Al Qaeda Agent's 9/11 Role Comes Into Focus

LAT ^ | May 21, 2006 | Richard A. Serrano

[FairOpinion]

Ammar al-Baluchi, once considered a bit player, is alleged to have served as trainer and banker for several of the hijackers.

Until recently, Ammar al-Baluchi was considered a peripheral player in Al Qaeda, a functionary who made travel arrangements and wired money for terrorists.

But new government disclosures place Baluchi in a larger role in the Sept. 11 preparations and rank him No. 4 among the conspirators captured by U.S. forces after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Indeed, investigators say he was instrumental in acquiring a Boeing 747 flight simulator and a Boeing 767 flight-deck video for the hijackers to practice on before heading to the United States.

"He was turning up everywhere we looked — like a chameleon," recalled one federal agent who spoke on condition of anonymity because of ongoing investigations.

A man of many names, Baluchi seemed to have his hand in everything.

He allegedly served as travel agent, personal banker and mother hen for at least nine of the 19 hijackers, sending them off from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for their fateful rendezvous in the United States.

Baluchi also reportedly sent onetime "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla on his way to Chicago with thousands of dollars and travel documents, though Padilla was captured as he stepped off the plane.

[FairOpinion]

I hope we interrogated him, until we squeezed him dry.

Very interesting, we thought he wasn't important --- how many other AQ might we have, who pretend to be insignificant.

More interesting info in the article.

That's why serious interrogations are needed.

[1066AD]

As long as they don't put panties on his head ;)

purchased a Boeing 747-400 flight simulator" using the credit card of Marwan al Shehhi, who piloted the second plane into the trade center.
Pretty healthy credit limit unless it was just MS Flight Simulator or similar.

[SoothSayerONETIME]

sounds innocent to me
/sarcasm

[holden]

Having written a lot of the first MS 747-400 Flight Sim, I guess I could feel flattered. Our local flight school at CMI, however, taught quite a few Saudis how to fly real aircraft prior to 911. I think most of them were probably Saudi military, but in any event, the whole project dried up shortly after 911.

In the 747 Flight Sim, we packed in quite a few of the aural warnings and had pretty accurate gauge behavior. But of course, very few actual 747 flights are intra-US domestic flights. I wonder if they were thinking Bojinka with such a purchase. Though I don't see it was verified to have been the Microsoft one, I don't recall any other 747-400 sim that would have reasonably been purchased using a credit card.

The training I got--mostly at the Boeing factory--to help design and implement the $50-in-a-box heavy sims would have been ideal for a hijacker. I got maybe 40 hours total among 727, 737, 747, 757, and 767 motion sims. I usually landed, too, however.

Seems to me the guy who landed on the White House lawn with a Cessna had a copy of Flight Sim--perhaps even on board. That was one I could feel bad about, as we had just prior to that come out with the photo-realistic image maps of the inside-the-beltway, DC area.

HF

[AmeriBrit]

It really is discouraging when they don't treat these things any more serious than a game of cards.

I think the next attack is going to make 9/11 seem like a walk in the park.

The whole worlds gone crazy.




http://www.goodolddogs3.com/HonorOurVets.html

[holden]

A few years after we came out with lat/lon-accurate DC photo-realistic scenery, I had an intel guy tell me in DC that our product had been slapped down on the table in some high muckety-muck meeting with the idea that, "With this kind of product in the wrong hands, who knows what kind of havoc would be possible (in DC)!"

That was in about 1997. Microsoft took over the product in late 1995, and I don't think the NY area was covered in the same way DC was by 911. OTOH, on a clear day in Manhattan, one wouldn't be dependent on a photo-realistic map to find a tall tower to hit.

Unless one is wiling to trust completely in inertial navigation systems that terrorist hijackers would likely not be very familiar with, in the DC area, from just a couple of thousand feet (given required glidepath angles and only so much time before the SAMs could take you out at slower speeds), you'd really have to know your way around to hit most targets such as the White House, Pentagon, etc.

I wonder if they had their target lat/lon coordinates written on their arms.

HF

[bpjam]

How long before the NYTimes declares this guy a victim of our pre-emptive foreign policy and Halliburton?

[Molly Pitcher]

You probably want to read this.

[sono]

How many more are out there?

[piasa]

Ammar al-Baluchi, once considered a bit player, is alleged to have served as trainer and banker for several of the hijackers.

One of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's alias is Muktar Balucci.

Relates to the Baluchistan region.