In a bid to determine if the aviation industry will bear billions of dollars in liability in the deaths of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, two lawsuits were filed in US District Court in Manhattan on Tuesday. From the Associated Press:

Airlines and aviation-related companies sued the CIA and the FBI on Tuesday to force terrorism investigators to tell whether the aviation industry was to blame for the Sept. 11 attacks.

The two lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Manhattan sought court orders for depositions as the aviation entities build their defenses against lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages for injuries, fatalities, property damage and business losses related to Sept. 11, 2001.

The aviation companies said the agencies refused to let them depose two secret agents, including the 2001 head of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit, and six FBI agents with key information about al-Qaida and bin Laden. 

The CIA lawsuit seeks to depose and interview the CIA's deputy chief of the bin Laden unit as well as the FBI agent assigned to liason with that unit. Neither name has yet been revealed. The FBI lawsuit seeks to depose and interview five FBI agents who investigated Al Qaeda and its members before and after the terrorist attacks. 

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