they're not only looking at Boston, Newark and Dulles," the official said. "It's not until they do all their research that they chose a date. They were not set on that Tuesday."

"This is an example of al Qaeda postponing something and carrying it through with great success," said Breitweiser, whose husband, Ronald, died at the World Trade Center. "This means they follow through, and I hope we learn from that."