WASHINGTON (AP) -- The wife of U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson was
aboard the jetliner that crashed into the Pentagon and called him as the plane was being hijacked.

Barbara Olson, a former congressional investigator and aide to Senate
Minority Whip Don Nickles, left Dulles International Airport aboard American
Airlines Flight 77 heading to Los Angeles.

She twice called her husband and described some details of the hijacking,
including that the attackers were using knife-like instruments, law
enforcement officials said.

They declined to further describe the conversation.

In a brief telephone interview from his home, Theodore Olson said his wife
was on the plane and called him as the hijacking unfolded.

``She was on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon,'' Olson said. ``She
called from the plane while it was being hijacked. I wish it wasn't so but it is.''

Olson argued President Bush's cases before the Supreme Court.

Barbara Olson was a chief investigator for the House Government Reform
Committee in the mid-1990s that investigated Clinton-era allegations. She
later became a lawyer on Nickles' staff before branching out on her own as a
TV commentator and private lawyer.

She was a frequent critic of the Clinton administration and wrote a book on
Hillary Rodham Clinton.