JANUARY 10, 2001 : (MIAMI, FLORIDA) Mohamed Atta was almost denied entry to the US when an immigration inspector at Miami International Airport became suspicious that he wanted to take flight lessons while on a tourist visa. The inspector ordered Atta out of the regular immigration line so a second immigration officer could question him at length, a federal official familiar with the incident said.
The U.S. official familiar with the investigation said the INS officer who inspected Atta's papers at 5:03 p.m. Jan. 10 became concerned when Atta said he was in the US for flight training. The inspector pulled Atta out of the line because he had a tourist visa, not the M vocational training visa commonly issued to foreign students seeking flight training, the official said. Atta told the inspector that he had applied for an M and was awaiting a change in status, the official said. The INS officer told Atta to report to a second INS official for secondary inspection, ostensibly a more thorough interview in which an arriving passenger is grilled extensively on his or her intentions while in the US. After a 57-minute delay, the second inspector cleared Atta into the country as a tourist, the official said. Atta's brief detention at the airport on Jan. 10, after arriving on a flight from Madrid, Spain, is the fourth instance that has come to light since the attacks that U.S. authorities missed a chance to stop the 33-year-old Egyptian pilot before the hijackings. The INS inspectors who interviewed Atta failed to notice that he had overstayed his visa by 32 days during a prior trip to the US.
Atta's arrival record for Jan. 10, the day he was briefly detained at the Miami airport, contains another intriguing feature: He was admitted to the US twice on the same day. It's unclear on which entry Atta was delayed at the immigration line because the record does not show a time of arrival. On one entry record that day, Atta was given until July 9 to stay in the United States, on the other until Sept. 8. The immigration record does not explain why Atta was cleared into the country twice on the same day. But a small notation on the record says the second entry ``may be another person entering with identical passport.''
A U.S. official familiar with the document said it was also possible that Atta left the country on a private plane and returned the same day. Establishing whether another person used Atta's passport is important because of the contention by U.S. intelligence officials that Atta was spotted in Prague in April 2001 meeting with an Iraqi agent. INS records do not show Atta leaving the country at all between Jan. 10 and July 7, when he again left Miami for Madrid. If Atta left the country and returned before July 7, he did so without leaving a trace. - The Miami Herald, "Atta faced questions about visa at MIA-INS,Police blew 4 chances to deport ringleader" , 10-19-01| Alfonso Chardy
(* My note: Remember this guy? Al-Tourabi was the broker between Iraq's intel agent/ambassador Farouk Hijazi and bin Laden; Hijazi's also one of the Iraqi agents Atta would later meet with in Europe) :
FEBRUARY 21, 2001 : (SUDAN : ARREST OF HASSAN AL-TOURABI - See also Bin Laden, Atta, and Saddam Hussein)
FEBRUARY 22, 2001 : (SUDAN : SECURITY TIGHTENED FOLLOWING ARREST OF AL-TOURABI) Security has been tightened in Sudan following the arrest of Islamist leader Hassan al-Tourabi, a former close ally of President Omar al-Bashir. At least 20 of Mr Tourabi’s Popular National Congress (PNC) supporters have been rounded up since his arrest on 21 February, says an aide. Armed police have also deployed around the party headquarters as well as the offices of his newspaper, Rai al-Shaab, which was not published on 22 February.
