Posted on 09/15/2001 8:36:15 AM PDT by t-shirt
CIA reportedly warned FBI about one suspect
It is unclear, sources say, what the bureau did with the tip about Khalid al-Midhar, who was named as a hijacker.
By Alfonso Chardy, David Kidwell Jay Weaver and Jennifer Babson
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
MIAMI - The CIA alerted the FBI that at least one of the suspects in Tuesday's terrorism was either on his way to the United States or already here before the attacks, three U.S. government officials familiar with intelligence matters said yesterday.
Two officials said it was unclear whether the FBI acted on the tip about Khalid al-Midhar, identified by the FBI as a hijacker on American Airlines Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon.
Another official said the FBI did check out the information and concluded the man was no longer in the country.
Both the CIA and the FBI declined to comment.
"It appears that the name of at least one of the terrorists was on a CIA watch list and that the CIA then handed off the notification to the FBI," one of the officials said. "In briefings so far, the FBI has not been able to say what it did with that piece of information."
The second U.S. official confirmed that the CIA had "some information" about a foreign national "that was troubling enough to be on a watch list." According to this official, the FBI checked the information and told the CIA that the suspect had entered the country but then departed.
It is unclear whether the CIA or the FBI became aware later that the person had returned, the official said.
The State Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which are responsible for, respectively, issuing and verifying visas on the passports of foreign nationals, also declined to comment.
Since the attacks, the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities have been poring over all information available to them before the attack to determine whether they missed any clue about what was coming and whether the suspects were connected to foreign terrorist organizations.
According to U.S. officials familiar with intelligence operations, the agencies involved in this reassessment include the CIA, the FBI, the INS, the National Security Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Since Tuesday's attacks, Senate and House intelligence committees have been drilling the FBI and other federal agencies about suspects and how officials might have overlooked warnings, clues and other evidence that could have prevented the hijackings and plane crashes.
Officials familiar with intelligence matters say the CIA issued a secret report to senior policymakers that Islamic militant Osama bin Laden was shifting his strategy from attacking U.S. interests abroad to the domestic United States.
The CIA's report reiterated similar warnings in June and July, officials said.
Bin Laden is considered the prime suspect behind the attacks.
Federal law enforcement and the agencies "didn't have advance warning," said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA veteran who headed the agency's counterterrorism operations in the late 1980s. "The question is, how did they miss it?"
The 19 suspected hijackers' visas - and how they entered this country - might provide crucial evidence.
Generally, if a foreign national arrives with a U.S. visa on his or her passport, the agency responsible for issuing the visa is the State Department through a U.S. embassy abroad. The INS is then responsible for accepting the visa and admitting - or rejecting - the person.
On Thursday, federal officials confirmed that the State Department checked records showing that "approximately 15 names" linked to the suspects obtained visas without any background problems. But yesterday, the official added that the list was incomplete.
Various types of U.S. visas exist. They can be obtained by foreigners, with proper proof of birth, citizenship and residency, who do not plan to stay in this country illegally. But the applications can be denied if they have a criminal background or are suspected of being a danger to the United States.
Despite these safeguards, suspicious foreigners can still slip through U.S. borders if they obtain phony documents with aliases in their homelands.
One former federal agent familiar with the scrutiny of visa applicants said it was a porous process.
"Obtaining visas is incredibly easy; crossing the border is incredibly easy," said Thomas A. Habib, a retired Miami INS agent and former member of the FBI's counterterrorism task force. "Everybody has their own lookout books, but the government is notorious for not sharing information."
One federal investigator who is checking visas for some of the 19 suspected hijackers said there was no specific information that documents were forged, but investigators have strong suspicions they used false identification to obtain visas.
"Either that, or whoever is responsible sent people who have no background whatsoever, and would not appear on any government watchlists," the investigator said.
One underlying problem in tracking any suspicious foreigners seeking to enter the United States is that every government watchlist is not the same - nor is there one centralized database accessible to all agencies.
"Not all of the law enforcement information systems are linked up, and they don't all talk to each other," said a former Justice Department official. "You have to proactively call each agency and make sure they have these names on these lists. It doesn't necessarily take the click of a button."
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FBI 'ignored leads'
Reports say warnings could have stopped the tragedy
Friday, 14 September, 2001, 13:31 GMT 14:31 UK
BBC
The German authorities have rejected reports that an Iranian man detained in Hanover could have helped avert Tuesday's devastating attacks on New York and Washington. However, a French-Algerian identified by the French media as a radical with "a profile similar to the kamikaze pilots" is being held for further questioning by US investigators after his arrest last month.
The attackers and the background to the attacks are not and were not known to him German federal prosecutor
French media have claimed that the FBI failed to follow up information supplied by French secret services that the man, who was taking flying lessons in Boston, had links to Osama Bin Laden.
The German federal prosecutor said on Friday that the Iranian - who telephoned the White House warning of attacks that would "change the world order" - had no knowledge of Tuesday's attack.
"His warnings to US authorities were limited to vague claims about danger to world peace and the world order; he could not cite details," a statement from the federal prosecutor's office said.
"The attackers and the background to the attacks are not and were not known to him," it added.
The White House hung up when the man said he was in detention, but he was interviewed by German authorities and US intelligence services in the wake of the attack.
Soldier 'sans frontieres'
The French newspaper, Liberation, reported on Friday that the French-Algerian arrested in Boston was due to have been deported, but was now being held "to check any possible links with the fanatic pilots".
A French-Algerian believed to be connected to Bin Laden was arrested in Boston
On Thursday a correspondent in Washington for the Europe 1 radio station said the man had been arrested with comprehensive documentation about Boeing aircraft and flight manuals.
"He belongs to the Pakistani-Afghan network that trains Osama Bin Laden's soldiers, his best soldiers, soldiers without borders," the correspondent said, adding that all this information had been passed by French investigators to their American colleagues.
However, the US authorities did not follow up the lead, he said: "The investigation that might have prevented everything was not launched."
The 31-year-old man, who was born in St Jean de Luz, had been living in Britain before going to Boston.
Border watch
Time magazine has also reported that two of the suspected terrorists were on an FBI border watch list, but had nonetheless slipped into the United States.
The two men, who were associated with Islamic Jihad, were on the American Airlines flight which crashed into the Pentagon.
The CIA now believes the first warnings about a "spectacular" act of terror against the US came as early as June.
"A lot of this reporting we had in the summer that gained our attention and had us concerned, but wasn't specific, could have been tied to this," an intelligence officer told Time.
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German police confirm Iranian deportee phoned warnings online.ie 14 Sep 2001
Irish Examiner Newspaper
German police have confirmed an Iranian man phoned US police from his deportation cell to warn of the planned attack on the World Trade Centre.
The Lower Saxony Justice Ministry has confirmed the man warned of the impending series of terrorist attacks, but had not been believed.
Spokesman Frank Woesthoff said the man phoned America "several times", but refused to give further details.
He said the US Secret Service had not told the ministry about the calls received from the Langenhagen prison until after the attacks.
"I cannot say anything about the man and the ministry does not know the content of the conversations," he added.
The Hanover daily newspaper Neue Presse reported the 29-year-old was dismissed as mentally unstable when he gave the warning of a terrorist attack to occur this week.
The ministry would not reveal when the calls had been made.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 14, 2001
Iranian Man in Germany Warned of Attack <
- Justice Source
By REUTERS
Filed at 3:23 a.m. ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - An Iranian man in Germany had warned German and U.S. authorities about a global danger less than a week before the terror attacks in the United States, justice ministry sources said on Friday.
The man, who was in custody in the northern city of Hanover awaiting deportation, had insisted on ringing the White House to warn them of the danger.
``The man was allowed to ring the White House, but there, as well as at the CIA, he was not taken seriously,'' an official from the justice ministry of Lower Saxony told Reuters under condition of anonymity.
The official said authorities in Germany believed the Iranian was mentally ill.
The official said the justice ministry was informed of the man and his warnings on Wednesday, the day after hijacked aircraft crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The Federal Prosecutor's Office said it would issue a report on the matter later in the day.
