A computer expert was paid more than £13 million after fooling the CIA into believing that he had developed software to stop al-Qaeda attacks.
Officials were so convinced by Dennis Montgomery that, acting on a tip-off from him, former president George Bush ordered passenger jets flying from London to be turned back over the Atlantic amid fears they were being hijacked.
There was even talk of shooting down the jets because it was feared the “hijackers” would crash them into US targets in 2003.
But the information, like other tip-offs supplied by Montgomery, 57, was false.
The programmer was given contracts worth more than £13m after convincing the CIA and US Air Force that his software could decipher coded messages being sent among terrorists.
But an inquiry by The New York Times has revealed him as a fraud and, it is claimed, court documents that would prove the software failed are being kept secret by the US Justice Department to prevent embarrassment to spy chiefs.
Montgomery has not faced criminal charges over his deception or been ordered to pay back the money.
He is awaiting trial in Nevada on unrelated charges of passing bad cheques worth £1.1m to Las Vegas casinos. - Daily Mail
