TERRORISM - WORLD TRADE CENTER

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SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

DAY 1      DAY 2     DAY 3    DAY 4     DAY 5  with large map  DAY 6- with anomalous photo

DAY 7    DAY 8    DAY 9    DAY 10

 MILITARY PAGE     PASSENGERS    TALIBAN

NUMBER SYMBOLISM OF THE WTC BOMBING

NUMBER OF MISSING REDUCED TO 4717 THEN INCREASED TO 4972 IRAN CLOSES ITS BORDER TO PREVENT AFGHANIAN REFUGEES FROM FLOODING IN THE WAR HAS BEGUN:  Afghan Opposition Leader Dead - Massood's Death Deals Blow to Anti-Taliban Alliance - KILLED BY A SUICIDE BOMB EYE WITNESS ACOUNT - BUILDING 2 FELL BECAUSE BUILDING 1 FELL AND DAMAGED IT'S LOWER LEVELS

Skolnick - US Government  Had Prior Knowledge Of Emergency By Sherman H. Skolnick skolnick@ameritech.net http://www.skolnicksreport.com America's Reichstag Fire The most massive so-called "terrorist" attacks on U.S. soil since the Oklahoma City bombings of 1995, were known, a week ahead of time, by the American CIA. Among the foreign intelligence agencies who penetrated the plots were the French CIA and Israel's The Mossad, units of both often working with one another. Foreign intelligence sources confirm the validity of this story. And they state that they informed the U.S. secret police who absolutely failed, neglected, and outright refused to take action as to known prior specifics of which the top-level of the CIA were informed in advance. As made known to the CIA, were the following, among other details: [1] That George Herbert Walker Bush, as President, at the close of the Persian Gulf War, 1991, arranged to bring into the U.S. some four thousand Iraqi military officers, some from intelligence units, and their families. [2] Some 550 of these officers became residents in Lincoln, Nebraska, AND TWO THOUSAND OF THEM took up residence in Oklahoma City. In a watered down story, CBS' "60 Minutes" Program did a segment once on this about Lincoln, Nebraska but said NOTHING about the Iraqi military officers in Oklahoma City. [3] The financial and other provisions for them and their families were arranged by the Elder Bush, and then quietly continued by Bill Clinton as President, and perpetuated by George W. Bush as White House "resident" and "occupant". The arrangements included financial subsidies, housing, and employment for the Iraqi officers. [A brave Oklahoma City TV Reporter, Jayna Davis, on their local TV station, put on the air several stories about the Iraqi connection to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building, the bombing done with the aid of domestic dissidents as surrogates. A group bought out the TV station and silenced her. Timothy McVeigh's chief defense counsel for the murder trial, Stephen Jones, on behalf of McVeigh, filed an extra-ordinary petition in the next higher court, just prior to the murder trial. To no avail, Jones tried to force Denver U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch to compel the American CIA to disgorge records held by them showing prior U.S. knowledge of the bombing, as confirmed by other known records, some of them also in secret court records. We have a copy of the 185 page U.S. Court of Appeals, 10th Circuit, petition filed by Jones and almost uniformly ignored by the American monopoly press. The petition raises the Iraqi connection.] [4] The foreign intelligence agencies informed the American CIA that guns would be planted on-board as many as ten U.S. commercial airflights. This to be done by airplane clean-up crew members who are generally not subject to airport security provisions. These workers most likely did not know the purpose of the gun-planting. [5] The CIA also was informed prior to the "terrorist" attacks scheduled for "911" Emergency Day [September 11], that highly skilled Iraqi pilots, among the four thousand Iraqi officers resident in the U.S., would take over the commercial flights, by retrieving the weapons concealed onboard, and then commandeering the flight deck. [6] The Elder Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush, all were in a position to know that the Iraqi officers that they provided for included some double-agents. The FBI Counter-Intelligence Division at no time was instructed to do anything about these double-agents in a position to commit mischief, murder, and mayhem, on U.S. soil. [7] As I revealed a week prior to the "terrorist" attacks, some foreign television networks were busy preparing lengthy documentaries that would scandalize George W. Bush and other members of the Bush Family, including the Elder Bush and Jeb Bush. The subject matter included how forty million dollars in dope funds were used by the Bush Family to reportedly corrupt South Florida DEMOCRATS to abandon the recount even ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling installing George W. Bush as the "resident" and "occupant" of the White House. The dope funds came reportedly from Bush Family business partner, Carlos Lehder, co-founder of the U.S./Colombia medellin dope cartel. [Visit our website story, "Chandra Levy Affair, Part Two".] I discussed this on radio talk shows. [8] As part of the targetting of the World Trade Center buildings, a group of surrogates for the Iraqi military officers, reportedly spent considerable time within one of the buildings, with building security officers somehow oblivious of their presence. [9] As the CIA top officials were informed and had prior knowledge, the purpose of the "terrorist" attacks was to effectively paralyze the financial infrastructure of the U.S. Some of the most important stock and bond houses in the world, with their key people having loads of inside knowledge and hard to replace trading tricks and expertise, were located in the known-to-be-targetted twin towers of the World Trade Center, New York City. It was like blowing up the main "financial factory" and destroying their inventory. The so-called "back-up" records kept parked across the river in New Jersey, are not only inadequate but cannot help reconstruct various accounts and transactions in the works. Financial experts tell us the "back up" records parked in New Jersey, may NOT be sufficient to re-start the American financial apparatus. Some of the experts are loudly grumbling that they should have early on seen Federal Reserve Czar Alan Greenspan on the television explaining about the financial ramifications. Of course, some suppose that Americans would panic and run out of control. So we are dealt with like little children. [10] It is a serious mistake, according to savvy American and foreign intelligence sources, to blame the Emergency all on Osama bin Laden. As readers of our website are aware, we have long pointed out that bin Laden is reportedly in the Mid-East Construction business. His reputed partners? The family of Sharon PERCY Rockefeller. She is the wife of John D. Rockefeller 4th (D., W.Va.), great grandson of the founder of the infamous Standard Oil Trust that used to bomb their own obsolete buildings to falsely blame onto their competitors. Bin Laden's so-called "secret" accounts, which the White House has said they would like to freeze, are or have been actually reportedly in the Harris Bank, Chicago, joint accounts with the family of Sharon PERCY Rockefeller. [11] The Saudi Royal Family actually consists of some five thousand members, some of whom actually are for the U.S. and some anti-U.S. Some of them have bankrolled Iraq's war against Iran, 1980 to 1988, to destroy some oil facilities and keep the price of oil HIGH. The foreign intelligence agencies, that penetrated the plots to be carried out on U.S. soil, are aware that some of the Saudi royals are actually sympathetic to the Iraqis destroying the World Trade Center Buildings and in part, wrecking the Pentagon. [As if the American CIA did not ALREADY have their own knowledge of this.] Whenever there is a political assassination or some other unusual violent event, what is the key question the oil-soaked, spy-riddled monopoly press ALWAYS fails to ask? WHO BENEFITS. With a scandal about to break against George W. Bush, he and his circle had an interest NOT to stop these things from happening. And to divert attention. The White House has a strong motive to silence critics and urge people TO RALLY AROUND THE PRESIDENT. Simple-minded folks, of course, often poorly informed,do not understand how the ruling classes would shed the blood of thousands if not millions of innocent people, in some instigated war, to avoid dealing with the apparent on-coming economic disasters. In the midst of this prior-knowledge emergency, who dares now to point to the Bush Family as reputed business partners of the major kingpin, Carlos Lehder, of the U.S./Colombia medellin dope cartel? Or how huge dope money bought the Electoral College trick in Florida and corrupted the U.S. Supreme Court's "gang of five". This is America's REICHSTAG fire. Adolph Hitler burned down the German parliament and falsely blamed his enemies and had them rounded up and put in the concentration camps. Has the U.S. Constitution now been revoked? More coming. NOTE:  We were brought into WWII by President Roosevelt in a similar manner.

