WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration is proposing today to place security cameras in the cabins of commercial airliners and giving wireless devices to flight attendants to alert the cockpit crew to an emergency.

The Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots, supports the idea of using cameras to monitor passengers. But pilots are less sure about the use of wireless devices. Among other things, they are concerned that the devices might allow people to send false alarms to pilots, said Capt. Dennis Breslin, spokesman for the association.

The FAA would allow two years to install the cameras or come up with an alternative. The agency estimates the total cost of installing video systems would be $185.5 million over 10 years.

Weldon claims topic of Judiciary hearing

WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing today on claims by Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., that the Pentagon squelched crucial information about the man who became the lead Sept. 11 terrorist, then destroyed related documents while the commission appointed to investigate the attacks turned a blind eye.

Inquiries into the validity of Weldon's allegations have raised more questions than they have answered. Neither Weldon nor those who support his claims have been able to document their central allegation: that a secret Pentagon data-mining program dubbed Able Danger turned up valuable information on al-Qaida ringleader Mohamed Atta more than a year before the 2001 attacks.

The Senate hearing will examine, among other things, whether the Pentagon failed to give the FBI information about Atta that it allegedly turned up as early as 1999.

Former 9/11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean said his panel was never presented with Able Danger documents that named Atta and that none had emerged since its report was completed last year.

Medical records of detainees sought

WASHINGTON — Attorneys for several detainees at Guantánamo Bay asked a federal-court judge for immediate access to their clients' medical records, saying they fear an eight-weeklong hunger strike is growing more serious, according to court papers declassified yesterday.

Lawyers for a group of 17 Yemeni detainees told the court yesterday that during a visit last month, some captives looked "gaunt and unwell," and that they fear the detainees' conditions have deteriorated. They complained to U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy that the military and the Justice Department have refused to tell them or other lawyers about their clients' health status.

As of yesterday, a military spokesman said, 45 detainees had been refusing food or water for three or more days, and 15 were hospitalized for fluids and nourishment.

Bombers' planning before attack revealed

LONDON — Three of the four bombers who killed themselves and 52 other people in a July 7 attack on the London public-transit system apparently scouted their route on a trip to London 10 days earlier, police said yesterday.

Officials at Scotland Yard said the three men — Mohammed Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and Germaine Lindsay — were spotted by officers who are reviewing thousands of hours of closed-circuit surveillance tapes from train stations in London and the central English city of Luton.

Hasib Hussain, who police think detonated a bomb on a double-decker bus on July 7, was not seen in the surveillance photos released by yesterday.

The four mounted the deadliest attack on British soil since World War II; in addition to the deaths, 700 people were injured.

Compiled from The Associated Press, The Washington Post and The Baltimore Sun