9-17-2001 - ISLAMIC CLERICS MAY HAND OVER BIN LADEN
Sleeper Cells and Following The Money
FRONTLINE INTERVIEW WITH DR. SAAD AL-FAGIH AND BIN LADEN - Originally Aired 4/13/1999
DO YOU DRINK SOFTDRINKS? YOU SUPPORT BIN LADEN'S CASH MACHINE
PENTAGON BACK AT WORK
 |
 |
 |
 |
Date: Sun Sep 16, 2001 3:37 pm
Subject: US STATE DEPT SPONSORS TERRORISM - HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA, USA
URGENT - PLEASE SEND THIS ON
"UPDATE - WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMBING
- SEPTEMBER 11, 2001:
A SPECIAL STATE DEPARTMENT INTERNAL SECURITY TEAM FROM THE POLITICAL LIABILITY CONTROL OFFICE WAS INSERTED QUICKLY AFTER THE INCIDENT INTO THE REDSTONE ARSENAL IN HUNTSVILLE ALABAMA. THE DEMOLITION SCHOOL HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN, AND THEY ARE SHREDDING DOCUMENTS AS WE SPEAK. AS A MATTER OF FACT THEY HAVE MADE AN EMERGENCY REQUEST TO THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE FOR MORE SHREDDERS."
http://www.almartinraw.com/column33.html
US STATE DEPT SPONSORS TRAINING OF WOULD-BE TERRORISTS
by Al Martin
Huntsville, Alabama - The US State Department sponsors the training of would-be terrorists at the Redstone Arsenal's Hazardous Devices School, which offers "explosive ordinance disposal training."
This is the most exclusive explosives school in the United States. It's where firemen, policemen, and municipal bomb squads are trained. It also provides training for the US armed forces, FBI, CIA, as well as foreign army and intelligence personnel. This is the most elite of the munitions schools in the United States and it's part of the Redstone Arsenal complex.
This facility is not run by the US Army or by the military. It is technically run by US State Department employee Ray Funderberg, who's been covertly in charge of it for about twenty years. An added note -- although Funderberg works for the State Department, he dresses in a US Army Colonel's uniform. Official records indicate that he supposedly works for the FBI.
According to a reliable source, one of the Iranians involved in the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, took training courses at the Redstone Arsenal's school of explosives. He enrolled in this course under the guise of a Pakistani military officer with Pakistani uniform and credentials. This is important to note because Al Martin Raw has previously reported that many hostile nations have a visible presence at the US Redstone Arsenal. Evidently "terrorists," as well as regular armed forces and intelligence officers, are also being "trained" at the Redstone Arsenal.
In other news, five new shipments of "marshmallows" (anti-personnel land mines) have left the Redstone Arsenal. And this week the Friendly Colonel is once again doing business under the "Gulf Coast Trucking and Receiving" moniker.
An inside source wants the Friendly Colonel to provide the State Department employment forms necessary to bring more people in. One of the arms merchants has a deal with the Russians to bring Palestinians into this explosives training program.
For instance, Palestinians would be brought in -- technically as members of the Chinese (Taiwan) Army, even though they are Palestinians. They would hardly pass as "Chinese," but since nobody cares, it's a done deal. Al Martin Raw readers should understand that no one asks any questions about any thing at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.
In fact, there are two Palestinians being trained there now in "explosives." As mentioned before, none of them are who they appear to be. It's all just convenience for paperwork. In case the Redstone Arsenal gets investigated, they will claim, "No, these people are legitimate; here's the paperwork."
Suddenly an Afghani guy named Mohammed Habib winds up being a Colonel Sven Larssen in the Swedish Army. This is an actual case. And it shows just how ridiculous it is.
This deception at the Hazardous Devices School is really another School of Americas story. The Friendly Colonel is being offered a $12,000 fee per person to fill out the appropriate State department documents to allow people into the United States on green cards for short stays - 30, 60, 90 day stays - and to enlist foreign nationals into this program. What they're doing is using this program as a cover to bring people in to be trained at the explosives school. The US State Department is actually conspiring with foreign arms merchants and the governments they represent to allow hostile foreign nationals to come to the United States using false documents to be trained at this facility.