Source: The Scotsman - UK http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/ MOHAMMED ATTA - Arrogant boasts of a mass killer http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=108328 ON FRIDAY afternoon eight days ago, Mohammed Atta was sitting in Shuckhum's Oyster Pub and Seafood Grill in Hollywood, Florida, drinking Stolichnaya vodka and orange juice, boasting about being a pilot for American Airlines and flashing his money around. He managed to annoy a few people in the bar that afternoon, but that was nothing unusual: Mohammed Atta annoyed a lot of people. They found him rude and objectionable, but nobody suspected this unpleasant individual of anything worse than a surfeit of arrogance. Had the people in that bar known a little bit more about Mohammed Atta, they might have been less surprised to discover that, four days later, he would sit at the controls of an American Airlines Boeing 767 packed with passengers and fly it into the World Trade Centre. As he sat in the bar that afternoon, however, there was no sign of the master plan driving Atta onwards to his destiny.Patricia Idrissi, a waitress, remembers him wandering in with another man at about 3pm. His companion was Marwan al-Shehhi, a friend, and the pair sat drinking and arguing for the next hour and a half. Despite his faith, Atta liked a drink. Both he and Shehhi had five drinks, vodka and orange for Atta and rum and Coke for Shehhi. Getting ready to leave, he called for the bill, but appeared to be so unhappy about the $48 total that Miss Idrissi felt she ought to call the manager, Tony Amos. "I said to the guy: 'Hey, if you can't pay, let me know up front and we'll work something out'," said Mr Amos. Shooting the bar manager a filthy look, Atta reached into his jacket and snatched a wad of $50 and $100 notes and shook them in Mr Amos's face. "You think I can't pay my bill? I'm a pilot for American Airlines. I can pay my ******* bill," he told Mr Amos. Such arrogance was typical of Atta, a 33-year-old who spoke good English, but it was a very different Atta to the young man who had studied at Hamburg's technical university a few years earlier. Prosecutors in the German city now believe Atta did not choose it by chance. In recent years, the city has been the scene of several arrests of Islamic extremists associated with Osama bin Laden, and police believe that Atta, who claimed to be Afghan but was probably Egyptian, organised a terrorist cell in the city. Atta and Shehhi shared a flat together and the pair are remembered as Arabs who wore traditional clothing and had little or no contact with their neighbours. The pair regularly hosted groups of up to 20 Arabic men late into the night. The move to America, however, necessitated a change of appearance. Atta shed his Arab clothing and transformed himself into just another ordinary American. It is clear that by now Atta already had a plan in mind and the next step was to learn to fly. The Huffman Aviation School at a small airstrip in the small town of Venice, 80 miles south of Tampa, Florida, has a sign on the front of the building which reads: "Learn to Fly Here". Atta did, and Shehhi handed over $20,000 and signed up for five months of lessons last year, completing the Federal Aviation Authority-approved course in November. The school's owner, Rudi Dekkers, remembers that Atta and Shehhi stuck out because they would not mingle with the other students. "They spoke good English but they were by themselves, not hanging out with other students. Most of our students go to bars. They were strange birds." Atta's attitude did not go down well with his landlords either. A week after moving into a rented room with Shehhi, he found himself back out on the street. The couple who rented them the room, Drew and Charles Voss, say the men were rude and secretive. Mrs Voss remembers that she took particular exception to them. "They mainly kept to themselves and we had very little conversation, if any," she said. "It was just 'Good morning, have a nice day'. They were very arrogant and they made smart remarks. I did not really care for their attitude. Their personality was nothing to care for. They kept to themselves. They are the only ones we have ever had to ask to leave." Atta did not allow this setback to disrupt his flying lessons, however, and Mr Dekkers said he quickly picked up the basics, practising in small Cessnas and Pipers. By November, Atta and Shehhi were both qualified to pilot twin-engined planes. There is great deal of difference, however, between handling a little twin-seater plane and taking control of a jet airliner, and there was still much to learn. Atta signed up at the Embry-Riddle aeronautical university in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he could work on the skills he would need to pull off the most outrageous terrorist coup in history. Last December, Atta paid $1500 for flight simulator training at FlightSim in Opa Locka, Florida. The instructor who oversaw the time in the simulator said his pupil was interested in banks and turns, but showed little interest in take-offs or landing. Atta, however, was not a man who would leave anything to chance. Still not completely happy with his performance, he moved to the Florida town of Latana and started hiring planes for the day from the Palm Beach Flight Training Company to make absolutely sure that if anything went wrong, it would not be because of his lack of experience in the air. Atta paid $133 a day and Marian Smith, the company owner, said he was just keen to get into the air. "He seemed normal to me," she said. "He said he wanted to get in 100 hours." Atta demonstrated his competence to a company pilot on a test flight and returned the following afternoon and again two days later. Each time, he had a different passenger, and the company's office manager, Andrew Laws, recalled the only unusual aspect of the outings was that they each lasted exactly 90 minutes.Whoever Atta was, he was always unpredictable. A couple of weeks before the attack, he presented himself at Warrick's Rent-A-Car in Pompano Beach, Florida, and asked to hire a car. In the man standing before him, owner Brad Warrick saw nothing of the arrogant young man the people in the bar experienced a few days later. Atta, he said, was a model of politeness. "He had very little accent and acted like he was a businessman," said Mr Warrick. The hire boss did, however, remember one unusual incident. At one point Atta had rung him to say that the oil warning light on the car's dashboard had come on. When Atta returned the car last Sunday, he reminded Mr Warrick about the oil light again. "The only thing out of the ordinary," said Mr Warrick, "was that he was nice enough to let me know that the car needed an oil change." It was an oddly considerate gesture from a man who was planning to kill himself and thousands of other innocent people two days later. [End of article] Report information about suspected terrorists to the FBI online https://www.ifccfbi.gov/complaint/terrorist.asp

9-15-2001 - received in an e-mail A MUST READ: A view from Afghanistan... The following was sent to me by my friend Tamim Ansary. Tamim is an Afghani-American writer. He is also one of the most brilliant people I know in this life. When he writes, I read. When he talks, I listen. Here is his take on Afghanistan and the whole mess we are in. ---Gary T. ---------------- Dear Gary and whoever else is on this email thread: I've been hearing a lot of talk about "bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age." Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio today, allowed that this would mean killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do with this atrocity, but "we're at war, we have to accept collateral damage. What else can we do?" Minutes later I heard some TV pundit discussing whether we "have the belly to do what must be done." And I thought about the issues being raised especially hard because I am from Afghanistan, and even though I've lived here for 35 years I've never lost track of what's going on there. So I want to tell anyone who will listen how it all looks from where I'm standing. I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. There is no doubt in my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity in New York. I agree that something must be done about those monsters But the Taliban and Ben Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political criminal with a plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think "the people of Afghanistan" think "the Jews in the concentration camps." It's not only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this atrocity. They were the first victims of the perpetrators. They would exult if someone would come in there, take out the Taliban and clear out the rats nest of international thugs holed up in their country. Some say, why don't the Afghans rise up and overthrow the Taliban? The answer is, they're starved, exhausted, hurt, incapacitated, suffering. A few years ago, the United Nations estimated that there are 500,000 disabled orphans in Afghanistan--a country with no economy, no food. There are millions of widows. And the Taliban has been burying these widows alive in mass graves. The soil is littered with land mines, the farms were all destroyed by the Soviets. These are a few of the reasons why the Afghan people have not overthrown the Taliban. We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age. Trouble is, that's been done. The Soviets took care of it already. Make the Afghans suffer? They're already suffering. Level their houses? Done. Turn their schools into piles of rubble? Done. Eradicate their hospitals? Done. Destroy their infrastructure? Cut them off from medicine and health care? Too late. Someone already did all that. New bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at least get the Taliban? Not likely. In today's Afghanistan, only the Taliban eat, only they have the means to move around. They'd slip away and hide. Maybe the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans, they don't move too fast, they don't even have wheelchairs. But flying over Kabul and dropping bombs wouldn't really be a strike against the criminals who did this horrific thing. Actually it would only be making common cause with the Taliban--by raping once again the people they've been raping all this time. So what else is there? What can be done, then? Let me now speak with true fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is to go in there with ground troops. When people speak of "having the belly to do what needs to be done" they're thinking in terms of having the belly to kill as many as needed...Having the belly to overcome any moral qualms about killing innocent people. Let's pull our heads out of the sand. What's actually on the table is Americans dying. And not just because some Americans would die fighting their way through Afghanistan to Bin Laden's hideout. It's much bigger than that folks. Because to get any troops to Afghanistan, we'd have to go through Pakistan. Would they let us? Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be first. Will other Muslim nations just stand by? You see where I'm going. We're flirting with a world war between Islam and the West. And guess what: that's Bin Laden's program. That's exactly what he wants. That's why he did this. Read his speeches and statements. It's all right there. He really believes Islam would beat the West. It might seem ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the world into Islam and the West, he's got a billion soldiers. If the West wreaks a holocaust in those lands, that's a billion people with nothing left to lose. That's even better from Bin Laden's point of view. He's probably wrong. In the end the West would win, whatever that would mean, but the war would last for years and millions would die, not just theirs but ours. Who has the belly for that? Bin Laden does. Anyone else? Tamim Ansary Elizabeth Britten Nilson Depression Research Clinic Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences Stanford University School of Medicine Stanford CA 94305-5723 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth. And most jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business as if nothing had happened." --Sir Winston Churchill

US may have trained hijackers: Pentagon From AFP 15sep01 TWO suspected hijackers in Tuesday's terrorist attacks received training at one point at US military schools, a senior defence official said today. One of the suspected hijackers attended the Defence Language School at Lackland Air Force Base (in Texas) and another the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "One was getting language training and the other technical training of some kind, but not pilot training," the official said. There were conflicting versions over the hijackers' nationality with one report saying both were Saudis and another that one was a Saudi and the other another nationality, the official said. It was not immediately clear which of four hijackings on Tuesday the two were suspected of taking part in. Hijackers flew two jetliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and a third into the Pentagon. A fourth jetliner crashed in Pennsylvania, apparently after passengers tried to take back the plane from the hijackers.

'Get ready' says Bush From AP 15sep01 PRESIDENT George W Bush has called Osama bin Laden the "prime suspect" and urged the military to "get ready". Mr Bush said terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden could not "hide from the United States", and told US troops to get ready to retaliate for America's worst terrorist attack. "We will find who did it, we'll smoke them out of their holes," Bush said as he prepared to meet with national security advisers at the Marine-guarded Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. "We'll get them running and we'll bring them to justice," he said. "There is a desire by the American people to not seek only revenge, but to win a war against barbaric behaviour, he said. Four days after the national tragedy, Bush braced Americans for a long, brutal battle against terrorism. "Make no mistake about it, underneath our tears is the strong determination of America to win this war and we will win it," he said. Of bin Laden, Bush said: "If he thinks he can hide from the United States and our allies he will be sorely mistaken." Bush had a message, too, for the 50,000 US reserves being called into action. "Everybody who wears the uniform (should) get ready - the United States will do what it takes to win this war," he said. Bush moved from consoling a heartbroken nation to readying Americans for a new kind of war, calling 50,000 military reservists to duty and shouting words of defiance amid the ruins of the World Trade Centre. "I can hear you," Bush said yesterday. "The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon."

9-15-01 - THE MIND OF THE SUICIDE BOMBER Religiously devout and believing totally in the importance of what they are doing, they will have learnt by heart every detail of the "Seven Rewards" that come to those who volunteer (all are "volunteers") to give their lives for the Islamic cause. Number one of the Seven Rewards is the forgiveness of all sins. Two is that he will see his place reserved in Paradise. Three, that he will be "crowned with glory" with a holy stone, the Yaqutah. Four, that in Paradise he will have 72 of the most beautiful virgins as his wives. Five, that he will be spared the "suffering of the grave". Six, that he will be spared the horror of the Day of Judgment and any uncertainty about whether he goes to Paradise or not will be dispelled. And seventh, he will be allowed to take with him to paradise 70 members of his family. No wonder the families smile, too. No wonder when Lebanese Hizbollah leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah's own son was killed in a suicidal attack on Israeli soldiers he appeared on television laughing with pleasure, and wellwishers called on the phone. The martyrs are inevitably young, frequently loners, always single and very devout. Many emerge from Palestinian refugee camps but a high proportion are from middle-class families.

