USDA official: Atta tried to get [federal] loan to buy airplane [to fill with a chemical tank]

AP ^ | June 8, 2002 | AP

[summer]

USDA official: Atta tried to get loan to buy airplane

Saturday, June 8, 2002

Associated Press

MIAMI - Terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta tried to get a $650,000 federal loan to build an airplane that could be used as a crop duster, according to a U.S. official who said she met Atta about 17 months before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Johnell Bryant, a loan officer at a U.S. Department of Agriculture office in Florida City, said Atta visited her in early 2000, just before he and other members of his group began taking flying lessons.

Atta is believed to have been piloting one of the planes that struck the World Trade Center.

"He wanted to finance a twin-engine six-passenger aircraft and remove the seats," Bryant told ABC's "World News Tonight" in an interview broadcast Thursday. "He said he was an engineer, and he wanted to build a chemical tank that would fit inside the aircraft and take up every available square inch of the aircraft except for where the pilot would be sitting."

Bryant, who has worked for the USDA for 16 years, does not have a listed phone number and could not be contacted by The Associated Press Friday. She told ABC the interview was against the wishes of her bosses at USDA offices in Florida City. ABC says she passed a polygraph examination.

Bryant said she rejected Atta for a loan because he was not a U.S. citizen. She said that when Atta learned of difficulties in getting the loan, he became "very agitated" and pointed to a safe behind her desk.

"He asked me what would prevent him from going behind my desk and cutting my throat and making off with the millions of dollars in that safe," Bryant said.

Before he left, Atta twice offered cash to buy a panoramic photograph of Washington, D.C., that hung on her office wall, Bryant said. He pointed specifically to the White House and Pentagon, she said.

Bryant said she told Atta the picture was not for sale.

"His look on his face became very bitter at that point," Bryant said. "I believe he said, 'How would America like it if another country destroyed that city and some of the monuments in it' like the cities in his country had been destroyed?"

She also remembers Atta mentioning al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, saying bin Laden "would someday be known as the world's greatest leader."

"I didn't know who Osama bin Laden was," Bryant said, explaining why she did not contact authorities about Atta.

Shortly after Sept. 11, Bryant recognized Atta's photo and alerted authorities.

"I don't know how I could possibly expect myself to have recognized what that man was. And yet sometimes I haven't forgiven myself," Bryant said.

A federal law enforcement official told the AP that Bryant's information contributed to an FBI warning about possible terrorist use of crop dusters, along with other information the FBI had collected independently.

[summer]

Bryant said she rejected Atta for a loan because he was not a U.S. citizen.

It bothers me that this is the only reason she had for rejecting Atta for a federal loan. The next terrorist hijacker will surely have his forged citizenship papers ready to show her.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Y'know what? I'm surprised he didn't get the loan. It would fit right in with our country's insane recent history of shooting itself in the foot thanks to official stupidity, bureaucratic turf wars, ineptitude, political correctness, and Clinton Administration inattention and outright treason.

[livius]

Agreed. Another article mentioned that the loan officer also told him that he couldn't get the loan because it was not specifically for agriculture. And - guess what - Atta showed up later (wearing dark glasses) accompanying another man, subsequently identified as a terrorist, as he tried to get a loan to buy a sugar cane operation.

These folks learn fast; and with the number of stolen INS documents and stamps one keeps reading about lately, it seems that they've figured out that the next step is falsified documents. No more Times Square photoshop ID's for these guys!

Fortunately, however, since US agencies do not keep the loan money in safes behind the desk, there would have to be a bureacratic lag period that would, I hope, provide enough time to investigate anything even slightly suspicious. (But personally, if somebody had talked about slitting my throat in my office, I would have considered that REALLY serious right then and there!)

[summer]

These folks learn fast; and with the number of stolen INS documents and stamps one keeps reading about lately, it seems that they've figured out that the next step is falsified documents. No more Times Square photoshop ID's for these guys!

My thoughts exactly.

[summer]

(But personally, if somebody had talked about slitting my throat in my office, I would have considered that REALLY serious right then and there!)

Yeah, you'd think that might tip her off that a call to the FBI is in order here. Unless, of course, everyone who seeks a loan also threatens to "slit" her "throat." Who knows...

[summer]

Y'know what? I'm surprised he didn't get the loan.

Maybe a loan approval notice is now in the mail, addressed to Mr. Atta at his last known address...

[Raymond Hendrix]

I wonder if she is telling a story here. This is just too weird to believe. Maybe she thought the guy was just the usual nut case. Before 9/11 I guess we all thought differently.

[eno_]

Two special ironies in this story:

a) In a world where schoolkids get expelled for pointing a finger and saying "Bang!" we have Mohammed Freaking Atta, looking every bit the Spawn of Satan he was, threatening to slit a federal employee's throat and the consequences are...?

b) Neither this highly trained journalist, nor apperently our FBI, which is now totally on the ball and able to connect the dots, has asked what Atta intended to put in the spray tank. Could it be anthrax? Gee! I wonder!