They're asking the Friendly Colonel if he would "hire" these people as "trucking agents." (See previous story, Marshmallow Business Is Booming). To make this offer even more appealing, the Colonel is guaranteed that "there will be no heat" - because the US State Department is complicit. This is a standing offer to him from the State Department - to provide false documents for these foreign nationals for $12,000 each.
Aiding in this enormous illegal covert operation of the United States Government, the Colonel expects to make a million dollars by this time next year.
It is our opinion that these illicit operations at the Redstone Arsenal and adjoining facilities - US Missile Command etc - now exceed the volumes of money and egregious conduct of Iran-Contra itself. Now there are thousands of people involved making millions of dollars.
At lunch, the brigadier general and others involved were all licking their chops at the new F-22 Raptor program. They can't wait for that to get scaled up. There will be many Chinese arms merchants who will supply fraudulent spare parts that don't work as usual. They're looking at this program as "a fresh source to defraud more billions with the Department of Defense with the complicity of senior officers through a complex offshore network of arms dealers, not only foreign arms dealers, but cutouts for American corporations that are producing components and systems for this aircraft.
The bottom line is that we are training individuals and foreign military personnel who are hostile to the United States.
Al Martin Raw readers should also understand how the fraud is systemic, how the fraud is all inter-connected, and how conspiratorial the fraud is, namely that it's all being controlled by an elite group that runs through foreign governments, the Department of Defense, and defense contractors.
Their agenda is clear - terrorism is good for business.
Terrorism pumps up everybody's budgets, especially defense, law enforcement, interdiction, etc.
As long as we can keep "foreign terrorism" alive, everyone benefits -- the Department of Defense, the CIA, Department of State, the National Security Agency and many others. They can all ask for more money in their budgets by pointing to the "terrorists." We are in effect augmenting that threat, making sure it stays alive and healthy, so that federal agencies can be funded with ever-increasing amounts of money, especially those agencies that do not have to account for the expenditures of those monies.
They don't have to account for the missing monies because even if they're nominally supposed to account for their budgets they don't. Witness the missing $1.1 trillion from the Department of Defense (See Rumsfeld Inherits Financial Mess)
The brigadier general who's in charge was actually concerned because he and his associates (higher-ranking generals in the Department of Defense, who are committing these frauds) have been notified by the foreign banks where they have deposits that their deposits have grown to such enormous amounts of money that they are unmanageable. They are being asked to transfer their money into other offshore illicit accounts. Some of the banks they're doing business with are very small and obscure offshore banks that simply can not handle such enormous flows of money.
But you can understand the enormity of the fraud, when you're talking about trillions of dollars. This fraud is deep and systemic and involves a conspiracy of thousands of high ranking military officers, high ranking State Department officials, Department of Justice officials, CIA, National Security Agency officials, etc. and their "foreign counterparts."
This is the "Very Real Vast Right Wing Conspiracy," which has never been called to accounting.
Now the Russians are coming on board with the ABM missile treaty. It can be predicted that the Russians will drop their objections to our development of an ABM system in exchange for advanced US military technology, with which, by the way, we are already supplying the Russians and covertly rearming them. That was just an offer on the table, yet we are already supplying the Russians with US highly advanced technology. Like the notorious School of Americas which trained foreign nationals in American torture, interrogation and warfare techniques, the US State Department trains "terrorists.".
In the final analysis, though, nothing is new. The United States Government has covertly sponsored these activities in the past, especially during "Iran-Contra" and "Iraq-Gate." We virtually built the Iraqi military and there are many past correlations. For instance, the US did not stop supplying Iraq with illegal weapons systems until three days before the beginning of the Gulf War.
During "Iran-Contra," the US allowed the Sandinista regime to deal in narcotics so they could generate revenues to purchase more East Bloc weapons in order to become a greater threat to the US, so we could counter that threat by building the Contra Army in which all sorts of fraud against the American taxpayers, corporations, security firms, and banks could be hidden.