Subj: [earthchanges] Attack Probe has Legal Restrictions on race and religion Date: 9/15/2001 3:39:37 AM Pacific Daylight Time From: mythisis@aol.com Reply-to: earthchanges@yahoogroups.com Attack Probe Faces Legal Restrictions By GINA HOLLAND .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - As investigators look for clues and suspects in the nation's worst terrorist attacks, some legal experts worry they might stop people for questioning simply because they look Arab or Muslim. ``I'm very worried about what's going to be done in the name of security,'' Kevin Johnson, a racial profiling and immigration expert at the University of California at Davis Law School, said Friday. Johnson said he expects ``blunt stereotyping and shaking down'' of people who appear Middle Eastern even though ``it's blatantly illegal.'' About a dozen travelers of Middle Eastern descent were detained at two New York airports on Thursday, only to be cleared later of any connection with this week's terrorist attacks. It is illegal for law officers to target someone based on ethnic appearance. Courts have also historically ensured that foreign nationals are guaranteed the same civil rights as U.S. citizens. Nevertheless, officers are under intense pressure to track down potential conspirators and ``they can decide to heck with the due process rights of these people, we might be onto something,'' said Christine DeConcini, director of advocacy for the Washington-based Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. ``I'm all in favor of getting leads, but people's civil liberties and civil rights need to be protected. I don't want to hear that they're ransacking house after house,'' she said. The Justice Department said a number of people questioned in connection with the plot have been arrested for immigration violations and were in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS has 48 hours after an arrest to charge someone with violating immigration rules. DeConcini, whose group provides lawyers to detained immigrants, said she was told that phone calls were not being allowed out of the INS detention centers, even to lawyers. Arab-Americans, Muslim and others groups have reported harassment and violence since the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Most of that has come from other Americans. The prime suspect in the plot is Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. Authorities believe there are many accomplices. President Bush said Thursday that ``we must be mindful ... we treat Arab-Americans and Muslims with the respect they deserve.'' Kareem Shora, legal adviser to the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington, said the group has not received reports of rights violations by law agencies. ``Mistakes will be made. You can't have a perfect investigation. As far as we know, no intentional mistakes are being made,'' Shora said. ``Everybody understands it's a very special situation. We all have to cope with it.'' After the Oklahoma City bombing, innocent people found themselves targeted because they fit a government profile, said Michael A. Scaperlanda, a University of Oklahoma law professor. ``In a time of heightened security, there's always a danger that law officers will go overboard and overreach in their quest to keep us safe,'' said Scaperlanda. ``Police officers generally can find some reason to stop somebody. It is going to take sensitive balancing.'' AP-NY-09-15-01 0233EDT

Feds Arrest Material Witness in Attacks Two Men Detained in Texas, Flown to NYC By JOHN SOLOMON .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (Sept. 15) - A man was arrested in New York in connection with this week's four airplane hijackings, marking the first big break in a global investigation to find those responsible for the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Federal authorities took the man into custody Friday on a material witness warrant, said Jim Margolin, spokesman for the FBI in New York. The warrant allows authorities to hold someone considered crucial to the investigation without charging him with any crime. The man's identity was withheld. A law enforcement source, speaking privately, said the man arrested was the same person detained Thursday at John F. Kennedy International Airport after showing what authorities said Friday was a pilot's license issued to his brother. Both Margolin and New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik refused to provide any further details on the arrest. Court records were sealed. In another break late Friday, searchers recovered the cockpit voice recorder for United Flight 93, which crashed in southwestern Pennsylvania. It was not immediately clear what kind of shape the box was in. The box will be sent to the National Transportation Safety Board for analysis. Pilot training is a central theme of the massive investigation into Tuesday's attacks. Several of the 19 hijackers whose names were released by the FBI Friday were pilots and had gone to aviation schools in Florida. Among the 19 was Mohamed Atta of Hollywood and Coral Springs, Fla., identified by German authorities as being tied to an Islamic fundamentalist group that planned attacks on American targets. Atta received pilot training at Huffman Aviation in Venice, Fla., and took two three-hour courses at SimCenter Inc. in Opa Locka, Fla., where he trained on a Boeing 727 full-motion flight simulator. Besides Atta, the hijackers who were believed to be pilots included Hani Hajour, who was on the flight that crashed into the Pentagon; Wail Alshehri and Abdulaziz Alomari, who were on one of the Boston flights; Marwan Al-Shehhi, hijacking on United Flight 175 out of Boston and Ziad Jarrahi, who flew on United Flight 93 out of Newark, N.J., which crashed in a field 80 miles from Pittsburgh. ''The fact that there were a number of individuals that happened to have received training at flight schools here is news, quite obviously,'' said FBI Director Robert Mueller. ''If we had understood that to be the case, we would have, perhaps one could have, averted this,'' he said. In another development, two men detained at an Amtrak station in Fort Worth, Texas, were interviewed by FBI agents, taken into custody and then flown to New York, officials said Friday. They were removed from an Amtrak train during a routine drug search Wednesday night. Although no drugs were found, the men had box-cutting knives, authorities said, and also carried about $5,000 in cash, according to a federal official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Hijackers in Tuesday's attacks used knives and box cutters to take control of the airliners. The official said the men boarded a flight from Newark to San Antonio on Tuesday, the same morning that teams of hijackers commandeered the four airliners and crashed three of them into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon outside Washington. The flight was diverted to St. Louis, where the men took an Amtrak train bound for San Antonio, an FBI spokeswoman said. The Tarrant County, Texas, Sheriff's Office identified the men as Ayub Ali Khan, 51, and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath, 47. According to authorities, the men said they were from India. FBI agents fanned out across the country interviewing people about the 19 hijackers and gave local police departments and federal law enforcement agencies a list of 100 people whom agents want to question in the attacks. ''We believe they may have information that could be helpful to the investigation,'' said Attorney General John Ashcroft. The FBI dispatched teams of agents to airports, where authorities were checking passenger manifests against the list of 100 people. Authorities also were looking for a Muslim cleric who previously was questioned by prosecutors in the 1998 embassy bombings case linked to Osama bin Laden, a Saudi extremist suspected of sponsoring a worldwide terrorist network. The cleric, Moataz Al-Hallak, left the Northeast on Monday, the day before the attacks, and traveled to Texas, according to authorities and his lawyer. Hundreds of subpoenas have been issued in the search for those who assisted the hijackers. More than 30 search warrants have been executed and investigators have seized computers and other documents. A number of people who were questioned as part of the investigation have been arrested because of problems with their immigration status. None has been charged, but officials declined to say whether they have been cleared. AP-NY-09-15-01 0235EDT Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.

Second Black Box Found in Pennsylvania By TIMOTHY D. MAY .c The Associated Press SOMERSET, Pa. (Sept. 15) - Searchers recovered the cockpit voice recorder from United Airlines Flight 93 which investigators believe may reveal an attempt by passengers to wrest control of the aircraft from hijackers. The black box was found Friday evening buried 25 feet deep inside the V-shaped canyon the airplane gouged as it crashed into a rural southwest Pennsylvania field. Forty-five people had been aboard on the San Francisco-bound flight from Newark, N.J., Tuesday morning. There were no survivors. A few miles from the crash scene, Gov. Tom Ridge spoke at a candle light vigil Friday evening and lauded what he called the heroism of the airplane's passengers. ''The passengers on that plane decided to fight back against their hijackers,'' Ridge told a crowd of about 3,000 in Somerset. ''They undoubtedly saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives in the process. They sacrificed themselves for others - the ultimate sacrifice.'' Several passengers made cell phone calls before the plane crashed, saying they had been hijacked and were trying to decide how to thwart the terrorists' plans. They found out during those calls that two other planes had just crashed into the World Trade Center. Deena Burnett said her husband, Thomas Burnett, 38, called her from the hijacked plane and said, ''I know we're all going to die - there's three of us who are going to do something about it.'' Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Friday that he is looking into the possibility of recommending the Presidential Medal of Freedom for passengers who exhibited bravery aboard the flight. FBI spokesman Bill Crowley said the plane's voice recorder, designed to record the final 30 minutes of conversation in the cockpit, appeared to be in relatively good condition. It was sent to a National Transportation Safety Board laboratory in Washington to be analyzed. AP-NY-09-15-01 0535EDT Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.

FBI Analyzes Voice, Data Recorders By JONATHAN D. SALANT .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (Sept. 14) - Though four airplanes heading to the West Coast suddenly switched directions Tuesday morning and eventually shut off their transponders, it was nothing that air traffic controllers hadn't seen in the past. It is not out of the ordinary for a pilot who has problems with a plane to alter course, or even to turn around and head back to the starting point. Even after controllers learned that one of the planes had been taken over, their concern was to make sure the aircraft headed safely to whatever destination the hijackers wanted. ''Controllers are trained to make aircraft in distress your most important aircraft,'' said John Carr, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. ''Pilots are trained to cooperate with hijackers and controllers are trained to move heaven and earth to help aircraft in distress.'' Unlike other hijackings, where a plane eventually lands safely and the crisis is resolved, this time terrorists used the aircraft as a weapon, crashing two planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and a third into the Pentagon. A fourth crashed near Pittsburgh. All of the passengers and crew, including the hijackers, died. FBI investigators hope to find out what happened in those last minutes of flight by analyzing the flight data and voice recorders located in each commercial airplane's tail. Investigators have recovered three of the ''black boxes'' - two from American Airlines Flight 77, which slammed into the Pentagon, and one from United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed near Pittsburgh. FBI Director Robert Mueller said Friday the agency has gotten information from Flight 77's flight data recorder, which tracks an airplane's flight movements, such as altitude, heading, speed and the operations of other airplane systems for the last 25 hours. He declined say what the FBI has learned. Mueller said the agency had not gotten any information from the voice data recorder from American Flight 77, which would have recorded all cockpit conversations and communications with air traffic controllers for the last 30 minutes. Mueller did not give information about the recovered flight data recorder from United Flight 93. Still missing are the voice recorder from United Flight 93 and both recorders from the two planes that destroyed the World Trade Center. While they automatically record voices and data, the recorders can be disabled by a pilot using circuit breakers in the cockpit. The flight recorders aboard Singapore Airlines' SilkAir Flight MI185 were believed to have been shut off before the Boeing 737 crashed into a river in Indonesia in 1997, killing all 104 passengers and crew members on board. The recorders also can be damaged in a crash. Federal officials were notified of the hijacking and the route changes. They were warned when an American plane heading west from Newark Airport turned around and flew in the direction of the White House before making a sharp turn and smashing into the Pentagon. Asked about the controllers' actions, Carr declined to comment about specific flights. But he said that the controllers followed the procedures outlined in training. ''It has been built into the system that everything is safe,'' Carr said. ''No one contemplated suicidal maniacs using airplanes as weapons. These acts were committed by cowards, despicable barbaric cowards.'' AP-NY-09-14-01 2024EDT Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.