One newspaper said the man was now being interviewed by German authorities and by the CIA.
The official said there was still doubt, even after the attacks, that the man really knew about the plot.
Germany has become a focal point for investigations into Tuesday's attacks after it emerged three of the suicide hijackers may have belonged to a Hamburg-based extremist group committed to attacking symbolic U.S. targets.
German authorities have to decide on Friday about whether to keep in custody an airport worker as they extend a probe into a German link to the terror attacks.
Reports of a second man being held were denied by the federal prosecutors office on Friday.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba1c69709c5.htm
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FBI looks at bin Laden's strong ties to Boston
By DENISE LAVOIE
AP 9/12/01 9:13 PM
BOSTON (AP) -- Terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden has strong family ties and a group of supporters in Boston, where the two hijacked airliners that demolished the World Trade Center took off.
One of bin Laden's brothers set up scholarship funds at Harvard, while another relative owns six condominiums in an expensive complex in the Charlestown section of Boston. Two bin Laden associates once worked as Boston cab drivers, including one who was jailed in Jordan on charges of plotting to blow up a hotel full of Americans and Israelis.
Bin Laden's ties to Boston are now being closely scrutinized as authorities focus their investigation on terrorist cells with possible ties to him, said Robert Fitzpatrick, the former second-in-command at the FBI's Boston office.
"The activity of this group here is obviously significant," Fitzpatrick said Wednesday.
Investigators are interviewing drivers from Boston Cab Co., where two known associates of bin Laden once worked, to see if they had ties to baggage handlers, who in turn may have supplied weapons to the hijackers, Fitzpatrick said.
"They are going to look at the cab drivers again -- since they are predominantly Middle Eastern -- and they are going to look at a possible link between them and the baggage handlers," Fitzpatrick said, based on his information from law enforcement colleagues.
"They could thwart the security by having a baggage handler put the material aboard the plane. That link is being investigated."
Last year, the FBI investigated the Boston activities of the two cab drivers, Bassam A. Kanj, a Lebanese native, and Raed M. Hijazi, a Palestinian. The men were tied by investigators to separate military and terrorist plots allegedly financed by bin Laden.
Both men lived for years in Boston and Everett, a suburb north of Boston.
Kanj, 35, was killed in Lebanon last year in an attack against the Lebanese army. Hijazi was charged in Jordan with plotting a New Year's Day 2000 hotel bombing.
Bin Laden, a rich Saudi exile who is believed to be living in Afghanistan, also has had family members living in the Boston area for the past decade.
In 1994, one of his brothers, Sheik Bakr Mohammed bin Laden, made a large donation to Harvard Law School to fund visiting scholars to do research in Islamic legal studies.
Harvard Law spokesman Michael Armini would not disclose the amount of the gift, but typically it takes about $1 million to establish a research fellowship. The sheik established a second scholarship at the Harvard School of Design.
Harvard officials were quick to distance the school from Osama bin Laden, emphasizing that he has no role in the scholarship programs.
"This is in no way connected to Osama bin Laden, who has been ostracized from his family and from Saudi Arabia," Armini said. "The purpose of this gift was to foster mutual understanding between the western and Islamic legal worlds."
Stephen Walt, a professor of international politics at the JFK School of Government at Harvard, likened the relationship of the bin Laden brothers to that of University of Massachusetts President William Bulger and his brother, reputed mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, who is among the FBI's 10 Most Wanted.
"I think that bin Laden is responsible for his action, but his brother is not responsible for Osama's actions, and vice versa," Walt said.
Another relative, Mohammed M. bin Laden, owns six condominiums in the ritzy Flagship Wharf condominium complex in Charlestown. His relation to bin Laden could not immediately be determined. A woman who answered the telephone at the management company for the complex refused to answer questions.
The condos were bought in the mid-1990s and range in assessed value from $296,000 to $877,000, The Boston Globe reported.
Juliette Kayyem, a former member of the National Commission on Terrorism, said Boston has several factors that may have attracted bin Laden's supporters.
"Our proximity to the Canadian border and Boston being a big city where people can hide is likely why Boston became the center," Kayyem said. "Also being on the Eastern Seaboard, we have wide-bodied jets with large fuel tanks. When you don't have other weapons, that's your weapon."
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba02db8669d.htm
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Authorities Release Terror Suspect
(German Newspaper)
September 14, 2001
F.A.Z. FRANKFURT. Hamburg authorities on Friday released a man suspected of having been involved in this week's terrorist attacks on the United States.
The man, an employee at the Hamburg airport, was detained on Thursday after police searched apartments in the city's Harburg district while looking for clues leading to the terrorists who carried out the U.S. attacks. A legal spokeswoman said the man was not suspected of committing any crime.
Hamburg police are also searching for another man with an Arab background, officials said.
The apartments were searched after U.S. investigators included among the roughly 50 suspects in the attacks three men from the United Arab Emirates who lived in Hamburg temporarily, studying engineering at a Hamburg technical university in the Harburg neighborhood. Two of them also attended flight school in Florida from July 2000 until January 2001.
The federal public prosecutor, Kay Nehm, said on Thursday that German prosecutors had taken over the investigation of the three men, all of whom died aboard two flights that crashed on Tuesday into the World Trade Center and in Pennsylvania. The Federal Prosecutor's Office said the men were thought to have been involved in an Islamic terrorist cell founded in Hamburg early this year, which, working with other Islamic groups, planned spectacular U.S. attacks.
Also on Friday, German authorities discounted the claim of an Iranian who tried to warn U.S. authorities of impending terrorist attacks, Hannover's Neue Presse newspaper reported. The paper said the man, identified only as Ali S., 29, was jailed in Germany after having entered the country illegally and had been awaiting deportation. He had claimed to have "important information" on attacks that he insisted were to occur this week.
Lower Saxony's top justice official, Christian Pfeiffer, said the illegal immigrant was allowed to call the United States 12 times to relay his information. He also made two calls to U.S. officials in Germany. On one of the calls to the United States, he reportedly reached an operator at the White House, who hung up after learning he was a prisoner.
Mr. Pfeiffer said Ali S. was examined last week by doctors who found him to be psychologically disturbed. He also was questioned by German investigators, with FBI representatives in attendance.
"He knows nothing about the terrorists or the background to the attacks, the German Federal Prosecutor's Office said in a statement. "His warnings to U.S. authorities were based on vague assertions about a danger to world peace and the world order -- he could provide no details.
In Berlin on Friday, Interior Minister Otto Schily, a Social Democrat, rejected the suggestion by Saarland's premier, Christian Democrat Peter Müller, that the Schengen Agreement be suspended and border controls be strengthened. The agreement permits citizens of any of the 15 participating European countries to travel freely among those countries.
"We have already introduced a great number of measures that compensate for the lessening of border controls," Mr. Schily said during a television interview on Thursday night. But he called for increased means of personal identification, saying that "I don't think it would hurt anyone if there were not only a photograph in passports, but also a fingerprint.
Security remained at top level on Friday in Berlin, where authorities said daily bomb threats were being received. Source:
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http://www.faz.com/
http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/docmain.asp?rub={B1311FCC-FBFB-11D2-B228-00105A9CAF88}&doc={1D78E75C-934C-4C09-8852-20D65A78A5D8}&width=768&height=547&agt=explorer&ver=4&svr=4
Please pray for the families of those needlessly killed, and those who survived and especially right now pray for those who may still be trapped alive--that they are found and rescued. God Bless America.
Remember not to allow this allowed terror to be used by government to take away your rights and expand the power of the government---(synthesis).
FBI 'Ignored Leads'
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba232131410.htm
Iranian Man in Germany Warned of Attack (WasAllowed to Ring WhiteHouse &CIA,Wasn't TakenSerious)
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba1c69709c5.htm
U.S. Gets Promise of Pakistani Cooperation
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba1c3340837.htm
How the World Trade Center Fell (Deadly Mistakes Made "I Would Have Given Order To Get Out!"Expert)
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba1b16f79fa.htm
Ashcroft: 18 Hijackers Involved in Attack (How Could So Many CarryOut Plot Undetected?ClintonHelp?)