[AdA$tra]

I used to be int he title insurance business. Once a professors from KU wanted to buy a house in our town. He was not an American citizen, and listed his himself as Persian. Our underwriter rejected the idea of writing a policy and the lender did the same about the loan. These guys can hop over seas in a heartbeat and cannot be extradited or served in any of these Arab countries. Same with child custody. They have little or no regard for our laws. In fact they have general disdain for our laws.

I wonder if the chemicals meant for that tank are still laying around waiting for the right moment?

[summer]

These guys can hop over seas in a heartbeat and cannot be extradited or served in any of these Arab countries.

Good point.

[summer]

I was wondering what Atta planned to fill that tank with....I am shocked that he would disclose as many details as he gave to this loan officer. Did he also walk around wearing one of those sandwich board signs, and on the front and back did it happen to say: "I AM A TERRORST"? I mean, would anyone have noticed? Seems these guys were VERY up front about how much they hated this country.

[summer]

OR: "I AM A TERRORIST" with the correct spelling...

[summer]

Maybe she thought the guy was just the usual nut case.

But the "usual nut case" does not get all excited and agitated about photos of Washington, DC. I think his behavior was threatening on many levels here.

[VOA]

These guys can hop over seas in a heartbeat and cannot be extradited or served in
any of these Arab countries. Same with child custody.

And besides, most of them have access to more than enough money. Atta and Co. could have easily
tapped bin Laden's $30 million, but getting the infidels to subsidize their
own demise is just irresistable.

I'm suprised (and who knows if this didn't happen and we just have not been told)
that Atta and Co., after being told they didn't qualify for the loan due to not being
citizens, didn't find a fellow traveler with US citizenship to get the loan.

Oh, and about the child custody issues...I laughed, then got p-ssed when
the media was telling us that Elian Gonzalez should be sent on home to Papa (Castro that is)
otherwise other countries just (LOL) just wouldn't cooperate with the USA on child custody cases.

I just shook my head and said "these idiots must think the movie 'Not Without My Daughter'
was complete fiction"!

[Sara Dorian]

Atta and Co. could have easily tapped bin Laden's $30 million, but getting the infidels to subsidize their own demise is just irresistable.

Good point. I don't think Atta was a freelance terrorist, so attacking America with a Federal loan would be salacious to these murderers.

[goldstategop]

Yeah, the real joke would have been mass murdering Americans with their own money. Mohammad Atta had a twisted sense of humor even as he was planning 911. Its amazing that thanks to a hitch he didn't get that federal loan. The scarier question is if there are any terrorists out there whose applications were approved or are waiting to have theirs in the pipeline approved. I don't want to think about it.

[Joan912]

Was acquiring a small cropdusting plane 'plan A' for Atta and the Islamic murderers? Was he planning to use it on a kamikaze mission or was this meant for a bio-terror attack?

I feel so safe at night knowing how well our supposed 'intellegence' agencies work together, cooperate, and look out for the vital interests of the US. /sarcasm off

[summer]

I was thinking about that too -- was the WTC attack really "Plan B" since Atta couldn't get it together for whatever was actually "Plan A"? Because let's face it, Atta himself was not going to be flying a crop dusting plane after the WTC attack...

[VOA]

The scarier question is if there are any terrorists out there whose applications were
approved or are waiting to have theirs in the pipeline approved.

Precisely my thought.
Surely it would have been a piece of cake to get a fellow traveler (or a dupe)
with US citizenship to front for them.

Atta is such an interesting, twisted personality. Once time enough has passed, the right
actor in a decent production could surely be on the fast-track for Best Actor Oscar.
Who ever played him would have just about as good a chance at a great portayal
as Edward Fox as the cooler-than-cool professional killer in "Day of The Jackal".

[VOA]

Was acquiring a small cropdusting plane 'plan A' for Atta and the Islamic murderers?
Was he planning to use it on a kamikaze mission or was this meant for a bio-terror attack?

Out here in Southern California, about two-thirds of the media seem to presume that
Atta was going to fill the tank with gasoline; the other third suggest that it would
be a nice container for anthrax.

I wonder if maybe Atta and Co. might have had a big order on for a batch of anthrax from
Iraq, but when this scheme fell through, maybe plan B started to sound like having
a bigger chance of success...and maybe more symbolic impact.
Who knows how these guys think...maybe hitting symbols like the WTC, Pentagon, and
maybe White House/Capitol was more appealing than killing hundreds of thousands with
anthrax or other nasty stuff.

And maybe Atta and Co. ended up with only a small batch of anthrax and decided to
do a test run by mailing out letters...just to see how a really-scaled up anthrax run might work.

Joan912 -- please check your freeper-mail at your convenience; I have a Cleveland-angle topic.