How to Beat Bin Laden How Osama Bin Laden operates — and what it will take to defeat him BY TONY KARON Thursday, Sep. 13, 2001 Washington may never have declared war on Osama Bin Laden, but he has been at war with America for the better part of a decade. Now, with the Saudi terrorist-financier a prime suspect in the World Trade Center attack, President Bush has vowed that the U.S. will devote all necessary resources to beating Bin Laden. This is no easy task. If Bin Laden is in fact responsible, the most important thing is to know right now is: who is he? How does he operate? And why does he seem to have so much support? Understanding the enemy This will be a protracted, complex and unconventional war in which many of the tactics of war as we know it are superfluous. The "Powell Doctrine" — the theory that wars are best won by deploying "overwhelming force" — doesn't apply here, for the simple reason that the enemy has hardly any visible military assets or civilian economic infrastructure, and may not even be ultimately dependent on his current territorial home base. And applying such force in territories where he has sought support or shelter could open up a protracted, costly and difficult conflict. The battle with Bin Laden is more likely to combine conventional military tactics with unconventional ones. Because Bin Laden is no ordinary foe. Osama Bin Laden is a man, not a state. And he wields very little by way of conventional military power. Estimates of the number of men under arms in his Afghanistan camps at any one point seldom range above 2,000. But those men are extremely well-trained, well-funded and have shown a fanatical willingness to die in order to inflict pain on their enemies. Technology and globalization have made their reach almost boundless, and they are linked to a vast network of terrorist groups throughout the Muslim world from western China and the Philippines all the way across to Algeria. Bin Laden's is hardly the first terrorist group to operate well beyond home base, but it is the first truly global terror operation. And where Cold War-era terrorist groups invariably relied on the support of "rogue" states, Bin Laden's is independent. It is able to finance itself and provide sophisticated training to its own men — and build its operational alliances by providing such training to like-minded groups. And it has already demonstrated an ability to relocate its headquarters from one country to another. Targeting America The foundations of Bin Laden's network were laid during the Afghan war, during which the wealthy Saudi heir had been the prime organizer of volunteers for the 'jihad' against the Soviet invasion. That made him a key player in an effort backed by the CIA and the intelligence agencies of Egypt and Saudi Arabia to funnel aid, equipment, training and volunteers to the Afghan mujahedeen. Many of the "Arab Afghans," as the volunteers became known, had been radical Islamist dissidents in their home countries, and their pro-Western governments were only too happy to ship them off to fight the Russians. But the 'jihad' experience forged unprecedented bonds among the world's radical Islamists, turning them in spirit and in direct combat experience into a single army of 'holy' warriors. Bin Laden emerged from the Afghan experience determined to overthrow Saudi Arabia's pro-Western rulers and institute a radical brand of Islamic rule. And when those rulers invited U.S. troops onto Saudi soil to defend them against Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden began to call for a global 'jihad' against the U.S. because of its support for Israel and for moderate Arab regimes. He set up camps in Afghanistan and the Sudan — two states that the end of the Cold War left in conditions of near collapse — to keep his "Arab Afghans" together. And he combined his own personal fortune with funds raised throughout the Arab world to maintain his "Al Qaida" ("The Base") organization, which began sending fighters to Bosnia, Chechnya and to Muslim insurgencies all over East Asia. Bin Laden also extended his reach by turning his camps into a terrorism college providing highly specialized training to Islamist fighters from all over the world. Bin Laden began attacking the U.S. in 1993, claiming responsibility in retrospect for the ambush that killed some 17 U.S. soldiers in Mogadishu that year. Although he had no direct role in the first World Trade Center bombing, he later sheltered its perpetrator, Ramzi Yousef, after the attack. The U.S. hits back The U.S. military finally put Bin Laden in its sights following the 1998 East African embassy bombings. President Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on camps associated with Bin Laden in Afghanistan and on a factory linked with him (possibly erroneously) in the Sudan. But those strikes did little to impair Bin Laden's operational ability, and the U.S. reverted to containing his operations through cooperation with Arab intelligence agencies to foil planned attacks and round up and prosecute the perpetrators of the embassy bombings. Washington also sought to use Pakistan's close relationship with the Taliban to press Bin Laden's hosts into extraditing him, but to no avail. The Bush administration has promised a full-blown war against Bin Laden following Tuesday's attacks, but the key to winning that war and eliminating the terrorist threat may lie in the extent to which the terrorists can be isolated. Isolating Bin Laden Without the layers of support he has mustered in the Islamic world, Bin Laden would be nothing more than a crazy killer who could be hunted down and brought to trial or simply eliminated. Instead, his relatively tiny organization has menaced the world's largest military power largely because of its ability to capitalize on growing anti-American sentiment in the Arab world. Reports of funds interdicted en route to Bin Laden in recent years suggest that he continues to enjoy the support of some wealthy Arab businessmen, who either directly support his beliefs or else are inclined to hedge their bets on the outcome of his battle with the U.S. Anti-American anger on the Arab streets — fueled by the ongoing campaign against Iraq and by Israeli military actions against the Palestinian uprising — provides Bin Laden with a growing pool of potential recruits, often highly educated and skilled young men who are willing to die for his cause. And the passions on the street also make it more difficult for even pro-U.S. governments in the Arab world to be seen to be working too closely with Washington. Isolating Bin Laden may require ongoing efforts to repair and maintain Washington's relations with its Arab allies, whose security services remain the front line of the battle against Bin Laden. Building a coalition While NATO's support improves the U.S. striking power and widens political and diplomatic consent for any counterstrike, the crucial allies in the battle against Bin Laden remain the governments and security services of the Islamic world — because it is intelligence, rather than air power or armor, that wins the war on terrorism. Despite the ability of U.S. satellites to intercept cell-phone and email messages, human intelligence remains the most effective way of staying forewarned of Bin Laden's plans and movements. That's not going to be easy. There are distinct limits on the ability of U.S. agents to directly infiltrate Bin Laden's networks, which are often based on family and other kinship ties. Such operations would require agents able to blend in ethnically and spend years away from their American lives in the extremely harsh conditions of Bin Laden's mountain camps. Plainly, the U.S. needs the active support of allied security services closer to the action. And the need to maintain such alliances also affects the range of options for responding to the latest outrage. Why not simply bomb Kabul? Although the U.S. will very likely seek to punish the Taliban for hosting Bin Laden in Afghanistan, Afghanistan long ago ceased to function as a state. The Taliban are simply its dominant militia, and to the people of Kabul, they are outside occupiers. While determined to hit hard against both the perpetrators and their protectors, U.S. officials will also be mindful of the danger of taking actions — particularly any that cause suffering among innocents — that widens the anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world on which Bin Laden feeds. Invasion? Others have asked why the U.S. doesn't simply round up a Gulf War-style posse to invade Afghanistan, overthrowing the Taliban and putting an end to the country being used as a safe haven for terrorists. But that would require tens of thousands of allied troops deployed in an open-ended commitment to keep a heavy troop presence in an extremely unfriendly environment. If the decision is made to take down the Taliban, that may be more likely to be attempted in concert with its regional enemies — including Russia and possibly even Iran — in support of the Northern Alliance opposition forces. The Pakistan dilemma The trickiest aspect of the Bin Laden equation may be Pakistan. Despite being a close ally of the U.S. during the Cold War, Afghanistan's nuclear-armed neighbor is also a hotbed of anti-American Islamic radicalism. Pakistan has reportedly promised full support for a U.S. retaliation against Bin Laden, including allowing Pakistani airspace to be used by U.S. planes to strike Afghanistan. But President Bush's comment that Washington would have to wait and see what that means suggests the U.S. is not sure of the extent of Pakistan's commitment to the battle against Bin Laden. But Pakistani intelligence agents are probably closer than any other to Bin Laden's operations on the ground, and their cooperation may be acritical element of the war against terrorism. A war not won in a day "Let's not think that one single counter-attack will rid the world of terrorism of the kind we saw yesterday," said Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday. Indeed, it is to be anticipated that the Bush administration will develop a layered response of short-term and long-term actions to bring to bear military, economic and political pressure to isolate and neutralize not only Bin Laden himself, but the movement that would almost certainly seek to continue even if he were eliminated. And that's a war in which the U.S. needs its allies more than ever.

Attacks Against America Are Not Over Col. Stanislav Lunev Friday, September 14, 2001 Col. Stanislav Lunev is the highest-ranking military spy ever to defect from Russia. He continues as a security consultant to the U.S. government. He filed this report from an undisclosed location in Europe. I was surprised to hear, Thursday, some politicians in Washington making statements that terrorist operations against America are over. How can they make such claims? International terrorists are still targeting the U.S. and the American people as never before. Osama bin Laden, Hamas and other well-known and currently unknown terrorist organizations consider America as their number one target. After such an elaborate and coordinated attack was just conducted against the U.S., isn’t it reasonable to think that the terrorist groups, backed by powerful nations, might a) already have plans for an escalation of such attacks, or b) now, seeing the vulnerability of the U.S., become encouraged and launch additional attacks? Since I defected to the U.S. from Russia, I have been always somewhat perplexed by the politically correct thinking in Washington and among the U.S. media. The media are now openly criticizing the President for remaining in Air Force One and not returning immediately to New York or Washington. The President acted very correctly and very smartly. As I recall, America has a Constitution. The President’s sole real responsibility is to preserve your Constitutional government – not to hold press conferences. Obviously, the President and his advisors understood that there was a real possibility of a larger threat – perhaps nuclear – and one the media doesn’t want you to know about. Let me explain. When I defected in the 1990s from Russia’s GRU – its military intelligence - I told the FBI, the CIA, the DIA, anyone that would listen – that the Russians already had elaborate war plans against the U.S. I suggested that such a war might begin with a diversion, some sort of terrorist attack. With people’s attention focused elsewhere, special troops could storm Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, the White House – to kill American leaders. I also warned the American government that I believe Russia has already smuggled small nuclear devices into the U.S. I have no doubt that Russia has been behind many of these terrorist groups, financing and equipping them. The President acted prudently. He continues to do so, by understanding the new, larger attacks may occur. He also knows just how weak American intelligence agencies are after the Clinton-Gore administration. Also, these terrorists are funded and sponsored by countries Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria and by other rogue nations (all closely aligned with either Russia or China). These terrorist groups and nations want nothing less than war against Western civilization. First of all they would like to destroy the U.S., the recognized leader of the civilized world. On Sept. 11, terrorists used the so-called "cheapest" way for the destruction of symbols of American financial and military power. By doing it this way, the terrorists show just how vulnerable we are. It also allows them to have a place from which they can escalate the terror. This suicidal attack could have been prevented, but that did not happen. However, Tuesday's tragedy very clearly demonstrated the depths of terrorist penetration through the American nation - where they are operating, as if they were in their own backyard - and, for example, using American training facilities for the preparation of the attacks against American people. I am continually amazed how easy the American government makes it for enemies to penetrate American society and institutions. I am also amazed how many American journalists dislike America, and openly work against this country. From now on, we know for sure that there are hundreds if not thousands of terrorists who are living among us in America. They are preparing to continue the war against countries, which provide them hospitality, including dozens of so-called "sleepers" or specially trained terrorists who pretend to be U.S. citizens and residents. 24 hours a day, every day, they are waiting for the wake-up call from their organization leaders for a new attack against American people. The next attack may be more severe. According to Western intelligence estimations, the most powerful international terrorists organizations already have access to weapons of mass destruction, including chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and materials. There is no doubt that the leaders of terrorist organizations already have their own combat groups in America. Next time they could use, against the American people, weapons of mass destruction or so-called "expensive" weapons, which could be delivered to the U.S. very soon, if they aren't already deployed inside America. It's very difficult to understand the logic of terrorists and impossible to predict their next targets. The war against America declared by international terrorism is REAL, PRESENT and DANGEROUS. We will win this war if, instead of words about defending America, we will do everything possible, practically, for the protection of our country and lives of the American people. There is no time for talking and promises any more. It's time for ACTION. Find out what Col. Lunev told the CIA -- NewsMax has just released Col. Lunev's audiotapes "CIA Files: Defector Reveals Russia's Secrets"