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba141a25556.htm
(5)Suspects Caught Crashes on Camera (They Watched Crashes & Celebrated, Also Some Suspects Abroad) http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba0e1b83f28.htm
FBI Looks at bin Laden's Strong Ties to Boston (Why Didn't They Look & Act Before?!!)
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba02db8669d.htm
48 Iraqi & MidEasterns Caugh At Tightened Mexican Border Following U.S. Terrorist Attacks!
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba00b391f72.htm
ABC NEWS REPORTS 12 Plane HighJackers/Suspects Identified (Dead) & Arrest Warrants Issued For Others
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b9f8fbd7b5f.htm
Already Weak Airlines Stand to Lose Billions
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b9f18ae602c.htm
FBI Seizes 911 Tape (He Heard Some Sort of Explosion, Was It Shot Down Before Reaching Camp David?)
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b9ee9762979.htm
B-25&767 Hit WTC,3 Planes Hit Pentagon, Bomb Near WhiteHouse,PittsBHit,Who Coordinated?,10000Die
(This thread has over 50 different news stories on it.)
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b9e390647f1.htm
Breaking: US Congress Subpoena Orders Ashcroft To Release Clinton Evidence on Sept. 11, 2001
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b99d9b10b76.htm
By Matt Kelley
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Most came from Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, two of the Arab countries most friendly to the United States.
They said they were pilots, or airplane mechanics, or students, or tourists. Many claimed to work for Saudi Arabian Airlines, a government air carrier.
They betrayed not a word to their neighbors about what drove their suicide missions: commandeering airliners and flying them into two of America's most-treasured landmarks.
"They didn't talk to anyone about anything at all," said Azzan Ali, a fellow student at a Florida flight school attended by two men named by the FBI as hijackers.
The FBI on Friday released names of the 19 men it identified as the hijackers of the four planes used in the attacks.
Some of the men left little trace of their time in America. Others stayed for years, taking flight classes, buying cars, moving from apartments to boarding houses to rented homes.
Several clustered around Mohamed Atta, a square-jawed 33year-old pilot who ended up on the first plane to smash into New York's World Trade Center.
Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi, 23, trained as pilots together in Florida and stayed together in the home of a former flight school worker in the summer of last year. Those who came across them said they called each other "cousin" — the two are believed to be from the United Arab Emirates — and kept to themselves.he had a federal pilot's license.
Atta and Al-Shehhi also were together in Hamburg, Germany. Authorities there say they were part of an extremist group that planned attacks against high-profile American targets. The two also took classes at a technical school there.
Ziad Jarrahi had a pilot's license listing a Hamburg address. Jarrahi was on United Airlines Flight 93, a plane that was hijacked from a Newark, N.J., to San Francisco route and crashed in rural Pennsylvania.
When it came time for their fateful flights, Atta and Al-Shehhi split up. Al-Shehhi was on United Flight 175, the plane which hit the second World Trade Center tower. The plane carrying Atta hit the first.
Authorities believe Atta flew from Portland, Maine, to Boston on Tuesday morning with another hijacker, Abdulaziz Alomari.
Alomari also apparently took flight training in Florida. A man named Abdulrahman Alomari, whose rental house was searched by the FBI this week, told his landlord that he was a Saudi Arabian Airlines pilot getting more training at Flight Safety International, the flight school in Vero Beach where John F. Kennedy Jr. trained. A federal pilot's license for an Abdulrahman Saeed Alomari lists the pilot's address as the airline's post office box in Saudi Arabia.
"I can't confirm there was any link between any of these individuals and Saudi Arabian Airlines," airline spokesman Thomas Quinn said. "There's been no indication to this office that these individuals were our employees."
With Atta on the first plane was Waleed M. Alshehri, 25. Records show he had been in the United States since at least 1994, when he got a Social Security number and a Florida driver's license. In 1997, he graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida with a commercial pilot's training degree; he also has a commercial pilot's license.
Alshehri gave birth dates from 1974 to 1979 on various documents. Records show he lived in several different apartments in a complex in Daytona Beach, Fla., where EmbryRiddle is based. He also may have lived for a time at a boarding house in Vienna, Va., a Washington suburb.
Two other hijackers on American Flight 11, Wail Alshehri and Satam Al Suqami, had Florida driver's licenses listing the same apartment in Boynton Beach as their address. Records say Suqami had a Saudi driver's license.
Another hijacker who may have had a commercial pilot's license was Hani Hanjour,
who was aboard the American Airlines flight that slammed into the Pentagon. Federal records show a Hani Hanjoor received a commercial pilot's license in 1999, listing a Saudi address
I HAVE HEAR THEY DID
Do you ahve a story on it?
They must have some agents in our government.
By Matt Kelley Associated Press
WASHINGTON | Most came from Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, two of the Arab countries most friendly to the United States.
They said they were pilots, or airplane mechanics, or students, or tourists. Many claimed to work for Saudi Arabian Airlines, a government air carrier.
They betrayed not a word to their neighbors about what drove their suicide missions: commandeering airliners and flying them into two of America’s most treasured landmarks. ‘‘They didn’t talk to anyone about anything at all,’’ said Azzan Ali, a fellow student at a Florida flight school of two men named by the FBI as hijackers.
The FBI on Friday released names of the 19 men it identified as the hijackers of the four planes used in the attacks. Some of the men left little trace of their time in America. Others stayed for years, taking flight classes, buying cars, moving from apartments to boarding houses to rented homes.
Several clustered around Mohamed Atta, a square-jawed 33-year-old pilot who ended up on the first plane to smash into New York’s World Trade Center.
Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi, 23, trained as pilots together in Florida and stayed together in the home of a former flight school worker in the summer of last year. Those who came across them said they called each other ‘‘cousin’’ — the two are believed to be from the United Arab Emirates — and kept to themselves.
Al-Shehhi was in the United States on a tourist visa. Like Atta, he had a federal pilot’s license. Atta and Al-Shehhi also were together in Hamburg, Germany. Authorities there say they were part of an extremist group that planned attacks against high-profile American targets. The two also took classes at a technical school there.
Ziad Jarrahi had a pilot’s license listing a Hamburg address. Jarrahi was on United Airlines Flight 93, a plane hijacked from a Newark, N.J., to San Francisco route that crashed in rural Pennsylvania. When it came time for their fateful flights, Atta and Al-Shehhi split up. Al-Shehhi was on United Flight 175, the plane which hit the second World Trade Center tower. The plane carrying Atta hit the first.
Authorities believe Atta flew from Portland, Maine, to Boston on Tuesday morning with another hijacker, Abdulaziz Alomari.
Alomari also took flight training in Florida. He told his landlord that he was a Saudi Arabian Airlines pilot getting more training at FlightSafety International,
the flight school in Vero Beach where John F. Kennedy Jr. trained. A federal pilot’s license for an Abdulrahman Saeed Alomari lists the airline’s address in Saudi Arabia.
‘‘I can’t confirm there was any link between any of these individuals and Saudi Arabian Airlines,’’ airline spokesman Thomas Quinn said. ‘‘There’s been no indication to this office that these individuals were our employees.’’ Neighbors say Alomari was a family man. Living with him in the $1,400- a-month home were his wife and four school-age children. Neighbor Jim Smith said he noticed that when school started last month, Alomari’s wife and children were gone. Alomari moved out on Sept. 3.
He told his landlord he was going home. With Atta on the first plane was Waleed M. Alshehri, 25. Records show he had been in the United States since at least 1994, when he got a Social Security number and a Florida driver’s license. In 1997, he graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida with a commercial pilot’s training degree; he also has a commercial pilot’s license.
