Posted on 04/19/2002 3:01:09 PM PDT by OKCSubmariner
And seriously, Askel - I have left sort of a clue somewhere here if you can find it. No, I didn't drop it today. And no, I won't tell you anymore ;).
Are you saying that Moussaoui hooked up with this guy after the OKBOMB? A quick google seems to indicate that Moussauoi was getting an MA in London in 95, and came to Norman later on.
You're way out of line with that, comrade. Though Askel and myself are diametrically opposed on our opinions concerning the War On Terror and what is going on in Israel, I can tell you (I've known her for more than three years at this site) that she reads "screeds" from all points of view - be it by Jew-haters, Capitalist-haters, Communist-haters, or Catholic-haters.
What do I like about her the most (though we disagree constantly)- She looks out for the U.S. before all other nations.
Reporter: Kara Kaswell, News 4
November 7, 2001 7:44 PM
(KMOV) -- The FBI wants to know more about Mujahid Menepta's alleged ties to terrorism. Menepta is friends with an associate of Osama bin Laden who is considered to be the "20th hijacker" involved in the terrorists attacks. Menepta, who grew up in North St. Louis, was arrested in a federal roundup following the attacks. He is now charged with illegal possession of firearms.
(supposed to be a photo of Menepta here, but a photo of Moussaoui is inserted above Menepta's mame)
Mujahid Menepta (KMOV)
Menepta defends his friend who is accused of having ties to the hijackers and September 11 terrorist attacks. Zacarias Moussaoui was arrested after seeking pilot training to steer but not land jets. Menepta says his friend is no terrorist.
Days after a TV interview, Menepta, a St. Louis native who has a felony arrest record, was arrested for possessing three guns, including a semi-automatic pistol.
"They had a lot of questions, no doubt about that," says Chester Buchanan.
One of the pistols seized from Menepta was registered to Buchanan of St. Louis. He says the gun was stolen in August. Menepta told the FBI he bought the gun on the street in St. Louis for $125. The FBI questioned Buchanan about the gun.
"What they told me is that the gun was found with a man that might be connected to September 11 and the terrorists. I was stunned, I sure was," Buchanan says.
Menepta grew up Melvin Lattimore in a duplex on Maple in North St. Louis. He attended Soldan High School where he played football. In 1989, he converted to Islam and changed his name.
"I think it's unfair that the government has him in jail. It's a conspiracy on the government's part," says Leon Lattimore, Menepta's brother.
Lattimore says Menepta often prayed at a storefront mosque on Geraldine in North St. Louis and he adds that his brother's religion does not advocate violence and that Menepta is definitely no terrorist.
"I think they are jumping to conclusions. My brother is terrorist nothing," Lattimore says.
Wednesday, a federal court denied bond to Menepta. Instead, they want to further investigate his possible ties to terrorists. He roomed with Moussaoui, who has been linked to the hijackers. An FBI agent also said Wednesday in court that North St. Louis mosque where he worshipped did at one time stockpile weapons.
Moussaoui's friend gets prison term
A Norman man who came under federal investigation because of his friendship with accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in federal prison.
Majahid Abdulquaadir Menepta, 51, admitted to being a convicted felon in possession of firearms and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge David Russell.
However, Menepta's association with the accused terrorist during the general time period when Moussaoui was undergoing flight training in Norman is the reason Menepta came under suspicion.
Moussaoui was indicted in December on a federal charge of conspiring with Osama bin Laden, the 19 hijackers and others to carry out the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon in which more than 3,000 people were killed.
After Moussaoui's arrest, Menepta told The Oklahoman that he had seen Moussaoui daily at a Norman mosque, had shared meals with him and believed his friend was being made a "scapegoat."
Federal agents investigating the attacks arrested Menepta on a material witness warrant Oct. 11. During a search of his home, agents found a loaded Chinese military-style semiautomatic rifle, a 12- gauge shotgun and a loaded .380- caliber pistol, as well as knives and a bag of ammunition.
Menepta is prohibited from owning guns because he was convicted in 1971 in Colorado of a felony -- aggravated robbery. He spent more than three years in prison.
Menepta also was arrested in 1997 during a demonstration in St. Louis and was put on probation for carrying a concealed weapon.