Sudan’s Information Minister, Ghazi Salah Eddin, told the BBC that Mr Tourabi had been arrested because he was cooperating with what he called a terrorist organisation to fight the state. He added that at a news conference, Mr Tourabi had given details of the proposed cooperation with the rebels and that this had gone further than what was in the document. - "Sudan. Clampdown after al-Tourabi’s arrest," (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 23 February 2001) - via http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:gAByeEa7PFIJ:www.peacelink.it/anb-bia/week_2k1/010301d.htm+%22Hassan+al-Tourabi%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
FEBRUARY 26, 2001 : (SUDAN : HASSAN AL-TOURABI IMPRISONED) 26 February: Detained Sudanese leader, Hassan al-Tourabi, is being held in solitary confinement in a rat-infested prison cell with no access to newspapers or writing material, his wife said in recent remarks published today. «He will not answer ant of their (interrogators’) questions...he asked me for papers and pens», she said. Al-Tourabi’s Popular National Congress has reiterated its commitment to the Memorandum of Understanding it signed last week with the SPLA. - Sudan. Al-Tourabi in prison — (CNN, 27 February 2001) - via http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:gAByeEa7PFIJ:www.peacelink.it/anb-bia/week_2k1/010301d.htm+%22Hassan+al-Tourabi%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
MARCH 30, 2001 : (DEPARTURE DATE ON FUTURE 9/11 HIJACKER JARRAH'S KLM FLIGHT TICKET TO DUSSELDORF, GERMANY)
APRIL 4, 2001 : (VIRGINIA BEACH, VA : FUTURE 9/11 HIJACKER ATTA CHECKS OUT OF HOTEL & CASHES $8,000 CHECK) On April 4, 2001, Atta checked out of the Diplomat Inn in Virginia Beach and cashed a check for $8,000 from a SunTrust account, according to the FBI. Atta was not seen again in America by any witness before April 11, 2001.-- "More info on Mohammed Atta and Iraqi Consul in Prague," by Edward Jay Epstein, http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/PragueApril2004.htm
APRIL 4, 2001 : (VIRGINIA BEACH, VA : ATTA & AL-SHEHHI CHECK OUT OF HOTEL; A CHECK IS WRITTEN FOR $8,000 CASH ON A SUN TRUST ACCOUNT) FBI records show Atta and fellow hijacker Marwan Al-Shehhi checking out of the Diplomat Inn in Virginia Beach, Va., and writing a check for cash for $8,000 for a SunTrust account in that city on April 4, 2001. For the rest of that week, Atta's cell phone was used to make repeated calls to Florida. ------- "Dubious Link Between Atta and Saddam A document tying the Iraqi leader with the 9/11 terrorist is probably fake. PLUS, how terror financiers manage to stay in business," by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, WEB EXCLUSIVE Newsweek Updated: 11:31 a.m. ET Dec.19, 2003
APRIL 4- 11, 2001 : (ATTA APPARENTLY WASN'T PHYSICALLY SEEN IN THE US BETWEEN THESE DATES) To: Shermy : Today [June 17, 2004] on Fox Roundtable Fred Barnes noted the Atta portion of the commission report and said at best it is non-conclusive. He went on to cite the bank camera documenting Atta there on April 4, the cell phone use that could have been anyone, and his next being actually seen in America on April 11. Fred did a very good summation of what we all had deduced. ----80 posted on 06/17/2004 4:04:52 PM PDT by cyncooper
APRIL 8, 2001 : (ATTA FLIES TO PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC) Safire noted that last October [2001] the FBI had told the [?] Times that Atta had flown to Prague on April 8 last year.[2001] - "Iraq's Link To Mohammed Atta," By Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid, August 30, 2002
APRIL 8, 2001 : (AL ANI'S SCHEDULE INCLUDES MEETING WITH 'HAMBURG STUDENT' IN APPOINTMENT CALENDAR LATER RECOVERED BY THE CZECHS IN SEARCH OF IRAQI EMBASSY) Al-Ani scheduled a meeting on April 8,2001 with a "Hamburg student" according to an appointment calendar subsequently turned up by Czech intelligence in a surreptitious search of the Iraq Embassy (presumably after the defeat of Iraq in April 2003.)-- "More info on Mohammed Atta and Iraqi Consul in Prague," by Edward Jay Epstein, http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/PragueApril2004.htm
APRIL 8, 2001 : (PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC : A "STUDENT FROM HAMBURG," GERMANY MEETS WITH IRAQI CONSUL AL-ANI) Atta was to visit Prague a third time in April 2001. The Czech secret service received from one of its informers a warning that Al-Ani, the Iraqi consul, was to meet with a “distinguished Arab student” from Hamburg—this is information that up until now was top secret. BIS monitored the meeting: The men met in a Prague restaurant on the evening of April 8. To this day, it remains unclear whether this “Hamburg student” was Atta. Yet again, three days after that meeting, $100,000 arrived in Atta’s Florida account.------- "Mohammad Atta’s Decisive Meeting," By Jaroslav Spurny, Respekt (Czech) 16/11/03, Dec 1, 2003, 08:58