Alshehri gave birthdates from 1974 to 1979 on various documents. Records show he lived in several different apartments in a complex in Daytona Beach, Fla., where Embry-Riddle is based. He also may have lived for a time at a boarding house in Vienna, Va., a Washington suburb. FBI agents interviewed current tenants at the house, which is about three blocks from the Central Intelligence Agency’s headquarters.
Abdul Latif Darab, a native of Afghanistan who has lived in the United States since 1982, said he told the FBI that Alshehri had not lived at the address for at least the past 14 months. Darab said learned from the landlord that Alshehri was from Saudi Arabia. ‘‘He told the landlord he was going back home and that his father was a Saudi diplomat,’’ Darab said.
Another hijacker who may have had a commercial pilot’s license was Hani Hanjour, who was aboard the American Airlines flight which slammed into the Pentagon. Federal records show a Hani Hanjoor got a commercial pilot’s license in 1999, listing a Saudi Arabian address
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Pressure mounted yesterday to fix intelligence shortfalls in the battle against terrorism after what is being termed one of the nation's worst intelligence failures.
Sen. Richard C. Shelby, Alabama Republican and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, declined to comment directly when asked if CIA Director George J. Tenet is to blame for what he called "a gigantic failure of intelligence."
"When you have an operation this big, this well-planned and executed that goes undetected and, of course, unstopped, that is a failure of intelligence," Mr. Shelby said.
"We have to do better," he said, noting that funds must be added to "rebuild the human intelligence element of the intelligence community."
Sen. Pat Roberts, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for reforming weak U.S. intelligence analysis.
"I must tell you, I think in terms of the analytical side of the intelligence community we need a shake-up," Mr. Roberts, Kansas Republican, said in an interview.
The CIA and numerous other U.S. spy agencies had no warning that as many as 50 terrorists were planning the sophisticated operation to hijack four airliners and crash them into buildings in suicide attacks.
The CIA has said it had no warning of Tuesday's attacks and only vague indications that terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden was planning a major attack on U.S. soil. Bin Laden and his Islamic extremist group, al-Qeada, are the intelligence community's chief suspects.
Groups such as al-Qeada often avoid electronic communications such as telephones to prevent eavesdropping, according to intelligence specialists. They also maintain tight security for their groups by requiring members to commit crimes to prove they are not intelligence agents. There are also indications that terrorists use the Internet to communicate.
Mr. Roberts said he expected to carefully question Mr. Tenet when he appears before the committee to brief senators on the twin attacks in the coming days.
Asked if Mr. Tenet should be held accountable, Mr. Roberts said: "I think it's too early.
"There's going be a lot of speculation [about his future]," Mr. Roberts said. "He does have the ear of the president and he does have the trust of the president, so it's going to be pretty hard for people in Congress to do anything."
Mr. Roberts said the problem with U.S. intelligence analysts is that "they concentrate on the probable and what happened in the past instead of thinking out of the box and about the improbable."
Mr. Shelby said one key improvement would be the appointment of a Cabinet-level intelligence "czar" who could direct disparate U.S. intelligence agencies.
Former President George Bush said on CNN yesterday that U.S. intelligence agencies currently face too many restrictions.
"We have to free up the intelligence system from some of its constraints," Mr. Bush, a former CIA director, said. "I think we ought to take a hard look at whether we've gone too far in denying the intelligence community human intelligence capabilities."
Rep. Curt Weldon, Pennsylvania Republican, said the surprise attacks are a "total indictment of our intelligence capabilities" against terrorism.
Mr. Weldon declined to point the finger of blame directly at Mr. Tenet. But he said there needs to be "a complete top-to-bottom review of our intelligence capabilities as it relates to terrorism."
"How can you not have any intercept; how can you not have any data that show that this plot was occurring?" Mr. Weldon said.
Mr. Weldon is proposing an intelligence-reform effort that would create a joint intelligence center combining the data and networks of some 32 U.S. intelligence agencies. The creation of a National Operations and Analysis Hub has been resisted by the CIA and FBI because they fear losing bureaucratic power, he said.
Mr. Tenet said in a statement to CIA employees on Wednesday that while U.S. intelligence failed to stop the latest mass attacks, "CIA and our intelligence community have done much to combat terrorism in the past."
Fighter Response After Attacks Questioned
Senators Grill Nominee for Joint Chiefs Chairman on Military Readiness at Home
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 14, 2001; Page A08
Forty minutes passed between the time New York's second World Trade Center tower was struck by a hijacked commercial airliner Tuesday and another commandeered plane crashed into the Pentagon, and 27 more minutes elapsed before still another terrorist-directed plane went down in a Pennsylvania forest.
Yet no U.S. fighter jets were able to get into the air in time to prevent the assault on the Defense Department.
Whole story can be found Here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28008-2001Sep13.html
New York Post
September 14, 2001 -- MIAMI - Three men spewed anti-American sentiments in a bar and talked of impending bloodshed the night before the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, a Daytona Beach strip-club manager interviewed by the FBI said yesterday.
"They were talking about what a bad place America is. They said ‘Wait 'til tomorrow. America is going to see bloodshed,' " said John Kap, manager of the Pink Pony and Red Eyed Jack's Sports Bar. Kap said they made the claims to a bartender and a patron.
Federal agents were investigating on several fronts in Florida yesterday after searching homes and rental car documents and poring over flight school student records.
Kap said he told FBI investigators the men in his bar spent $200 to $300 apiece on lap dances and drinks, paying with credit cards. Kap said he gave the FBI credit card receipts, photocopied driver's licenses, a business card left by one man and a copy of the Koran that was left at the bar.
The FBI asked him not to reveal the men's names publicly, Kap said. He said they lived in three central Florida communities between Daytona Beach and Orlando.
While investigators pieced together evidence, two former Florida flight school students were identified by German authorities as terrorists aboard the two planes that smashed into the World Trade Center.
Hamburg investigators said Mohamed Atta, 33, and Marwan al-Shehhi, 23, had studied at the Technical University in Hamburg and had passports from the United Arab Emirates. Both men received pilot training at Huffman Aviation, a flight school in Venice, Fla., where FBI investigators are examining student records.
FBI investigators learned that Atta and al-Shehhi also took two three-hour courses at SimCenter Inc. in Opa-Locka, said Brian George, son of flight school owner Henry George.
"We were completely stunned and shocked," Brian George said yesterday. "My father said that if he didn't have a family to support he would stop teaching tomorrow. To think that someone would take what he taught them and turn it into a weapon."
Both men trained on a Boeing 727 full-motion simulator, he said.
The FBI issued a bulletin for authorities to look out for a silver 1996 Plymouth and its possible driver, Amer Kamfar, a flight engineer who listed a Saudi Airlines post office box as his address and lived in Vero Beach.
Agents were questioning Saudi flight engineer Adnan Bukhari, 41, whom a county sheriff's official said was cooperating with FBI inquiries. Bukhari was a student at Flight Safety, which trains commercial jet crews.
"It looks like he had an association with someone else involved," said a neighbor, Wendy Harp.
Agents searched four Vero Beach homes, including Bukhari's and the house next door, where another Flight Safety student, Abdulrahman Alomari, lived with his wife and four children.
They have plenty of fighter jets nearby.
There are atleast 20 military bases that could have gotten fighter jets there within 15 minutes.
But there are jets right in DC that are specifically there to defend the White House, Pentagon, Congress etc. that like you said could have been there in a minute.
Usually when I'm in DC I will see some fighter jets in the are during the day. From what I understand they keep some in the air nearby all the time.
Michigan Daily
HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — German investigators said yesterday that three hijackers aboard the planes in the U.S. terror attacks once lived in Hamburg and were part of an organization formed this year to destroy American targets.
German authorities, acting on tips from the FBI, also said that they had detained at least one man in connection with Tuesday’s attacks and were searching for another.
In France, special anti-terrorism prosecutors tried to find links with militant Islamic networks in their country, while police in Rome re-opened the case of a theft of uniforms and badges belonging to two American Airlines pilots in April.