It is interesting to note that the Sandinista regime used two of the same companies to purchase weapons for the Contras as well as the Sandinistas. These companies were TransWorld Armaments Corp, based in Quebec City and owned by the infamous Immanuel von Weigensburg and Defcon Industries of Lisbon, Portugal, a CIA-controlled arms merchant cutout also controlled by Major General Richard V. Secord, as noted in the famous Lake Resources lawsuit (United States v. Richard Secord, cv 1202-A 1991 Eastern District Court of Virginia) . [See "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider"]
Iraq Gate and Iran Contra are perfect examples of how similar these two operations are compared to what's going on now. We are creating an enemy and we are also supporting existing enemies for the purpose of enriching a small clique of defense contractors, senior military and intelligence officers, and politicians on the right. We are financing terrorism against us as well as attempting to rebuild Russia and then build China into a new power under the concept that covert wars are very profitable.
The "Fight Against Terrorism" has done an awful lot for the Republican Party. And it has enriched a lot of people and corporations.
The drumbeat against "terrorism" continues full speed ahead.
UPDATE
- WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMBING
- SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
A special State Department Internal Security team from the political liability control office was inserted quickly after the incident into the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville Alabama.
The Demolition School has been shut down, and they are shredding documents as we speak. As a matter of fact they have made an emergency request to the Department of Defense for more shredders.
According to the general on the scene, the way the Feds are handling the situation is that the Redstone Arsenal is now "locked up tighter than a bull's ass in fly season." And there is a mass shredding party going on.
This guy Funderberg has been moved to an undisclosed location, so the media can't find him. And everybody at the Redstone Arsenal that wore a towel on their heads isn't there anymore. According to an on the scene report, the towelheads are reported to be lying low…
http://www.almartinraw.com/column33.html
--------------
AL MARTIN is America's foremost whistle-blower on government fraud and corruption. A retired US Navy Lt. Commander and former officer in the Office of Naval Intelligence, he has testified before Congress (the Kerry Committee and the Alexander Committee) regarding Iran-Contra. Al Martin is the author of "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider" (2001, National Liberty Press, $19.95; order line: 1-866-317-1390.) He lives at an undisclosed location, since the criminals named in his book have been returned to national power and prominence. His column "Behind the Scenes in the Beltway" is published regularly on Al Martin Raw: Criminal Govt Conspiracy
----------------
WORLD-ACTION
by Al Martin
Missing Chemical Weapons at Redstone
Huntsville-based FBI agents have discovered that chemical weapons are being sold illegally out of the Redstone Arsenal. Apparently older chemical weapons systems which have been retired and scheduled for destruction are illegally being sold out the back door.
In fact, even the FBI couldn't get over the fact that there's virtually no security regarding these stockpiles of chemical weapons. They are completely unprotected. They're not in secure bunkers like they're supposed to be. Even the doors are unlocked. There's not even a lock on the door, even though the Department of Defense own internal edicts require the chemical weapons to be stored in special high security storage facilities. These protocols are not being followed. And there is virtually no inventory control of retired chemical weapons.
The FBI has just found out. It was an extension of their original investigation of illicit weapons systems sales (See "Fraud as Usual at Redstone Arsenal") Then they got into the fraudulent double-dipping pensions, as we have mentioned before. (See "FBI Angst")
The FBI was evidently just bumbling along and they happened to stumble into these things. It should be noted that the FBI has no jurisdiction at Redstone Arsenal. They need to be invited onto the base as a matter of fact. They have no power of arrest on what is considered military jurisdiction. So what happens? Nothing. Ultimately a report will be filed and it will end up in the hands of the Attorney General. Then the Attorney General will send a letter to the Secretary of Defense saying that this is what we've discovered and you ought to do something about it. But then nothing is ever done.
The conditions that these retired chemical weapons are being kept under are so deplorable and lack of security is so egregious that FBI agents have quickly realized that they would have to ask for a transfer to get away from the place.
The notion that these chemical weapons systems were being sold illegally to other countries through nefarious unregistered weapons brokers was appalling enough. What the FBI agents were upset about was living in such close proximity to it. In other words, people are aware that chemical weapons are being stored there, but the same people believe that DoD guidelines are being followed for storing hazardous weapons.
They just were not prepared for what they saw. Barrels full of dangerous chemicals that are rusted and leaking. No locks on the door. Nobody knows how much of anything there is or how much is missing. If anyone ever got in there with a bomb intent on some terrorist activity, all they'd have to do is blow the place up. And God knows how far the contamination would spread.