Menepta was born in Missouri as Melvin Lattimore. He converted to Islam and changed his name in 1989.
An informant told the FBI in 1995 that Menepta was a violent individual who belonged to a radical Islamic group that hated the United States and talked of destroying government targets.
However, Susan Otto(McVeigh's first attorney), Menepta's defense attorney, told Russell on Wednesday her client credits his conversion to Islam with turning his life around and "saving him from a life of bad behavior
Link November 10, 2001
No Bail for Friend of Man Suspected of Preparing for Sept. 11 Hijackings
By JO THOMAS
An Oklahoma friend of Zacarias Moussaoui, the man the authorities suspect was meant to be the 20th suicide hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks, has been ordered held without bail on weapons charges by a federal magistrate in Oklahoma City.
The Oklahoma man, Mujahid Abdulqaadir Menepta, 51, who was arrested on Oct. 11 and taken to New York as a material witness in the World Trade Center investigation, is dangerous and poses a flight risk, Jeffrey Whitney, an agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, testified at a hearing on Wednesday. He made no specific reference to Mr. Moussaoui.
Without offering many details, Mr. Whitney told the court that some telephone numbers connected with cellphones seized in a search of Mr. Menepta's home in Norman were associated with continuing criminal investigations in Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Detroit, El Paso and Kansas City, Mo. These involve organized crime, drugs and money laundering, he said.
Mr. Whitney told the court that Mr. Menepta, who was born Melvin Lattimore in St. Louis, and changed his name in 1989 after converting to Islam, came to the attention of the authorities the day after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. He testified that an informer told federal agents that Mr. Menepta had belonged to an Islamic group in Norman and St. Louis, whose leaders advocated terrorist acts and killing law enforcement agents.
Mr. Whitney also told the court that Mr. Menepta had said the Secret Service told him that one of the terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 had used his visa number. Mr. Whitney said he could not confirm Mr. Menepta's account.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Menepta, who lives in Norman, gave several interviews in which he defended Mr. Moussaoui, 33, whom he knew through a mosque. Mr. Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent was arrested in Minneapolis on Aug. 17 on immigration charges after he sought lessons on how to fly jets, but expressed no interest in learning how to take off or land.
Mr. Moussaoui lived in Norman last year while a student at the Airman Flight School there. Mr. Menepta told The Daily Oklahoman in an interview on Oct. 2 that he had seen Mr. Moussaoui every day at a local mosque and would be shocked if he were involved in the attacks.
"I think he's a scapegoat," Mr. Menepta told the newspaper in an article published on Oct. 9.
He was arrested as a material witness two days later. Shortly afterward, federal agents said they found a shotgun, a rifle, a semiautomatic pistol and more than 600 rounds of ammunition at Mr. Menepta's home. He told the agents he used the shotgun for hunting.
Mr. Menepta served time in prison for a 1970 robbery in Colorado and was charged with being a felon in possession of firearms.
Susan Otto(McVeigh's first defense attorney), Mr. Menepta's lawyer in Oklahoma City, on Wednesday questioned the truthfulness of the government's informer and observed that no one had been charged with a crime back in 1995.
Mr. Menepta's mother, Cynthia Lattimore, 87, said her son collected guns, nothing more. "He just likes guns," she said. "Not to kill nobody."
Wednesday, a federal court denied bond to Menepta. Instead, they want to further investigate his possible ties to terrorists. He roomed with Moussaoui, who has been linked to the hijackers. An FBI agent also said Wednesday in court that North St. Louis mosque where he worshipped did at one time stockpile weapons.
Certainly, few blamed the first attorneys appointed to represent Timothy McVeigh -- Oklahoma City's John Coyle III and Susan Otto -- when they said their friendships with those killed in the blast precluded them from handling the case and that they would withdraw as soon as new counsel could be found. Otto, who declined comment, is now the federal public defender in Oklahoma City.
She represents Mujahid Abdulqaadir Menepta, who has been charged in a sealed proceeding in New York federal court and on weapons charges in Oklahoma.
"Mr. Whitney told the court that Mr. Menepta, who was born Melvin Lattimore in St. Louis, and changed his name in 1989 after converting to Islam, came to the attention of the authorities the day after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. He testified that an informer told federal agents that Mr. Menepta had belonged to an Islamic group in Norman and St. Louis, whose leaders advocated terrorist acts and killing law enforcement agents".