Two of the men identified by Hamburg police as having perished in the attacks were Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi, both from the United Arab Emirates. Both had earlier been named as former students of a Florida flight school and are suspected of having flown two of the hijacked jets.
The German authorities indicated that they’d made no immediate links to Osama bin Laden, identified yesterday as a prime suspect.
Brian Knowlton International
Herald Tribune Friday, September 14, 2001
A Sustained Fight Is Promised; N.Y. Toll of Missing Near 5,000
WASHINGTON President George W. Bush pledged Thursday to "lead the world to victory" over terrorism in an effort that the Pentagon's No. 2 official said would be a sustained military campaign rather than a single dramatic action.
With the toll of dead and missing nearing 5,000 after Tuesday's attacks in New York and Washington, Mr. Bush, his eyes moist, said that while "I weep and mourn for America," he was receiving "universal approval" from leaders abroad for a war against terrorism.
Mr. Bush spoke in a televised conference call with Governor George Pataki of New York and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of New York City, in which he announced that he would visit the devastated site of the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan on Friday. Mr. Bush also declared Friday a national day of prayer and remembrance for victims of the attacks, in which hijacked jetliners destroyed the twin towers in New York and ripped a gaping hole in the Pentagon building.
In New York, weary and begrimed workers continued picking through the mountainous jumble of debris left by the collapse of the skyscrapers. Thousands of friends and relatives continued to maintain vigils of gut-wrenching uncertainty, still with no definite word on the fates of their loved ones.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said that the U.S. response would aim first at smashing those behind the attacks on Tuesday and then continue with "a global assault against terrorism in general."
"You don't do it with just a single military strike, no matter how dramatic," he said. "It's not just simply a matter of capturing people and holding them accountable, but removing the sanctuaries, removing the support systems, ending states who sponsor terrorism. And that's why it has to be a broad and sustained campaign."
Ari Fleischer, the presidential spokesman, was asked about Mr. Wolfowitz's use of the phrase "ending states." He did not retreat from that language, saying, "As the president said, the U.S. will use all our resources to conquer our enemies."
The Bush administration's intensive effort to build an international coalition to combat terrorism has already attracted strong declarations of support from a number of countries, but it was unclear at this early stage how such statements would translate into action. On Wednesday, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization formally agreed for the first time in its history to declare that the alliance's commitment to collective defense had been triggered, but European officials said Thursday that no one knew exactly what might be expected of them as a result. (Page 4)
In Germany on Thursday, senior officials echoed Mr. Bush's appeals for patience and appeared to be trying to cool war fever.
"I hope we all remain calm and do not now speak of a state of alarm. We do not face a war. We face the question of what is an appropriate response," Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping told German television.
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said, "Politics should not be dispensed with and will not be dispensed with." The United States won a declaration of support from Pakistan, a potentially critical ally because it borders Afghanistan, which has sheltered the Saudi militant, Osama bin Laden, whom American and allied officials have identified as a prime suspect in the attacks.
Pakistan's military leader, General Pervez Musharraf, pledged to Mr. Bush and the U.S. government "our fullest cooperation in the fight against terrorism."
Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States had "provided to the Pakistani government a specific list of things that we think would be useful for them to work on with us." He would not say whether the list included stationing U.S. troops in Pakistan, but gave an unmistakable hint that Pakistan was important because of Mr. bin Laden.
"When you look at the list of candidates" for possible complicity in the attacks, he said, "one resides in that region." Mr. Bush said he had had an "outpouring of support" in talks with world leaders, including President Jiang Zemin of China and President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
"There is universal approval of the statements I have made and I am confident there will be universal approval of the actions this government takes," he said.
"We have just seen the first war of the 21st century," Mr. Bush said, adding firmly, "Now that war has been declared on us, we will lead the world to victory."
Mr. Bush later went to a Washington hospital to visit victims of the plane that was crashed at the Pentagon. Defense officials there said the names of about 190 people, most of them army soldiers, were on the missing-persons list. The Pentagon resumed full operation Thursday.
Workers clearing debris there detected a signal of a flight data recorder from Flight 77, a fire official said. Authorities hope it may cast light on the path the plane followed before it hit the building.
Recorders from the three other planes have yet to be found.
In New York, Mr. Giuliani said that a missing-persons list had grown to 4,763 names.
Ninety-four bodies had been tagged, the mayor said, and 46 of them identified. Parts of 70 bodies had been recovered, he said, apologizing for having to make so "gruesome and horrible" an announcement.
Mr. Giuliani said that more than 2,000 families had registered with a New York emergency office, saying they were still unable to locate missing loved ones.
In addition to the casualties from the three hijacked airliners that struck the New York skyscrapers and the Pentagon, 45 people died when a fourth hijacked plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania.
Southern Manhattan Island was moving slowly to resume some imitation of normality.
The financial markets resumed limited operations, with bond trading again under way, but stock markets remained closed again Thursday in the most extended closing since World War II.
The nation's airports were reopening to commercial flights, but service was resuming at a wary and deliberate pace as airlines checked their security and implemented tough new measures. Most airports reopened at 11 a.m., eastern daylight time, but a few, including Reagan National Airport in Washington, remained closed.
Mr. Bush sought, in response to a reporter's question, to assure Americans of the safety of air travel. "If a family member asked whether they should fly," he said, "I say yes."
But the face of American air travel will be dramatically changed.
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said that, in an extraordinary step, the elite army commando force known as the Delta Force might be mobilized to assist in air security. Private flights were banned again Thursday; no mail was being carried on commercial flights.
At airports, and in some U.S. cities, people found a new military presence that to many was unsettling. In central Washington, for example, military police in fatigues were stationed at several corners, and camouflage-painted Humvee vehicles were parked on streets where lobbyists and lawyers have their offices.
Mr. Bush enjoyed continued showings of extraordinary political and public support.
The House minority leader, Richard Gephardt, Democrat of Missouri, said political leaders were as unified now as they had been after Congress voted to commit the nation to the Gulf War. "This is a national crisis," he said.
And the Republican whip, Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, said that he would drop his opposition to payment of U.S. back dues to the United Nations and expects Congress to act next week.
He said he would not "be obstructionist to the president" in a time of crisis.
Meanwhile, amid isolated outbreaks of anti-Arab or anti-Muslim violence or protest scattered across the country, both Mr. Bush and his father pleaded to the public to oppose and condemn such acts of hatred.
Police turned back 300 marchers - some waving American flags and shouting "USA! USA!" - as they tried to march on a mosque in a southwest Chicago suburb Wednesday.
President Bush noted, in his call to Mr. Pataki and Mr. Giuliani, that there are "thousands of Arab-Americans who live in New York City who love our flag just as much as we do" and exhorted Americans to treat "Arab-Americans and Muslims with the respect that they deserve."
His father, former President George Bush, said in a speech in Houston, "There will be a tendency in some quarters to lump in with the terrorists all those who believe in Islam. This we must strongly condemn."
Published Friday, September 14, 2001
New York Times Service
WASHINGTON -- The porous nature of the 5,525-mile U.S.-Canadian boundary got close scrutiny Thursday as FBI agents swept through Maine to investigate whether hijackers carrying out the terrorist attacks on Tuesday had entered this country from Canada.
Authorities on both sides have tightened security and inspections this week, causing huge traffic tie-ups.
At some crossing points between Michigan and Canada on Thursday, commercial traffic entering the United States waited nearly 15 hours. ``The backup is so extreme, it is impossible to estimate wait times,'' Canada's Customs and Revenue Agency announced.
Canadian authorities were inspecting every car that entered British Columbia on Thursday from Blaine, Wash. Identification like a birth certificate or a passport was required and every name and license plate was run through computers.
Members of Maine's congressional delegation said they had repeatedly urged federal law enforcement agencies to bolster protection on the Canadian border.
Associated Newspapers
Associated Newspapers Ltd., 15 September 2001
Armed guards on board planes, and isolated cockpits to protect pilots, could be introduced, Transport Secretary Stephen Byers says.