APRIL 8, 2001 : (AL ANI OBSERVED MEETING WITH AN ARABIC-SPEAKING MAN, LATER IDENTIFIED BY COUNTERINTELLIGENCE WATCHER AS ATTA) Al-Ani was observed meeting a young Arab-speaking man on the outskirts of Prague on April 8th by a watcher for Czech counterintelligence. After seeing Atta’s picture on September 11th, the watcher identified the Arab-speaking man as Mohammed Atta. Al-Ani was expelled from Prague less than 2 weeks after that meeting.-- "More info on Mohammed Atta and Iraqi Consul in Prague," by Edward Jay Epstein, http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/PragueApril2004.htm
APRIL 2001 : (PRAGUE, CZECHOSLAVAKIA : FUTURE 9/11 HIJACKER ATTA REPORTEDLY MET WITH IRAQI DIPLOMAT/MUKHABARAT OPERATIVE FAROUK HIJAZI) Newsweek magazine also reported Hijazi met with Mohammed Atta - the suspected organizer of the Sept. 11 terror attacks who died on one of the hijacked planes - in Prague in April 2001. But other sources have cast doubt on that report. - "COWED SYRIA YIELDS SADDAM'S SPY BOSS," by NILES LATHEM, New York Post, 4/26/03
APRIL 9, 2001 : (ATTA IS IN PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC) CIA can confirm two Atta visits to Prague--in Dec. 1994 and in June 2000; data surrounding the other two--on 26 Oct 1999 and 9 April 2001--is complicated and sometimes contradictory and CIA and FBI cannot confirm Atta met with the IIS. Czech Interior Minister Stanislav Gross continues to stand by his information. ------- the Feith memo [http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/378fmxyz.asp via 15 posted on 12/14/2003 6:28:26 PM PST by denydenydeny
APRIL 2001? : (PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC : ATTA MEETS WITH FAROUK HIJAZI, IRAQ'S AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY) The ringleader of the 19 hijackers from the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Mohamed Atta, met twice with Iraq intelligence operatives in Prague, in June 2000 and then again last April, Newsweek reports in the current issue. The second meeting was with Farouk Hijazi, Iraq's ambassador to Turkey, who was called back to Baghdad before Sept. 11. One intelligence source called the two meetings interesting, but still far from proof of Iraqi involvement in the plot, Newsweek reports. ------ NEW YORK, Oct. 7 /PRNewswire/ --- PRNewswire, Oct 7, citing Newsweek
2001, spring : (UAE : TWO OF THE FUTURE 9/11 HIJACKERS, AL SHEHHI & JARRAH, MEET WITH IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS - note it's plural) The CIA has evidence that two more hijackers, besides terror leader Mohamed Atta, met with Iraqi intelligence officials earlier this year - bolstering arguments for a Baghdad role in the attacks, it was reported yesterday. The two other skyjackers were Atta's friends and co-conspirators, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Samir Jarrah, who were believed to have been at the controls of two of the pirated jets on Sept. 11. The Observer newspaper of London reported yesterday that senior U.S. intelligence sources said they have "credible information" al-Shehhi and Jarrah met with an Iraqi agent last spring. The secret meetings took place in the United Arab Emirates, the paper reported. - New York Post, "2 (3) More September 11 Hijackers Tied To Iraq" November 12, 2001, by WILLIAM NEUMAN http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/587611/posts
APRIL 2001 : (PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC : ATTA MEETS WITH FAROUK HIJAZI, IRAQ'S AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY) - PRNewswire, Oct 7, citing Newsweek
APRIL 17, 2001: (CZECH REPUBLIC EXPELLS IRAQI AL-ANI FOR SPYING, IRAQIS MET WITH ATTA, AL-SHEHHI, JARRAH IN CZ & UAE) The Czechs expelled Iraqi al-Ani, who had diplomatic cover, as a hostile spy. Last night, a senior US diplomatic source told The Observer that Atta was not the only suspected al-Qaeda member who met al-Ani and other Iraqi agents in Prague. He said the Czechs monitored at least two further such meetings in the months before 11 September. The senior US intelligence source said the CIA believed that two other hijackers, al-Shehri and Jarrah, also met known Iraqi intelligence officers outside the US in the run-up to 9/11/2002. It is understood these meetings took place in the UAE - where Iraq maintains its largest 'illegal', or non-diplomatic, cover intelligence operation, most of it devoted to oil exports and busting economic sanctions. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/568298/posts