Seven Pilots Were Among 19 Hijackers (Evidence Terrorist Operation Planned Attacks For 5 Years!)

NINETEEN men, including seven trained pilots, were named by the FBI yesterday as being responsible for hijacking the four American airliners to destroy the two World Trade Centre towers and damage the Pentagon.

To prevent the trail of 52 people they want to question about the attacks from going cold, the FBI circulated their names to airlines and the operators of railway lines and marine passenger vessels.

John Ashcroft, the Attorney General, said: "It's pretty clear that there were probably others involved in these endeavours and it's our interest to track those individuals down."

Evidence emerged that the terrorist operation that killed thousands in New York and Washington had been planned for at least five years and that for six months the hijackers had been investigating Logan airport in Boston, where two of the planes took off.

At least five of the 10 hijackers had been travelling under Saudi documents or came from Saudi Arabia to gain entry to America and flight-training schools in Florida. Saudi citizens are not required to get FBI clearance to obtain flight training in America.

The 19 hijackers were Marwan Al Shehhi, Fayez Ahmed, Mohald Al Shehri, Hamza Alghamdi and Ahmed Al Ghamdi on United Airlines Flight 175 which destroyed the World Trade Centre; Waleed M Al Shehri, Wail Al Shehri, Mohamed Atta, Abdulaziz Alomari and Satam Al Suqami on American Airlines Flight 11, which also destroyed the World Trade Centre; Khalid Al-Midhar, Majed Moqed, Nawaq Alhamzi, Salem Alhamzi and Hani Hanjour on American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed on the Pentagon; and Ahmed Alhaznawi, Ahmed Alnami, Ziad Jarrahi and Saeed Alghamdi on United Airlines Flight 93 which crashed in Pennsylvania.

Of the 19 names, at least two-thirds had surnames associated with the south-west corner of Saudi Arabia or Yemen, which is where the bin Laden family originates.

America remained on its highest state of alert, with fighter aircraft still circling the skies over seven of its major cities and FBI agents on duty at all major airports.

The Secret Service, responsible for the security of America's senior leaders, kept Vice-President Dick Cheney away from President George W Bush, a precaution only usually taken in time of war.

He was at the presidential retreat of Camp David as the president attended a prayer service in the National Cathedral in Washington, 70 miles away.Seven pilots were among 19 hijackers

Meanwhile, police in Belgium and Holland arrested a total of six Islamic extremists yesterday as forces across Europe, helped by FBI units on special European duty, combed the Continent in the hunt for terrorists linked to Tuesday's attacks.

In Germany, police and teams of FBI officers were concentrating on Hamburg where three hijackers in Tuesday's suicide attacks were running a cell dedicated to the "spectacular destruction" of key American buildings.

Mohamed Atta, 33, from the United Arab Emirates, who took the controls of the first plane that hit the World Trade Centre, was part of the Hamburg cell.

In Brussels, Belgian police arrested two Islamic extremists and seized weapons including machine pistols. The arrests followed tip-offs from the Belgian state security service that one of those arrested may have been preparing attacks on American targets in Europe.

Dutch police said they had arrested four Muslim radicals on Thursday in the port of Rotterdam. Across the US, there was continued evidence of edginess, with 12 people detained at airports around New York late on Thursday.

They were reported to be armed Arabs, some of whom had certificates from Florida flight training schools and had been originally booked on transAmerican flights on Tuesday. But these reports proved to be untrue.

Only one person was detained for any length of time, on suspicion of proffering a fake pilot's identity card. Two people were detained on a cruise ship in Miami but authorities refused to say if their detention was linked to Tuesday's atrocities.

An Iranian being held in prison in Hanover, Germany, warned the White House last week that a terror attack big enough to threaten the world order would be launched on America within days, the German federal prosecutor's office said.

The man, who was awaiting deportation, made a total of 14 calls to the American authorities in the days immediately before the attack. He specified that the attack would come this week.

But the Iranian was not taken seriously by the FBI or German authorities because his warnings were considered too vague.

Don't forget the FAA airport security manipulations to enable the attacks. The FAA failings were reported to everyone from the White House on down. Those in the FAA who took airport or FAA facility security seriously were methodically terminated by the FAA.

Multiple reports to Congress - or any other agency - had zero-effect.

Check out -

Airline Safety ‘Net

- for a good look at the FAA.

the PBS program is "Hunting Bin Laden," and well worth watching. Go here to read full transcription that I posted last night: ( Hunting Bin Laden)

It's very long; you might want to bookmark for future reading. At the end of transcription, there's a link to the PBS page. Hope you can catch the show.

FAA checking report of suspected terrorist visiting airport control tower

By ROBERT O'NEILL The Associated Press 9/16/01 11:11 PM

BOSTON (AP) -- Federal authorities are checking whether a suspected terrorist took a tour of the control tower at Logan International Airport three days before planes from the airport were hijacked, the FAA confirmed Sunday.

The FAA initiated an internal investigation after receiving a tip, said Jim Peters, spokesman for the New England regional office of the Federal Aviation Administration.

There is no log kept of tower visitors, and no security video. That means everyone who worked at the tower must be interviewed, Peters said.

The FAA, as a courtesy, allows pilots to tour the tower, though access is restricted. An air traffic controller at Logan, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said foreigners usually need permission from an FAA regional office before being allowed into the tower. The controller said he had not seen anyone matching the description of the hijackers in the tower.

The FAA regional office in Burlington, Mass., refused to comment, referring questions to spokesmen in New York.

The FBI says 10 men hijacked two passenger jets bound from Boston to Los Angeles on Tuesday morning and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York City. Two other hijacked jets crashed into the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

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