Hijack 'suspects' alive and well

BBC ^ | September 23, 2001 | Some Brit, I suppose

[Johnny Shear]

Another of the men named by the FBI as a hijacker in the suicide attacks on Washington and New York has turned up alive and well.

The identities of four of the 19 suspects accused of having carried out the attacks are now in doubt.

Saudi Arabian pilot Waleed Al Shehri was one of five men that the FBI said had deliberately crashed American Airlines flight 11 into the World Trade Centre on 11 September.

His photograph was released, and has since appeared in newspapers and on television around the world.

Now he is protesting his innocence from Casablanca, Morocco.

He told journalists there that he had nothing to do with the attacks on New York and Washington, and had been in Morocco when they happened. He has contacted both the Saudi and American authorities, according to Saudi press reports.

He acknowledges that he attended flight training school at Dayton Beach in the United States, and is indeed the same Waleed Al Shehri to whom the FBI has been referring.

But, he says, he left the United States in September last year, became a pilot with Saudi Arabian airlines and is currently on a further training course in Morocco.

He says he is an engineer with Saudi Telecoms, and that he lost his passport while studying in Denver.

Another man with exactly the same name surfaced on the pages of the English-language Arab News.

The second Abdulaziz Al Omari is a pilot for Saudi Arabian Airlines, the report says.

Meanwhile, Asharq Al Awsat newspaper, a London-based Arabic daily, says it has interviewed Saeed Alghamdi.

He was listed by the FBI as a hijacker in the United flight that crashed in Pennsylvania.

And there are suggestions that another suspect, Khalid Al Midhar, may also be alive.

FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged on Thursday that the identity of several of the suicide hijackers is in doubt.

[Johnny Shear]

Any chance any of this is true?

[sinkspur]

No. How many "Waleed al Sheehi"s are there in the Middle East? A couple thousand?

And I never read Mueller's comment about the hijackers identities being in doubt anywhere but here.

[Jalapeno]

If this was true, it would of come out a little earlier...like September 2001 or so...I can't imagine he would be flying for over a year after the fact.

If true, then there are still problems with our security departments.

[Jalapeno]

If true, then there are still problems with our security departments Adding to that, they probably checked him out long ago, and determined he was not the guy. The press could of been resoponsible for the distribution of the wrong pic.

[xJones]

Ah, the dear BBC. The next thing you know, there won't be any 19 Muslim hijackers, it was all a CIA fubar.

[Angelus Errare]

Al-Shehri is like "Smith" in Arabic. A rough translation might be "the king's man." I imagine that there might be more than a few of them in Saudi Arabia.

[Angelus Errare]

More these names.

Al-Omari means "of Omar," which means that this guy's family at some point claimed descent from one of the early Muslim caliphs.

Al-Ghamdi means "of Ghamdi" and is a reference to a region of Saudi Arabia.

Al-Midhar is an alternate spelling of al-Madar, which means "the sign."

Needless to say, Walid, Abdul Aziz (Abdulaziz), Saeed, and Khalid are all common Muslim names taken from those of Mohammed's companions.

By way of comparison, if you were looking for John Robertson, Luke Smith, and Donald Forrester you'd turn up quite a few people.

[dinodino]

Yeah, but what about the fact that he attended the flight school? Sounds like possible identity theft--that, or these guys GAVE their documents to the hijackers.

[ArcLight]

Huh? Why is this year-old story being posted now?

[Bella]

This isn't the first time a story about the hijackers being alive has surfaced..there's more to this..

[Freedom of Speech Wins]

Atta's father also claimed there was mistaken identity. That his son's identity was stolen by a terrorist. Though I don't believe him, I suppose it is possible that some of the hijackers were using false identities, and were identified by the assumed identity.