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Author Salman Rushdie
Shortly after 9/11, the London Times reported that author Salman Rushdie believed US authorities had known of the imminent attack when they banned him from taking flights in Canada and the US just a week before.

  The Times reported: On September 3 the Federal Aviation Authority made
  an emergency ruling to prevent Mr Rushdie from flying unless airlines complied
  with strict and costly security measures. Mr Rushdie told The Times that the
  airlines would not upgrade their security.

According to the Times, the FAA had told Rushdie's publisher that US intel had given a warning of "something out there", but did not give any further details. The FAA then confirmed that it had increased security measures regarding Rushdie, but refused to provide a reason.
The original article has since been removed from the London Times [Times Online] site.
Salman Rushdie authored The Satanic Verses; a fictional work that was deemed sacrilegious to the Muslim community. The controversial novel earned him a "death sentence" placed by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. In the book, Rushdie names the members of a brothel after the Prophet Muhammed's wives, renounces the Koran as the true word of God, and makes obscure jokes about the Islamic religion.
More on the Rushdie pre-9/11 flight ban:
READ  London Times: Rushdie's Air Ban  [archived by PropagandaMatrix.com]
READ  Village Voice: The Fear of Flying - The Rushdie Connection [story at bottom of page]