Mr Byers, who has met fellow EU transport ministers to agree common security procedures, says Israeli airline El Al had cockpits which could be isolated from the rest of the aircraft and security personnel on board.
He added: "This is a measure we will need to consider in the light of what happened (the terrorist attacks in America). This is a new form of terrorism and we need to respond to it in the appropriate way."
Mr Byers said: "What we need to do is to respond to the things we saw. We need to mourn the dead, we have to protect the living and we have to make sure our normal way of life is protected."
Mr Byers said the prospect of a suicidal terrorist, prepared to kill himself and all passengers, was a threat "our existing security measures had not taken into account".
A Pillar of Wall Street Is Struck by Tragedy
Diana B. Henriques and Jennifer 8. Lee New York Times
Service Friday, September 14, 2001
NEW YORK Until Tuesday, few people beyond the rarefied world of the government bond market had ever heard of the firm Cantor Fitzgerald LP, a 57-year-old institution that is an important piece of the backstage machinery of the Treasury market. But since the attack on the World Trade Center, the firm has emerged as a magnet for Wall Street's concern about the devastation and personal tragedy that the financial community has experienced. .
Of Cantor's more than 2,300 employees worldwide, about 1,000 worked at the company's headquarters on the 101st, 103d, 104th and 105th floors of 1 World Trade Center, the first tower to be hit in Tuesday's attack. Howard Lutnick, Cantor's chairman and chief executive, said at a meeting with employees' family members at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan on Wednesday that only about 270 had been accounted for.
Almost all of them had been on vacation or otherwise out of the building.
Among those still missing is William Meehan, the firm's well-known chief market strategist, who worked at the office in Darien, Connecticut, until late August.
At the Pierre, Mr. Lutnick addressed family members in a speech punctuated by sobs. His brother worked on the 103d floor, he told them. "While I look for your sons, daughters and husbands, I am also looking for my brother," he said.
He said he was walking into the building when the first plane hit, and he stayed by the door, grabbing people and asking them to call out their floor numbers as they rushed out. Ninety-one was the highest number he heard before the neighboring tower collapsed. Then he ran out.
Mr. Lutnick told the group that Cantor was determined to reopen its electronic trading service, eSpeed, which handles more than $200 billion in government securities transactions every day.
That system makes Cantor Fitzgerald a critical player in the nation's huge Treasury market, which helps establish benchmark interest rates for everything from home mortgages to business loans and which provides a low-risk haven for investors in turbulent times. The status of eSpeed was one factor that market officials weighed on Wednesday as they decided to reopen the government bond market, which had been closed since the attack.
But for the families of Cantor's New York employees - and in a larger sense, for everyone in the Wall Street family - the fate of the firm's employees loomed immeasurably larger than the sturdiness of the Treasury market. Hundreds of people attended the gathering at the Pierre, each wearing a name tag that bore the name of the wearer and that of a missing loved one.
Among the crowd was Barbara Weinberg. She had spent the day helping look for her 28-year-old niece, Shari Kandell, who joined Cantor only a few months ago. "I went to sleep and woke up this morning and realized it wasn't a dream," Ms. Weinberg said. Ms. Kandell's family recovered her car Wednesday morning from a commuter parking lot in Jersey City.
Throughout the day, executives at other Wall Street firms - even those with their own losses to count - called friends in the news media, seeking information about Cantor and passing along information gathered from colleagues and clients. It seemed that this small company had suddenly become the mascot for an entire industry.
Stuart Schwartz, an executive with Hoenig Co., a market research firm in Rye Brook, spoke to a client whose daughter had been talking with a friend at Cantor at the moment of Tuesday's dreadful impact. "The person said they were told to go to the roof - that there was no evacuation route down the stairs," Mr. Schwartz said. "They were above the fire - maybe they hoped for rescue from the roof, a helicopter rescue."
Cantor Fitzgerald employees might well have recalled a similar escape plan after the 1993 basement bombing, he added.
Some Cantor employees in Los Angeles and London were engaged in a conference call with colleagues in New York when the attack occurred. They listened in horror to the sounds of alarm and panic, and then the line went dead.
"I'm still hopeful," Lisa Hord said Wednesday morning by telephone. Her husband, Montgomery, called her immediately after the attack, she said. "He said there was smoke, and he was getting out," she said. "That's the last I heard."
Friends of John Perconti, a young equity trader at Cantor, said he was also among the missing. One friend, who rents a home in Hoboken, New Jersey, from Mr. Perconti, echoed what had become a familiar story: a phone call to Cantor that ended with the words "something happened" - and then silence.
Lloyd Rosenberg, 31, joined Cantor after graduating from high school and worked his way up from delivery boy to bond broker, said his mother, Michele, on Tuesday. "They saw he was an ambitious worker," she said. "They gave him a chance on the desk."
Mr. Rosenberg, who is the father of three girls under age 6, "never leaves his desk," she said.
She last spoke with her son at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday. It was a pleasant 10-minute conversation, she said.
"He said, 'Bye, Ma. I got to go now.' I said, 'Maybe this week, let's have lunch.'"
Bella Bhukhan, 24, who worked in Cantor's human resources office on the 104th floor, commuted by train from Union, New Jersey, with her sister, Nisha, who worked in the other tower. "She went her way, I went my way," Nisha Bhukhan said on Tuesday.
"I was about to go upstairs in the elevator when I felt trembling, and I just ran for the best exit," she said.
When she reached safety, Ms. Bhukhan added, "the first person I called was my sister."
But she was unable to find her sister and spent Tuesday moving from hospitals to makeshift morgues.
"I want my baby sister back," Ms. Bhukhan said.
Also please add this article to your FBI/CIA "forewarning or foreknowledge" lists.
David Shippers Speaks Out!!
News/Current Events News
Posted on 09/13/2001 17:07:20 PDT by DataPro01
David Shippers, former House legal counsel for the impeachment investigation and author of Sell Out, was interviewed by Quinn on his radio show this AM. Shippers had some very interesting things to say....some examples, Shippers claims that he contacted the Justice Dept weeks agon with warnings that a large terrorist strike involving southern Manhattan was imimnent. He was ignored. He also states that our best Middle Eastern terrorist expert, an FBI agent, has yet to be consulted. Essentially, Shippers is stating that when all is said and done the American public will find that the authorities had lots of information on a potential strike yet did nothing...and that the quick arrests are because of this fact...and the brave actions of flight attendants who phoned in the seat numbers of the terrorists before they were killed. I think this information needs to be heard and discussed...and have been urging national news shows to interview Shippers ASAP. Shippers interview with Quinn can be heard archived at www.warroom.com/archives the Wed 9/12 show. 1 Posted on 09/13/2001 17:07:20 PDT by DataPro01 [
Also please add this article to your FBI/CIA "forewarning or foreknowledge" lists.
David Shippers Speaks Out!!
News/Current Events News
Posted on 09/13/2001 17:07:20 PDT by DataPro01
David Shippers, former House legal counsel for the impeachment investigation and author of Sell Out, was interviewed by Quinn on his radio show this AM. Shippers had some very interesting things to say....some examples, Shippers claims that he contacted the Justice Dept weeks agon with warnings that a large terrorist strike involving southern Manhattan was imimnent. He was ignored. He also states that our best Middle Eastern terrorist expert, an FBI agent, has yet to be consulted. Essentially, Shippers is stating that when all is said and done the American public will find that the authorities had lots of information on a potential strike yet did nothing...and that the quick arrests are because of this fact...and the brave actions of flight attendants who phoned in the seat numbers of the terrorists before they were killed. I think this information needs to be heard and discussed...and have been urging national news shows to interview Shippers ASAP. Shippers interview with Quinn can be heard archived at www.warroom.com/archives the Wed 9/12 show. 1 Posted on 09/13/2001 17:07:20 PDT by DataPro01 [
Hijackers believed to have had helpers in Florida
MANNY GARCIA, DANIEL de VISE AND ANDRES VIGLUCCI aviglucci@herald.com
The five Florida men suspected as hijackers in Tuesday's terrorist attacks may have received help from local associates who provided cash and other support as they prepared for the deadly assaults, federal investigators believe.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said agents believe at least 12 people in South Florida might have been involved in the plot. That includes the five hijacking suspects, all of whom died in Tuesday's crashes.