Friday, Sept. 14, 2001 Castro's Offer of 'Help' Draws Suspicion Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, known to aid and abet terrorism, has offered America "modest help" in the wake of Tuesday's terrorist attacks. "Anything that Fidel Castro may say that sounds even remotely supportive of the American people and its government must ring hollow to our ears," Cuban American National Foundation spokeswoman Mariela Ferretti told CNSNews.com. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque claimed, "Cubans had a good understanding of terrorism, having suffered four decades of it, and could relate to what their neighbors were going through," according to the regime-run Radio Havana.

Saturday Sept. 15, 2001; 11:33 a.m. EDT $1 Billion Price on bin Laden's Head Wanted Dead or Alive: Osama bin Laden, suspected mastermind of Tuesday's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. That's the message from a group of Los Angeles businessmen who hope to raise $1 billion to pay mercenaries to hunt down the mass murderer and anyone else who helped with Tuesday's attacks. "Now it's time to wipe out the wasp nests of terrorism," Edward Lozzi told U.S. News & World Report's "Washington Whispers" Saturday, explaining the motivation behind the fund. Lozzi's is the public relations executive hired by the group of anonymous West Coast millionaires who want to raise the big bucks to take bin Laden out. "I don't think there's any American who wouldn't donate," the PR man said. And what if the U.S. military gets to bin Laden before the private bounty hunters? Lozzi said the money will go instead to the familes of the victims of Tuesday's attacks.

Saturday Sept. 15, 2001; 11:09 a.m. EDT Bush: "We're at War!" President Bush told reporters at the White House Saturday morning that the Untied States of America is at war with the forces that planned and executed Tuesday's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. "We're at war!" Bush said, in his clearest expression yet of American resolve. "There's been an act of war committed on America and we'll respond accordingly." Bush's words echoed his off the cuff comments to rescue workers on the scene of the World Trade Center disaster site on Friday. "I hear you," Bush shouted out to one firefighter. "I hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear from all of us soon!"

Arrest made in connection with Tuesday attacks September 15, 2001 Posted: 12:55 AM EDT (0455 GMT) The 19 men suspected of Tuesday's hijackings were either directly or indirectly linked to Osama bin Laden. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A person described as a material witness in Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington has been arrested, the Justice Department said. In recent days, law enforcement officials said they issued 35 search warrants and hundreds of subpoenas, while interviewing hundreds more. The Immigration and Naturalization Service also detained 27 people at the FBI's request. But Friday's arrest warrant for the material witness was the first issued since the attacks took place. The individual arrested was one of several people detained Thursday at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. Meanwhile, two men in INS custody in Texas were being transported to New York City late Friday for further questioning in the investigation of Tuesday's attacks, government sources said. Sources said the two, taken into custody Wednesday as they were traveling on an Amtrak train, have been very helpful in moving the investigation forward and have detailed knowledge of the alleged terrorist network. The two men were detained for traveling without legal identification and for carrying box cutters -- the same type of weapon the FBI says was used by some of the hijackers. It is believed the pair were traveling Tuesday on a flight from Newark, New Jersey, to San Antonio, Texas, when the plane was grounded in St. Louis, Missouri, due to the hijackings. The men later boarded a train bound for San Antonio, but were detained after the train was stopped at police's request. The owners of King Aviation School, a California-based company that sells video and CD-ROM courses for aspiring and beginning private pilots, said four FBI agents searched their company's records Friday looking for information on potential hijackers. John and Martha King said the agents matched "one or more names" to a list of suspected hijackers during a two-hour search. The 19 men suspected of committing Tuesday's hijacking attacks were either directly or indirectly linked to alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, sources said. Law enforcement sources told CNN they are checking the names, which the Justice Department released Friday, against lists of people associated with known terrorist groups -- and believed the lead group in Tuesday's attacks may have been Egyptian Islamic Jihad. The chief of that group, the sources said, is a top lieutenant of bin Laden. Bin Laden's group, al Qaeda, is an umbrella group that allegedly coordinates the actions of smaller organizations. The planes that crashed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon were each taken over by five hijackers, officials say. Four people are believed to have taken over the plane that crashed in western Pennsylvania. The U.S. Defense Department is investigating the possibility that two of the alleged terrorists may have attended schools run by the U.S. military. Military officers from other countries regularly attend U.S.-run schools. A defense official said the two suspects may have attended Defense Language Academy at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, and the Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama. Officials at the Pentagon cautioned that it is possible the matching names are merely a coincidence or that the terrorists were using false identities. FBI Director Robert Mueller said Friday investigators have recovered some information from the flight data recorder from American Airlines Flight 77, the hijacked jet that slammed into the Pentagon. FBI officials said early Friday night they received some information off the jetliner's flight data recorder, but the cockpit voice recorder was damaged. The officials did not describe the extent of the damage, although Mueller said "we have not received anything" off the device. The flight data recorder from United Airlines Flight 93, the Boeing 757 that crashed in western Pennsylvania, also was recovered. The cockpit voice recorder was recovered late Friday evening. Among the latest developments: -- U.S. officials said there are still would-be terrorists inside the United States who they believe may try additional attack targets in this country. "There is reason to believe not all the perpetrators are dead or in jail," one official said. -- The FBI has received 36,000 leads in the case, and has issued a "watch list" of 100 names to various law enforcement agencies. Those 100 names are people who might have helpful information relating to the investigation. If located, they will be detained for questioning, officials said. -- U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft said Friday that the FBI has distributed a watch list of about 100 people who may have information that could assist in the investigation by law enforcement agencies across the U.S. along with the Federal Aviation Administration, airlines, U.S. Customs and the Border Patrol. -- The Treasury Department established a task force to track the assets of terrorist groups and disrupt their fund-raising. -- Sen. Joseph Biden told CNN on Friday that there is evidence that several terrorist cells worked together to plan and carry out Tuesday's attacks. -- The international police agency Interpol issued a special alert for bin Laden and said it received tips from 40 nations that may aid in his apprehension. -- German officials released a man whom they had detained and questioned in connection with the terror attacks, the federal prosecutor's office said. German police detained the man and also brought in a woman for questioning, but found no reason to hold either one. German prosecutors said two suspects believed to have died in the attack on the World Trade Center lived in the northern German city of Hamburg and were enrolled as students in at Hamburg Harburg Technical University. A third suspect now being sought also was thought to have been enrolled there. The prosecutor said another suspect, thought to have died in the hijacked plane crash in Pennsylvania, also may have lived in Hamburg and was part of the same group. -- Correspondent Susan Candiotti and free-lance producer Joanna Massee in Miami, CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman and correspondents David Ensor, Kelli Arena and Mike Boettcher contributed to this report.

Powell: Taliban may pay price for supporting terrorists September 14, 2001 Posted: 5:45 PM EDT (2145 GMT) Secretary of State Colin Powell said governments will be held accountable for providing support to terrorist groups. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell issued one of his strongest messages yet to Afghanistan's Taliban rulers Friday, saying the regime may soon pay the price for the "support" and "inspiration" of suspected terrorists such as Osama bin laden. "To the extent that, governments, such as the Taliban government in Afghanistan, support such things," Powell said, "you need to understand you cannot separate your activities from the activity of these perpetrators." Powell said the United States has yet to identify bin Laden as the "direct perpetrator" of Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, but "evidence is mounting, which will allow us to determine in the near future" who masterminded the attacks. Officials estimate thousands died Tuesday when two hijacked airliners slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, destroying them. Another hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon, while a fourth went down in rural Pennsylvania. U.S. officials have worked in recent days to mount an international campaign to rally support for a possible military campaign. Powell said governments will be held accountable for providing support to terrorist groups, which he said are "attacking civilization" and "killing innocent people." "In our response, we will have to take into account not only the perpetrators, but those who provide haven, support, inspiration -- financial and other assets -- to the perpetrators," Powell said. In the Afghan capital of Kabul on Friday, the supreme leader of the Taliban government, Mullah Mohammed Omar, maintained that bin Laden could not have been behind the attacks. In a radio address to his people, Omar said they should not be afraid but should be prepared for a holy war. Powell said that the United States is not threatening countries such as Pakistan but did not disagree that the United States has basically said to a number of countries that you are either with "us or you aren't." He said the United States is still awaiting a response from Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf to a list of requests. Powell said the United States will examine if a country serves as "a haven or is a well-known supporter of this kind of activity and they are simply unresponsive, and we deem that unresponsiveness to be contributing to additional terrorism or the fertile ground in which terrorism thrives, that will certainly affect the kind of relationship we will have with them in the future. "I am not threatening so much as saying this is a new benchmark, a new way of measuring the relationship and what we can do for you." In another development, President Bush received "a very strong letter of support" from Syrian President Bashir Assad, Powell said. "We have had a mixed relationship with Syria over the years," said Powell, who added he would "pursue the spirit of the letter" when he talked to Syria's foreign minister. Powell also said he wants Israeli and Palestinian officials to meet and hopes "the conditions will present themselves soon." But the timing is up to the parties, he said.