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Notice how differently the spin is on the connection between Menepta and Oklahoma City/1995 in the two links in replies #27 and #28. You have to read both to understand that an informer told the FBI the day after the the OKC bombing that Menepta belonged to a radical Islamic group that hated the United States and talked of destroying government targets.(i.e. Murrah Federal Building)
Why would the Oklahoman omit reporting on the court testimony that connected Menepta to the OKC Bombing?
This link states Minepta is an African American and uses another name in addition to Lattimore.
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Do not forget that, at this time, Imam Jamil al-Amin, formerly known as H. rap brown ( who was the leader of the Student Non-VIolent Coordinating Committee, and Minister of Justice for the Black Panther Party during the 1960's) is still in an Atlanta jail facing the death penalty foor a crime he did'nnt committ. go to www.imamjamil.com
This is an article about Mujaheed Abdul-qaader, an African-American Muslim recently arrested
Story from the www.stlimc.org newswire
Checkout independent media coverage of politics, protest, and life at: http://www.stlimc.org
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Comments:
Article by: Umar ben-Ivan
Wednesday 07 Nov 2001
Email: umarlee@excite.com
Summary:A St. louis man, currently living in Norman, Ok has been investigated for possible connections to alledged 20th bomber because of media interviews.
Article:
Mujaheed Abdul-Qaader, a lifelong St. Louisan, now livng in Oklahoma has been arrested on weapons charges after being investigated after an interview in which he defended the alledged 20th hijacker, Zacharrias Moussai- a Morrocan ,who the FBI alledges was a part of the 9-11 conspiracy.
Abdul-Qaader, once known as Melvin Lattimore, was a star football player at Soldan high school in the 1960\'s. After high school he went on to become an activist in the black liberation struggle.In the 1980\'s he became a devout Muslim, and during the 1990\'s he became an imam at two St. louis Mosques, Masjid at-Taqwa wa-Jihad and the Islamic Institute of Learning.Abdul-Qaader, members say, was known for his kindess, religous knowledge and giving nature. He often worked with local street gang members to try and get them off of the street.
A current resident of Norman, OK, he was interviewed several times by local media. Local talk show callers had called for his death and the Muslim community came under a great deal of harassment.
Using his interviews as evidence, his home was raided and a three guns where found. Because he was convicted of a crime more than 30 years ago in St. Louis, while it was still under legal aparthied, he was charged as a felon in posession of a firearm.However, the police are making no secret that they are holding him and investigating him in relation to terrorism.
The message is very clear. Now, not just immigrant Muslims, but all Muslims are under suspicion.Furthermore, all Americans should be alarmed that giving statements to the media, that the imperialist government does\'nt like ,can be grounds for survelliance, harassment and incarceration.
OKCSub's Traveler's Aid office witnesses could provide proof that the OKC bombing and the 9-11 attacks were the work of the same coalition of terror that we are at war with today.
If Menepta was the black man seen in the Traveler's Aid office with McVeigh, in my opinion, the witnesses could be considered a possible threat by those that do not want this connection made. No one can ignore the danger others have faced because of information they possessed, Terry Yeakey comes immediately to mind. More recently, Katherine Smith in the Memphis driver's license fraud case is another example of what the Muslim terrorists operating on U.S. soil can get away with.
Once the information has been made public about the possible connection between the OKC bombing and 9-11, one of the most effective protections for the witnesses would be the widest possible disemination of the information. Another alternative for the protection of the witnesses would be to drop the story right here. Your comments or thoughts would be appreciated.
member since March 28th, 2002
Enough said
Many of the reporters and editors at the Daily Oklahoman are VERY,VERY close to the FBI and have been for years going back before 1995. THis is not theory it is fact.
Just ask reporters Randy Ellis (did a story on Menepta), Nolan Clay and especially Robby Trammel ( FBI set up of Hoppy Heidelbrg when he was on the Federal Grand Jury in 1995) and other lady reporters I have spoken with at the Daily Disappointment.The fix was in with this paper the day of the bombing in my opinion.
originally he was one of the most vocal skeptics of "the lone mad bomber theory". haven't heard anything out of him in a long long time.
Good question.
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