The FBI on Thursday released from questioning one man whom agents had flown from Vero Beach to Miami. Adnan Bukhari insisted he was not involved in the plot and passed an FBI-administered polygraph test showing ``no deception,'' two sources familiar with the investigation said.
But the investigators broadened the scope of the probe to anyone possibly connected to the suspects, questioning other local pilots and flight students of Middle Eastern origin who might have known the five men.
After three days of frenetic work, investigators have developed this picture: Most of the Florida suspects lived like college students and had little or no history of employment -- yet could somehow afford expensive flight training, some of it costing as much as $25,000, and paid for many expenses in cash.
``Somebody other than these guys was paying the bills,'' said a U.S. Justice Department source familiar with the probe.
The investigators also searched a Deerfield Beach motel where two central suspects in the probe, Mohamed Atta, 33, and Marwan Alshehhi, 23, may have lodged as recently as Monday night.
More details about Atta and Alshehhi emerged from German police, who said the two had been students at a university in Hamburg before coming to the United States sometime in the past year.
Police searched a Hamburg apartment they said had been rented until February by Atta, Alshehhi and an unidentified third man. In connection with their investigation, the Hamburg police also took into custody a Moroccan man who worked at the city's international airport. They declined to disclose his name. They also were looking for another man believed to have been involved in the attacks.
The German police described Atta and Alshehhi as citizens of the United Arab Emirates who had been enrolled in the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg, where Atta founded an Islamic student group.
``It's highly likely that the clues needed to solve this mystery lie in student circles in Germany,'' the country's top prosecutor, Kay Nehm, said at a press conference.
Late Thursday, German federal investigators shut down the campus computer network, searched a room rented by the Islamic student group that Atta founded, and were combing through the group's computer.
In addition, FBI agents are studying records that tie at least two of the Florida suspects to Saudi Arabian Airlines and FlightSafety International, a flight-training school in Vero Beach. The link: One suspect said he was an engineer for the Saudi airline, and a second gave an airline post-office box as an address. Agents reportedly are interviewing three Saudi Arabian flight engineers studying for pilot licenses.
ON PAPER TRAIL
The investigators pored through financial records Thursday, searching for leads that might ferret out the suspected hijackers' funding source. They were building exhaustive financial profiles of the suspected hijackers and everyone possibly connected to them. Among the records being subpoenaed: cellular phone call lists, credit card invoices, apartment rental receipts, checking account records, vehicle ownership, mail drop rental contracts and searches of the mailboxes themselves.
``We're retracing where they lived and how they lived,'' said a federal source.
They were also racing to find additional people connected to the suspects who may have had flight training but were not on Tuesday's fatal flights.
Investigators say Atta and Alshehhi had the necessary training to at least steer the airplanes that slammed into the World Trade Center in New York on Tuesday. Both men had lived and trained at flight schools together up and down the state. Both had commercial pilot licenses.
Atta, of Coral Springs, and three other Florida suspects -- Waleed Al Shehri, 25, Abdulatif al-Omari, 31, and Wail M. Al Shehri, 28 -- were passengers on American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to hit the trade center.
Alshehhi, of Hollywood, was on United Airlines Flight 175, the second aircraft to strike the center.
A Vero Beach man, Amer Mohammed Kamfar, was being sought by the FBI for questioning.
MOTEL SEARCHED
A tip led agents to a Deerfield Beach motel, where Atta and Alshehhi may have stayed Monday. Federal agents and crime-scene specialists from the Broward Sheriff's Office converged on the Panther Motel, 715 South A1A, Thursday afternoon.
FBI agents walked the transient beach neighborhood, showing photos of four Arab men who, they said, could have been in the area on Monday.
Joe Carroll, 33, a neighbor, said two of the photos were of Atta and Alshehhi. Agents were asking hoteliers if any of the men -- or anyone with an Arabic name -- had stayed at their properties between August 23 and September 10.
The owners of the Panther, Diane and Richard Surma, would not answer reporters' questions.
Another tip took investigators to Daytona Beach, where three men who appeared to be Middle Eastern criticized the United States hours before the attack in a conversation with fellow patrons at a sports and nude bar, bragging, ``America is going to see blood, just wait until tomorrow.''
Pink Pony owner John Kap said he dismissed the Monday-night incident as beery bar banter -- until he heard the news about the jet attacks the following morning.
FBI officials wouldn't comment on the tip, but Kap said he turned over individual credit card receipts for each of the men, their driver license information, a Koran the men left behind and a business card one of the men slipped to a woman working at the bar.
Kap refused to name the men or indicate where they lived, but he said the FBI told him the information ``was one of the most substantial leads they had.''
Kap said the three men had stopped by the bar -- a sports bar and adjoining strip club -- about 10 p.m. They sat at the bar, racking up tabs of $40 to $80, and slipped back to watch the dancers writhing on the poles.
Herald staff writers Lisa Arthur, Erika Bolstad, Alfonso Chardy, Lesley Clark, Wanda J. DeMarzo, Larry Lebowitz, Phil Long, Curtis Morgan and Jay Weaver contributed to this report.
`Strange that all they wanted to do was turns,' instructor recalls
Published Friday, September 14, 2001
Miami Herald
By DAVID KIDWELL, JENNIFER BABSON AND MANNY GARCIA
dkidwell@herald.com
Two men under federal scrutiny in the terrorist jet hijackings spent several hours practicing turns in a Miami-area commercial flight simulator nine months before the attacks.
Aviation experts -- including a crestfallen flight instructor who helped them improve their pilot skills -- agreed Thursday it probably was all the training they needed.
``Looking back on it, it was a little strange that all they wanted to do was turns,'' said Henry George, 56, a former Eastern Airlines pilot who runs Simcenter Inc. at Opa-locka Airport. ``Most people who come here want to do takeoffs and landings.''
Once a huge airliner is airborne, it isn't too difficult for anyone with basic pilot training to steer, aviators say. Onboard computers are designed to keep the plane stable and on course.
George said he feels betrayed that his skills as a pilot could have been used by the the men under investigation to hone theirs.
``They told me they just wanted to get the feel for the controls,'' George said. ``They said the company they were applying to work for required the training. I try to treat everyone the same. They were qualified, licensed pilots. I didn't think twice about it.
``Now I have to live this for the rest of my life.''
Federal authorities say the two men, Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi, had the training needed to pilot the two Boeing 767s that hit the World Trade Center towers. Both were on the passenger manifests. The homes and acquaintances of both have been the targets of federal search warrants and interrogations since Tuesday.
George said the two men paid him $1,500 for a total of six hours in a Boeing 727 simulator on Dec. 29 and 30. Each spent about 90 minutes per day in the simulator -- which has controls similar to a 767.
He said both men showed him their flying credentials -- although a pilot's license is not required to use the simulator.
George said they were serious and professional.
``I can't describe the pain we feel,'' George said in his tiny hangar office at Opa-locka Airport. ``I helped these people. I sat there with them and answered their questions and participated in perfecting their skills.
``I don't know how I can live my life with this,'' he said. ``I can only hope I'll get over it. I mean, people are comparing this to Pearl Harbor -- how would you feel?''
George said he called the FBI on Wednesday after he recognized Atta's name from news reports.
Hundreds of agents have been scouring the Florida landscape, trying to retrace the steps of the suspected hijackers and their acquaintances.
Administrators at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach confirmed Thursday that Waleed Al Shehri, another passenger on the same flight as Atta, attained a B.A. in aeronautical science in 1997. The degree is considered a stepping stone to landing a commercial flying job.
The FBI has interviewed flight school owners in Palm Beach County who said Atta and a companion had requested ``low wing'' airplanes to rent as recently as last month.
The requests were for single-engine planes with wings attached below the fuselage. Some speculated that while the flight controls in no way resemble commercial jets, a low wing would provide a more clear line of sight in a turn.