"There is no doubt in my mind that millions of lives could have been saved if the people had not been 'brainwashed' about gun ownership and they had been well armed. Hitler's thugs and goons were not very brave when confronted by a gun. Gun haters always want to forget the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which is a perfect example of how a ragtag, half starved group of Jews took up 10 handguns and made asses out of the Nazi's." ~~ Theodore Haas, former prisoner of the infamous Dachau concentration camp. "The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are constitutional rights secure." Albert Einstein September 11 - How Could This Happen - What Must Be Done by Liz Michael ( www.lizmichael.com ) Release date September 13, 2001 for immediate release How could this happen? That's actually a really stupid question. Aside from the timing of this particular event, hijacking a plane in the United States is easy as pie. I could do it with one hand tied behind my back it's so easy. I never would, because I have a love of the American people, and a certain level of Judeo-Christian ethic of life, not only for the lives of innocent citizens, but for my own life. All of United States airline security is focused on its customers. Essentially, the United States has decided that the common airline passenger is the biggest threat to the common airline passenger. It has created this vast terror state, through which you cannot travel with a weapon - where you can be arrested for simply having too much cash by the DEA - where you can be strip searched for being black and female. Supposedly all for our security. And it's all crap. I can hijack any plane in the country. I can smuggle any weapon into any plane for the purpose of allowing a hijacker to overtake the plane. How can I do that? Well, while your security personnel are placing your customers through the equivalent of police terror - security personnel who are largely untrained, untested, underpaid, and who are turned over at a rate of almost 100% a year - security personnel who can be easily duped by a real terrorist even though they seem to be stumped over things as simple as a soda or a disk drive - I and my agents can walk in as easy as pie... as your employees. Airline and airport employees are some of the most untrained, unchecked, unverified, dishonest people in the nation. Aside from the pilots and the flight attendants, you don't need any training to work for an airline. Getting a job for the ground crew of any typical airline is easy. If you can provide verifiable references, fake or not, airlines are so desperate to get ground workers, because those same airlines refuse to pay their workers well or treat them with dignity. It is difficult for the airlines to get workers for these jobs. They will take anybody. This is why the airlines have such a problem with theft of luggage. And just like that, I can have a handful of agents who load and unload your plane, and likely you will never know it until we strike you. Can it really be THAT easy? No, it's even easier than that. Because so many people who care for the planes don't even work for the airline. The people who usually clean and inspect the plane are often not even employed by the airlines. They are employed by contract companies. They are paid even less, and scrutinized even less. They can get anything on a plane in a secret location. A gun. A bomb. A knife. Or several. They don't even have to be the same people. One plants. Another waters. Still another reaps the harvest. And you'd never know it, until we hit you. Can it really be THAT easy? No, it's even easier. Stupid federal regulations which disarm the customer require that any arms brought onto a plane be inserted in secure suitcases, and those suitcases flagged with a special FFF tag. What does this do? It tells any potential terrorist which bags have firearms in them. And it guarantees that said firearms are separated from their rightful owners, who, odds are would use them appropriately, and potentially places them in the hands of those who cannot possibly use them for any good purpose. This policy also guarantees that any terrorist which makes it to the plane is extremely likely to succeed. But as I said, I'd never do such a thing. Because I love America. And I love Americans. And that brings me to the next problem. Our national borders are sieves. Almost anyone can get into this country for any reason. Now sure, someone who hates America could be an American. But most of the time, if they are going to commit this level of an act, they are not going to be Americans. They are going to be foreigners. And this is exactly what happened on September 11. The perpetrators of this mass murder simply walked into this country. Even though they hated us, and even though it could have been determined, due to their national origin, that they were likely to hate us. And you airlines and airports hire these people because they will work for next to nothing and accept your slavish conditions. They'll put up with it because they have an agenda. How could this happen? How could it not? What must happen next to avert future attacks Thomas Jefferson said that "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Nothing illustrates the concept of a patriot more than what the firefighters and police did in New York. Many of them, who were not on the scene when the Trade Center attacks occurred, came to rescue those trapped in the buildings. Little did they know that the buildings were going to collapse on them and kill many of them. Or how about the passengers on the plane which crashed near Pittsburgh, of whom it is said tried to wrestle control of the plane from the terrorists, not being able to save themselves, but probably unknowingly averting a possible attack on the White House or the Capitol. Or a passenger on another plane who was actually calling her husband, a US official, asking him what she could do to avert this. She didn't have time to act, but clearly she had the will. Yes, I rag on cops a lot. But this is an example of what cops are supposed to do. And the rest of the various police and sheriffs departments could put down their donuts, quit writing traffic tickets, and start following their example. And yes, I think the Congress of the United States is comprised of, for the most part, spineless traitorous sons of bitches. But they are OUR spineless traitorous sons of bitches, and the responsibility of either forcing them to adhere to their constitutional oaths, or removing them from office, belongs to US, not to some rag headed bastard who not only has no concept of freedom, but has no concept of true Islam: otherwise, he would not do this. And then there is the attack on the Pentagon. Defense is the agency with the most clear constitutional mandate. But you don't have to be a soldier to be a patriot. The thousands of people who perished in the World Trade Center were engaging in the most patriotic activity there can be: the ordinary everyday commerce of the United States. And they were murdered not as a random act, but specifically because they engaged in commerce. We have seen the tree of liberty watered with the blood of patriots on September 11. Now it must be watered with an equal portion of the blood of tyrants. Put bluntly: we need to kill the people who did this, and kill the nations who harbored and trained them. I frankly don't care who it turns out to be. Whether it turns out to be Osama Bin Laden, the Afghanis, the Palestinians, the Iraqis, the penguins of Antarctica or the Bavarian Illuminati, for that matter. We need to rain fire and brimstone down on these people. Because if we do not put these people out of their eternal misery, they will be back. With more targets. Maybe a rogue nuclear weapon or two, or a biological weapon. We must make having done this so terrible for the people who did it that all people will be in mortal fear of ever doing it again. It is time to rediscover the original concept of the militia Now more than ever, we need to lose the "culture of disarmament" which has developed in this country. The original militias were PRIVATE CITIZENS who could be called up at a moment's notice to defend both the country and the community. We were all intended to BE armed, in order to be able to avert foreign and domestic attacks just like this one. If you think that a few key citizens with firearms could not have stopped the events of September 11, keep in mind the conditions that the would be suicide terrorists found on these four aircraft. They had no armed opposition to them. The terrorists had full control to direct these planes wherever they would. Had there been armed resistance, even if the planes would have still been lost themselves, almost certainly the terrorists would not have been able to fully control their planes and direct them into the targets. We might have lost the 266, but we wouldn't have lost what could turn out to be 20,000 people. Nor would New York have lost about 400 firefighters and police officers acting as rescuers. The gun control hysteria set the stage for terrorists controlling an American device which no one in the first line of defense was able to stop, because they were unarmed sitting ducks. What if the next device isn't an airplane, but a suitcase nuclear weapon, or a biological weapon? But I'm not just talking about pulling out pistols. I'm also talking about learning how to fight. No one even teaches flight crews basic self defense. This must change. By allowing the militia system to decline, and turning over our security to government agents, we have severely weakened our ability to defend our country from attacks of every kind, especially attacks like these. It may be appropriate to provide more funding for government agencies to meet such threats, but realistically, such agencies are not likely to be able to detect all such attacks before they occur. We must attend to the first line of defense, which are the people on the scene, who might be able to detect such attacks before they occur, and respond when they do. It is time to close the borders and expel certain immigrants Closing the borders and ending much immigration goes straight to the point I made as to why I would never do such a thing. I have love of the American people. I have a certain level of Judeo-Christian ethic of life, not only for the lives of innocent citizens, but for my own life. And we have no duty to share our nation with foreigners who do not share that ethic. No one who does not intend to be an American should be allowed to come here on any more than a travel visa, and some people from certain parts of the world shouldn't be allowed to be here even for that. It is very important for us to determine what a given individual wants to do in America. A Mexican national who wants to really and truly become an American is a good thing. A Mexican national who wants to reestablish Aztlan in the American Southwest is a bad thing and is a terrorist in the making. I had a different opinion about this before September 11. I don't want to share my space with an Islamic terrorist who hates America. I don't want to be "open-minded" in admitting Mexican nationals to work here if I'm going to have to shoot it out with them in the streets of Phoenix and Tucson in one of their "wars for independence". It's not about the language. I listen to Spanish language television almost every week for something or another, and there are five languages spoken in my household, including Spanish, French and German. It's not about the culture. I actually have great admiration of many different foreign cultures. But there is a difference between a foreign national who wants to become an American, and a foreign national who wants to destroy America. And we need to determine who's who. And right now, we can't. I didn't feel that way prior to September 11. But another key reason September 11 happened is lax immigration policy. This is one thing that not only the military, but the militias, should be used to do: guard our borders and ports. And one thing the INS needs to seriously undertake: determining WHY a foreign national is here. Our national security is more important than having somebody to pick my grapes and clean my house. If Congress is serious about their singing of "God Bless America", they will alter current immigration policy to make it harder for those who hate America to be here. Those who trade liberty for security will get neither The 266 traded, under some duress, liberty for security. They were used against their will to murder 10,000 people. And they are just as dead as if there were NO security measures whatsoever. Many say we must maintain liberty and freedom. Wrong. We must reestablish liberty and freedom, including many of the freedoms which have lately been swiped away from us. Some might say we should turn over more power to the government. Wrong again. We need to empower the people to fight this. Otherwise, these things will occur gain and again. The government actually got us into this mess via the tyranny of stupidity. If we allow the curtailment of freedom and liberty over this, then we are as bad as the people who are attacking us. If we allow tyranny in the name of greater security, then we fulfill the "Great Satan" role they have ascribed to us. Moreover, if the United States government, as an answer to this tragedy, decides to institute a police state, ostensibly for the protection of the American people, then it has ANOTHER problem. A much bigger problem than Osama Bin Laden. Namely, American patriots. American patriots are not going to tolerate a police state. And American patriots, more than any other set of people, best know every single point of weakness of the various standing governments. And they constitute a much greater number of people than any official figures could ever account for. American patriots are the LAST enemy the federal government wants to have. Because they are the very people most capable of taking down the standing government. Of course, such a confrontation, which would make the War Between the States look like a picnic, need never happen. American patriots WANT to be friends with the federal government. All the government needs to do to be the friend of American patriots is to do their constitutional duty. It's really that simple. Woe to them if they decide to instead be the enemy of the American patriot. Airlines and airports looking in the wrong place Turning American airports and airplanes into an extended police state which maximally distrusts their own customers is the single stupidest thing the industry can do. For one thing, people just won't fly the planes as often. People will drive, instead. Or they won't travel at all. They will vote with their feet. There are a great number of us in the country already who refuse to fly, or fly very rarely, for two reasons: one, we don't like being treated like Soviet citizens instead of American citizens, and two, we know the security measures are a joke. Even today, as you, the American airline industry and the American government, try to invent more restrictions upon the American traveling public, even in the wake of this tragedy, we shake our heads in disgust because it seems you have no clue. The danger points in airline security are not the flying public. They are the airlines themselves, and the support companies the airlines hire. Hiring people at low wages and crappy working conditions is not just a formula for incompetence. It is a formula for sabotage as you invariably hire people who have ulterior motives for working for you beside the bad pay and bad conditions. It is also a formula for bankruptcy. Ask the Chairman of Pan Am... oh wait, that's right. You can't. Moreover, airlines ought to give thought to something that is commonly done on the Israeli airline El Al, which has never ever had a hijacking. Namely, armed security guards on the planes as they fly. After September 11, that scary guy with an Uzi on your plane, doesn't seem as scary any more. Another danger point is Air Traffic Control. Not for any ulterior motives on their part, but simply because they are not sufficiently trained or staffed to deal with terrorism in the air as it is going on. This is something we chose to skimp on in the 80's and it has come back to bite us. Our foreign policy After the dust clears, and after the perpetrators of this evil act have been incinerated and vaporized, perhaps it is time to objectively reconsider our foreign policy and all the foreign entanglements that our government has ensnared us into. I would be the last person to say that US foreign policy has been noble. There are people in the world who hate us for just cause. Instead of a foreign policy which centers on our financial self interest, we need to have a policy which seeks to export and establish freedom. And of course, to establish and export freedom, we must have it to give, and must maximize it in this country. I believe that now more than ever, we are presented with a fork in the road. One fork reestablishes our Constitution and our Bill of Rights, and our limited government with maximum freedom, as a model by which we thrive, and a model which we export to the rest of the world. The other fork, a heightened police state, with continued foreign entanglements based on financial interests, guarantees the eventual destruction of the United States. Freedom was attacked on September 11. Freedom must be defended, in all its forms. If it is not, we have no country, we have no security, and we have no wealth. Copyright, 2001, LizMichael.com, www.lizmichael.com Permission to reprint granted so long as the website and the copyright remains referenced. No exclusivity may be retained by any individual or press entity which reprints. Sponsored by LizMichael.com, P. O. Box 25506, Tempe AZ 85285 - e-mail: GoLizzieGo@lizmichael.com

FBI list of individuals identified as suspected hijackers September 14, 2001 Posted: 2:00 PM EDT (1800 GMT) The following information was taken from an FBI press office document listing 19 "individuals who have been identified as hijackers aboard the four airliners that crashed on September 11, 2001, into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and Stony Creek Township, Pennsylvania." American Airlines Flight 77 (which crashed into the Pentagon) Khalid Al-Midhar -- possible residences: Los Angeles, California, and New York, New York. Visa status: B-1 Visa, but B-2 Visa had expired. Majed Moqed -- no information available. Nawaq Alhamzi -- possible residences: Fort Lee and Wayne, New Jersey, and Los Angeles. Salem Alhamzi -- possible residences: Fort Lee and Wayne, New Jersey. Hani Hanjour -- possible residences: Phoenix, Arizona, and San Diego, California. Believed to be a pilot. American Airlines Flight 11 (which crashed into the World Trade Center's north tower) Satam Al Suqami -- Date of birth used: June 28, 1976; last known address: United Arab Emirates. Waleed M. Alshehri -- Dates of birth used: September 13, 1974; January 1, 1976; March 3, 1976; July 8, 1977; December 20, 1978; May 11, 1979; November 5, 1979; October 2, 1991. Possible residences: Hollywood, Orlando and Daytona Beach, Florida. Believed to be a pilot. Wail Alshehri -- Date of birth used: July 31, 1973. Possible residences: Hollywood, Florida, and Newton, Massachusetts. Believed to be a pilot. Mohamed Atta -- Date of birth used: September 1, 1968. Possible residences: Hollywood and Coral Springs, Florida, and Hamburg, Germany; Believed to be a pilot. Abdulaziz Alomari -- Dates of birth used: December 24, 1972, and May 28, 1979. Possible residence: Hollywood, Florida. Believed to be a pilot. United Airlines Flight 175 (which crashed into the World Trade Center's south tower) Marwan Al-Shehhi -- Date of birth used: May 9, 1978. Possible residence: Hollywood, Florida. Visa status: B-2 Visa. Believed to be a pilot. Fayez Ahmed -- Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida. Ahmed Alghamdi -- Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida. Hamza Alghamdi -- Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida. Mohald Alshehri -- Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida. United Airlines Flight 93 (which crashed in Stony Creek Township, Pennsylvania) Saeed Alghamdi -- Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida. Ahmed Alhaznawi -- Date of birth used: October 11, 1980. Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida. Ahmed Alnami -- Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida. Ziad Jarrahi -- Believed to be a pilot.

Afghan Opposition Leader Dead Massood's Death Deals Blow to Anti-Taliban Alliance The Associated Press K A B U L , A f g a n i s t a n, Sept. 15 — Afghan opposition leader Ahmad Shah Massood died today of injuries suffered in a suicide bombing, said his spokesman, dealing a major blow to the northern-based alliance battling the Taliban. He was 48. Massood died at 10 a.m local time (5:30 a.m. GMT) in northern Takhar province in a suicide attack by two men posing as television journalists. One was from Morocco and one from Tunis, spokesman Abdullah said in a telephone interview. "It was a brutal attack on Massood by terrorists," said Abdullah, accusing Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in Tuesday's terror attacks in the United States, of orchestrating the assault. Abdullah, like many Afghans, uses only one name. Massood's death was also confirmed by Ghulam Sakhi Ghairat, spokesman for Afghanistan's Moscow embassy, one of a few still operated by the opposition's deposed government. The flag at the embassy was flying at half-staff. Massood's death is likely to decimate the fractious opposition, which had been held together by his charismatic leadership. Comprised of small groups mostly representing minority ethnic and religious groups, the opposition was plagued by infighting when it ruled Afghanistan as a coalition between 1992 and 1996. Their feuds destroyed vast neighborhoods of Kabul and killed 50,000 people, mostly civilians. They rallied together against the Taliban, but their animosities run deep. In the attack Sunday, two men posing as journalists detonated a bomb that may have been hidden in a television camera. The blast in northern Afghanistan killed both bombers and one of Massood's spokesmen. The bombers were identified as Mohammed Karim Tushani of Morocco and Mohammed Qasim of Tunis. Since the attack there have been conflicting reports about Massood's condition with the Russian news agency Itar-Tass reporting his death within a day of the attack. Abdullah said that Massood died of his injuries in Khodja Bahauddin in Takhar province. On Thursday, the Afghan opposition forces named Gen. Mohammed Fahim, an active leader of the opposition since 1973, to temporarily replace Massood. Abdullah said Fahim was named as military commander of the opposition. The Taliban rule about 95 percent of Afghanistan, with Massood's alliance in control of the remaining 5 percent, mostly in the north. "Massood warned the world about the threat of terrorists but they didn't listen to this. He said terrorists threatened Afghanistan and all the nation," said Abdullah, the spokesman. Massood is survived by five daughters and a son. Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Subj: [RMNEWS2] ISRAEL - USA/NWO NEW YORK CONSPIRACY? Date: 9/15/2001 12:05:16 PM Pacific Daylight Time From: michaeli@globalnet.co.uk (World-Action) URGENT - PLEASE NETWORK NEWS EMBARGO AFTER ISRAELI LINK LEAK http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apfn/message/16718 Date: Sat Sep 15, 2001 1:14 am Caveat Lector - Hi! This report may constitute yet another fragment of evidence suggesting that the 9 11 attacks may have involved strategic deception. We do not endorse the information, but pass it on in the public interest. EcoNews Service, Vancouver, BC NEWS EMBARGO AFTER ISRAELI LINK LEAK Stern-Intel (Canada). A US military intelligence source revealed details of an internal intelligence memo that points to the Israeli Mossad intelligence service having links to the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. The intelligence source, who requested his name be withheld, confirmed the internal US intelligence memo circulated four weeks ago described information that pointed to the threat of a covert Israeli operation on US soil to turn mass public opinion against Palestinian Arabs via an apparent terrorist attack on US interests that would give Israel the green light to implement a large scale military onslaught against the Palestinian Arab population. The 11 September attack has been described by experts as being too sophisticated for a lone terrorist group to execute. "This attack required a high level of military precision and the resources of an advanced intelligence agency. In addition, the attackers would have needed to be extremely familiar with both air force one flight operations, civil airline flight paths and aerial assault tactics on sensitive US cities like Washington." Stated David Stern an expert on Israeli intelligence operations. The attacks targeted the Pentagon, World Trade Center towers, with the White House and Air Force One also being targets according to the FBI. "The attacks have certainly turned US public opinion firmly back in Israel's favor after 11 months of Palestinian uprising, heavy criticism of Israel over war crimes allegations and racism by a UN conference in Durban. The attacks serve no Arab group or nation's interests but their timing came in the midst of international condemnation of Israel for its policy of death squad assassination of Palestinian political and police figures" added Stern. If verified, the news of Israel's involvement in the US attack will come as no surprise to intelligence experts. The state of Israel has a long history of covert operations against Western targets with attacks on the King David Hotel, USS Liberty, murder of a Scandinavian UN envoy as well as espionage against the US during the Jonathan Pollard case. On Wednesday the US defense department issued a warning to its officials to halt the leak of information on the investigation which it says is happening on a daily basis since the attacks occurred.