``All the Boeings are low wings,'' said Joe Kemper, president of Kemper Aviation at Palm Beach County Park Airport in Lantana. ``That's the only thing I could think of that might have made a difference. Visibility might be closer to the same in a turn.''
Chuck Clapper, a retired USAir pilot and owner of Lantana Air, was also interviewed by the FBI on Wednesday.
``I may have rented them a plane for a day or two, but that would be worthless to them if they had any simulator time,'' Clapper said. ``For what they did, a couple hours in a commercial jet simulator would have been more than enough.''
Said Kemper: ``They could have gone to CompUSA and picked up a Microsoft flight simulator program and learned enough from that. All they did was steer.''
FBI agents are also examining that computer program, which includes a simulated path over Lower Manhattan.
Mario Guerrier, director of Miami-Dade Community College's aviation school at Homestead, said even limited simulator training would be sufficient to steer an airliner.
``It's like teaching someone to crash a car; it did not require an incredible amount of discipline to achieve that,'' Guerrier said. ``To take off or land, that's where it requires a great deal of proficiency.''
Facts too Irrefuteable???
WE ALL had a clear, strong warning that Tuesday's destruction was in the works just less than two years ago when a fully-loaded airliner leaving Kennedy airport in the early hours of October 31, 1999 had the cockpit taken over by an unscheduled pilot who crashed the plane into the sea screaming it was for the glory of Allah. President Clinton and his state department minions immediately assured Americans that it was not an act of terrorism. The final report said the pilot was depressed and suicidal - acting on his own.
Now, who was stupid enough to believe this liar and his gang and NOT take precautionary actions to prevent cockpit takeover by Islamic fundamentalist extremists?
answer: America.
I was disgusted. I sounded the warning on November 1 - knowing even then that it was a terrorist act. For the next two years I have been telling everyone that flight 990 was downed by terrorism and they got away with it and will do it again and again.... I have been told to put on my tin foil hat and watch out for black helicopters and that I was consumed with paranoia about Osama bin Laden and needed to get a life. Such is the defamation people who expose Clinton's lies were subject to.
Now we are told to be quiet and united - not to speak ill of anyone because we are all suffering.
I will not be quiet! WE have traitors in our midst and still working within the government at all levels!
FIRE all of the investigators who signed on to the report concluding that EgyptAir 990's fate was in the hands of a lone renegade pilot. These investigators have blood on their hands. That's just a start in the war against terrorism right here in our own country.
When our President said that terrorists will be brought to justice and the people who harbor them, I wonder if that would include Bill and Hillary, two people who never knew a terrorist they didn't like and succeeded in destroying security not just at the White House but also in the entire nation.
Clinton surely is an oily snake. He has a problem at home with the Lewinski situation, decides to indiscriminately bomb a country with Muslims in it and makes a fellow terrorist mad who then retaliates by sending his own men over here to kill as many Americans as they can. And then he has the audacity to show up on a street in New York City sharing his "condolences" with weeping women, in front of many cameras.
It would be nice if we could capture and bring to justice as many of these terrorists as possible, including those born and bred on our own land.
FBI Links 16 In Tuesday's Terror Strikes To Bin Laden
By Dan Eggen and Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 14, 2001; Page A01
Authorities detained two armed groups at New York airports yesterday, fearing they intended to hijack a pair of jetliners and mount another suicidal terrorist strike on a U.S. target, government officials said.
Both groups carried knives, false identification and open tickets to U.S. destinations dated Tuesday – the day of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, sources said. They also had certificates from a Florida flight training school attended by some members of the previous hijacking teams, who were similarly armed when they commandeered four aircraft.
*Rest of story here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28289-2001Sep13.html
I've got to comment and run but having been involved in thousands of investigations myself, I am very troubled at the evidence that is being "handed to" law enforcement.
It could be to rub our noses in the simplicity and effectiveness of this terrorist act, but I am still very concerned.
Leaving business cards, talking openly about anti-American sentiment and forecasting a bloody outcome the next day ape the actions of a small-time gang-banger bragging about a planned crime.
This was a well-planned, coordinated terrorist act perpetrated by professionals/zealots. Leaving flight plans written in Arabic in a vehicle outside an airport was intentional. It just doesn't make sense to me.
It Should!
[Clinton]He has a problem at home with the Lewinski situation, decides to indiscriminately bomb a country with Muslims in it and makes a fellow terrorist mad who then retaliates by sending his own men over here to kill as many Americans as they can. And then he has the audacity to show up on a street in New York City sharing his "condolences" with weeping women, in front of many cameras.
-- Slyfox
That is the evil man he is, and it's sad that more people can't see or don't want to believe (even on FR) just how evil he really is.
Breaking: US Congress Subpoena Orders Ashcroft To Release Clinton Evidence on Sept. 11, 2001 http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b99d9b10b76.htm
Or if -- like about 15,000 other criminal aliens, every day of the year -- they simply help themselves -- and walk across our joke "borders."
Or they just walked in.
The whole immigration/border deal is a sham.
Anyone can just walk in and -- if he will promise to immediately register as a "Democrat" and be sure and vote at least once in every election -- can stay forever.
[Sydney lowered its flags to half mast on Thursday]--pictured
Thursday, 13 September, 2001, 12:41 GMT 13:41 UK
BBC
A senior Australian minister has cited the terrorist attacks on the United States to justify the governments efforts to block asylum seekers trying to enter the country.
The remarks by Defence Minister Peter Reith came as the government tried on Thursday to overturn a court ruling that it had illegally detained hundreds of Afghan migrants during attempts to prevent them entering Australian territory.
An open door... is an invitation for trouble in the future
-- Peter Reith
Mr Reith said the attacks highlighted the government's case that it must have the right to refuse entry to unauthorised arrivals for security reasons.
The court ruling applies to 433 Afghan refugees currently being transported on board a troopship to the Pacific island state of Nauru after being picked up off Australia's Christmas Island last month.
Another 237 asylum seekers, also aboard the troop carrier HMAS Manoora but picked up from a sinking Indonesian boat on Saturday, are not affected by the ruling.
Appeal
Appealing against Tuesday's court ruling, which set a deadline of Friday for the refugees to be brought to Australian soil, the Solicitor General David Bennett argued the government had the executive power to turn away people trying to enter the country illegally even if it involved reasonable force and detention.
Peter Reith inspected reception facilities on Nauru earlier this week
Speaking to a commercial radio station, Mr Reith said the government had to be allowed to prevent entry in this way.
"Otherwise it can be a pipeline for terrorists to come in and use your country as a staging post for terrorist activities," he said.
But Australia's opposition leader Kim Beazley, who has so far broadly supported the government's policies on immigration, questioned on Thursday whether there was any basis in fact for Mr Reith's remarks.
He said intelligence briefings in relation to the threat of terrorist attack did not mention illegal immigrants. A judgement is expected in the next few days, if the government loses it can take the appeal to the High Court.
Defiant boatload
As the court sat, another boat containing 129 asylum
seekers breached a naval blockade to land on Ashmore Island, a remote uninhabited Australian reef favoured as a drop-off point by people seeking asylum.
The boat, the Sumbar Bahagia, defied warnings to change course. An Immigration Ministry spokesman said: "They insisted on coming in and some threatened to jump off they weren't allowed to."
The spokesman said there were no plans to bring the people to the mainland and they would remain with their boat until a decision is made on what to do with them.
UN warning
About 5,000 boat people have arrived in Australia annually in recent years, a sharp rise on the few hundred who arrived five years ago.
The Australian Government says there are up to another 9,000 potential migrants waiting in Indonesia and Malaysia to attempt a crossing, and its hardline policy has proved popular with the Australian public.
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) warned the government on Thursday it could be breaching its international obligations by preventing illegal immigrants from coming ashore.
"UNHCR would not wish to see Australia undertaking measures which would reverse an important and longstanding humanitarian tradition against so called 'push-off'," the UNHCR said.
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