Subj: [RMNEWS2] ID cards 'to, protect democracy' Date: 9/15/2001 11:53:02 AM Pacific Daylight Time From: rayelan@mindspring.com (Rayelan) ----- Original Message ----- Subject: Blunkett hint on ID cards 'to, protect democracy' THE U.S. outrages could hasten the introduction of identity cards in Britain, the Home Secretary said yesterday. David Blunkett said such a system could play a role in combating illegal immigration. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: 'We need to think through and debate how we protect our freedom and democracy while actually maintaining that freedom and democracy.' He, added: 'Those are very difficult issues but they are ones we are going to have to address if we are to protect the most basic freedom of all, which is to live in peace and without fear.' Mr Blunkett refused to give his own views on the matter, saying he wanted to return to the issue later in the autumn 'when things have calmed'. He continued: 'I wouldn't want us to debate this issue purely on the back of the attack in the U.S. If we are going to consider such issues we need to do so in a much broader context of citizenship and entitlements.' His remarks will fuel speculation that the Home Office is moving towards some kind of ID system to crack down on illegal immigration. ID cards would make it easier for employers to tell whether a potential worker was legally resident in this country. Immigration Minister -Lord Rooker said recently that the ease with which migrants could work illegally in Britain encouraged them to come here insteaded of other European countries, most of which demand citizens carry official identification at all times. The Government has been accused of introducing ID cards by stealth through the new driving licence, which has a photograph. An ID system - costing up to £600-million - would be criticised by human rights campaigners as an infringement of civil liberties. John Major's government proposed a national identity card in 1995 to fight crime, eventually plumping for a voluntary scheme. The plan was dropped after Labour came to power in 1997.

Attack Probe Faces Legal Restrictions By GINA HOLLAND WASHINGTON (AP) - As investigators look for clues and suspects in the nation's worst terrorist attacks, some legal experts worry they might stop people for questioning simply because they look Arab or Muslim. ``I'm very worried about what's going to be done in the name of security,'' Kevin Johnson, a racial profiling and immigration expert at the University of   California at Davis Law School, said Friday. Johnson said he expects ``blunt stereotyping and shaking down'' of people who appear Middle Eastern even though ``it's blatantly illegal.'' About a dozen travelers of Middle Eastern descent were detained at two New York airports on Thursday, only to be cleared later of any connection with this week's terrorist attacks. It is illegal for law officers to target someone based on ethnic appearance. Courts have also historically ensured that foreign nationals are guaranteed the same civil rights as U.S. citizens. Nevertheless, officers are under intense pressure to track down potential conspirators and ``they can decide to heck with the due process rights of these people, we might be onto something,'' said Christine DeConcini, director of advocacy for the Washington-based Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. ``I'm all in favor of getting leads, but people's civil liberties and civil rights need to be protected. I don't want to hear that they're ransacking house after house,'' she said. The Justice Department said a number of people questioned in connection with the plot have been arrested for immigration violations and were in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS has 48 hours after an arrest to charge someone with violating immigration rules. DeConcini, whose group provides lawyers to detained immigrants, said she was told that phone calls were not being allowed out of the INS detention centers, even to lawyers. Arab-Americans, Muslim and others groups have reported harassment and violence since the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Most of that has come from other Americans. The prime suspect in the plot is Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. Authorities believe there are many accomplices. President Bush said Thursday that ``we must be mindful ... we treat Arab-Americans and Muslims with the respect they deserve.'' Kareem Shora, legal adviser to the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington, said the group has not received reports of rights violations by law agencies. ``Mistakes will be made. You can't have a perfect investigation. As far as we know, no intentional mistakes are being made,'' Shora said. ``Everybody understands it's a very special situation. We all have to cope with it.'' After the Oklahoma City bombing, innocent people found themselves targeted because they fit a government profile, said Michael A. Scaperlanda, a University of Oklahoma law professor. ``In a time of heightened security, there's always a danger that law officers will go overboard and overreach in their quest to keep us safe,'' said Scaperlanda. ``Police officers generally can find some reason to stop somebody. It is going to take sensitive balancing.'' AP-NY-09-15-01 0233EDT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,551036,00.html From The Guardian Thursday September 13, 2001 They can't see why they are hated Americans cannot ignore what their government does abroad Special report: Terrorism in the US Seumas Milne Nearly two days after the horrific suicide attacks on civilian workers in New York and Washington, it has become painfully clear that most Americans simply don't get it. From the president to passersby on the streets, the message seems to be the same: this is an inexplicable assault on freedom and democracy, which must be answered with overwhelming force - just as soon as someone can construct a credible account of who was actually responsible. Shock, rage and grief there has been aplenty. But any glimmer of recognition of why people might have been driven to carry out such atrocities, sacrificing their own lives in the process - or why the United States is hated with such bitterness, not only in Arab and Muslim countries, but across the developing world - seems almost entirely absent. Perhaps it is too much to hope that, as rescue workers struggle to pull firefighters from the rubble, any but a small minority might make the connection between what has been visited upon them and what their government has visited upon large parts of the world. But make that connection they must, if such tragedies are not to be repeated, potentially with even more devastating consequences. US political leaders are doing their people no favours by reinforcing popular ignorance with self-referential rhetoric. And the echoing chorus of Tony Blair, whose determination to bind Britain ever closer to US foreign policy ratchets up the threat to our own cities, will only fuel anti-western sentiment. So will calls for the defence of "civilisation", with its overtones of Samuel Huntington's poisonous theories of post-cold war confrontation between the west and Islam, heightening perceptions of racism and hypocrisy. As Mahatma Gandhi famously remarked when asked his opinion of western civilisation, it would be a good idea. Since George Bush's father inaugurated his new world order a decade ago, the US, supported by its British ally, bestrides the world like a colossus. Unconstrained by any superpower rival or system of global governance, the US giant has rewritten the global financial and trading system in its own interest; ripped up a string of treaties it finds inconvenient; sent troops to every corner of the globe; bombed Afghanistan, Sudan, Yugoslavia and Iraq without troubling the United Nations; maintained a string of murderous embargos against recalcitrant regimes; and recklessly thrown its weight behind Israel's 34-year illegal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as the Palestinian intifada rages. If, as yesterday's Wall Street Journal insisted, the east coast carnage was the fruit of the Clinton administration's Munich-like appeasement of the Palestinians, the mind boggles as to what US Republicans imagine to be a Churchillian response. It is this record of unabashed national egotism and arrogance that drives anti-Americanism among swaths of the world's population, for whom there is little democracy in the current distribution of global wealth and power. If it turns out that Tuesday's attacks were the work of Osama bin Laden's supporters, the sense that the Americans are once again reaping a dragons' teeth harvest they themselves sowed will be overwhelming. It was the Americans, after all, who poured resources into the 1980s war against the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul, at a time when girls could go to school and women to work. Bin Laden and his mojahedin were armed and trained by the CIA and MI6, as Afghanistan was turned into a wasteland and its communist leader Najibullah left hanging from a Kabul lamp post with his genitals stuffed in his mouth. But by then Bin Laden had turned against his American sponsors, while US-sponsored Pakistani intelligence had spawned the grotesque Taliban now protecting him. To punish its wayward Afghan offspring, the US subsequently forced through a sanctions regime which has helped push 4m to the brink of starvation, according to the latest UN figures, while Afghan refugees fan out across the world. All this must doubtless seem remote to Americans desperately searching the debris of what is expected to be the largest-ever massacre on US soil - as must the killings of yet more Palestinians in the West Bank yesterday, or even the 2m estimated to have died in Congo's wars since the overthrow of the US-backed Mobutu regime. "What could some political thing have to do with blowing up office buildings during working hours?" one bewildered New Yorker asked yesterday. Already, the Bush administration is assembling an international coalition for an Israeli-style war against terrorism, as if such counter-productive acts of outrage had an existence separate from the social conditions out of which they arise. But for every "terror network" that is rooted out, another will emerge - until the injustices and inequalities that produce them are addressed.

WTC WATCH - From: http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=9225 EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT - PLEASE READ Fri Sep 14 18:48:13 2001 I just received (from my good friend) a dramatic and horrifying account of what happened to a friend of hers on September 11 in New York. I was particularly struck by this segment of the account of what happened AFTER both airplanes hit: "I entered the back of Bankers Trust and was greeted by about 10 security personnel. I immediately passed myself off as building management and headed right for the security phone in the front lobby about 100 feet from the entrance of the main tower. I was able to call my mom and my wife and assured them that I was ok. I explained to them that I was drawn to this place for a reason and assured them I was safe. As I hung up the phone I turned to the man next to me and we watched as dozens of police and firefighters began to make their way into the entrance of the tower. THEN ALL AT ONCE THE GROUND SHOOK VIOLENTLY AND IT SOUNDED AS IF A BOMB HAD BEEN DROPPED" I cannot reveal the name of the person involved (for security reasons), all I can say is that they were an eye witness to what many of us already suspect - THAT THE TOWERS WERE IMPLODED BY EXPLOSIVES PLACED AT GROUND-ZERO PRIOR TO THE ATTACK - I have contacted the person in question via email and will try to find out more information. There may be other eyewitness accounts that will come forward. You have my 100% assurance that the friend who sent this to me would not be perpetrating a hoax. She is completely devastated by the events and is not even thinking about conspiracy - but just marvelling at the courage and heroism of her friend who went into the tower to try to give help. Below is the complete message as forwarded to me:     The first thing I try to do every morning when I wake up is ask God what it is He will have me do for     him. I pray that I will be a light for others so that through me they can see that He is present. I pray     that He will use me to plant seeds that will bring others to faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.     September 11th started out just like an ordinary day. I got into my office on Water St. at about 9am     and was greeted with a phone call from my friend. This was not our daily discussion call, instead he     informed me that a plane had collided with a World Trade Center Tower. At first we thought it was     probably just a small aircraft the lost control but then my building began to shake and I looked out     the window and saw both towers on fire. I hung up and ran to the elevator knowing that my older     brother worked in the Towers and arrived daily underneath on the subway. Without hesitation I     began to run about 8 blocks toward the buildings as my co-worker ran with me in support.     As we moved toward the towers we were met by 1000's of people running away in our direction.     But I was determined to keep going. At one point there was nothing between us and the towers     except 2 police officers preparing to block the street entrance