Evidently some dangerous chemicals were stolen. When the FBI checked into it (it's a federal crime), they found that the missing chemical weapons were enough to eliminate about three states.
Nobody would admit to what it is or what it isn't. This theft or disappearance of these chemical weapons is usually called "shrinkage" in stores. At Redstone Arsenal, they call it "inadvertent evaporation." Of course, that might refer to the chemical itself but not the canister in which it's stored. At Redstone Arsenal, however the canisters are also missing.
Apparently the supervisor said something to the brigadier general in charge of Redstone about the chemical weapons missing and about the chemical weapons leaking into the soil and not being properly protected or properly disposed of. They're actually lying. They're saying that the weapons are being disposed of in a timely fashion when in fact they're not.
The supervisor said to the brigadier general, "Aren't you concerned about the health of your own troops?"
The brigadier general laughed and said, "Oh, don't worry. Exposure to toxic chemicals builds character."
online.ie 14 Sep 2001
German police have confirmed an Iranian man phoned US police from his deportation cell to warn of the planned attack on the World Trade Centre.
The Lower Saxony Justice Ministry has confirmed the man warned of the impending series of terrorist attacks, but had not been believed.
Spokesman Frank Woesthoff said the man phoned America "several times", but refused to give further details.
He said the US Secret Service had not told the ministry about the calls received from the Langenhagen prison until after the attacks.
"I cannot say anything about the man and the ministry does not know the content of the conversations," he added.
The Hanover daily newspaper Neue Presse reported the 29-year-old was dismissed as mentally unstable when he gave the warning of a terrorist attack to occur this week.
The ministry would not reveal when the calls had been made.
La Voz de Aztlan News Flash
Sunday September 16, 2001
ARMAGEDDON IN THE MAKING
FIRST WAVE OF INVASION FORCE ARRIVES
United States Ground Troops Land in Pakistan en-route to Afghanistan Invasion
Britain Sending 50,000 Ground Troops
Turkey About to Invade Iraq in three pronged attack
Military experts can disclose that the U.S. 82nd and 101st airborne divisions, or nearly half of the airborne combat forces at the immediate disposal of U.S. President George W. Bush, are currently being airlifted to bases in Pakistan.
The bulk of these forces will be moved to the northern Punjab region of Pakistan and take up position near the city of Dera Ismail and in the valleys at the foot of the Suleiman mountain range, across from their main target the Afghan city of Kandahar.
The United States also intends to lay siege to, or capture, the Afghan cities of Medan, Galdek and Maroof as well as the Arghastan Valley, where, according to intelligence provided by Russia, India and Israel, Osama bin Laden’s forces have been concentrated in recent months.
The U.S. operations will include air bombardments and missile strikes against Afghanistan’s principal cities: Kabul, Jalalabad and Kandahar.
Afghanistan is not the only target. Washington is planning a three-stage offensive against Iraq with the participation of U.S., British and Turkish forces.
Military sources reported back on Friday, September 9, that the Turkish army is on a state of war alert.
Now, our sources add that the Turkish army is poised along its border with Kurdish northern Iraq. It intends to invade the Shouman region and capture the cities of Biyar and Tiwal in the Urman district. The two cities are controlled by Jund al-Islam, a Muslim group supposedly funded by bin Laden.
The United States now understands that the 200 Taliban fighters who arrived there in mid-July, puzzling many observers, were members of Bin Laden’s general staff, pulled out of Afghanistan two months earlier as part of his preparations for Tuesday’s terror attacks in New York and Washington. Now they may be targets of a US-Turkish hunt in one prong of the thrust into Iraq.
Also, Jordanian intelligence has reported a large concentration of Iraqi forces on the main roads leading from Iraq to Damascus and from Iraq to the Golan Heights.
A top Israeli official said in answer to a question from a military intelligence reporter - "We may be back in the 1991 Gulf War, when the administration of Bush Sr. depended heavily on an Arab coalition and demanded that Israeli stand aside. We were therefore prevented from fighting back against the Scud missiles falling on Tel Aviv. Now, too, Sharon has no wish to get involved in American regional considerations. Our only interest is to stop Iraqi forces from reaching the West Bank and linking up with the Palestinians."
10,000 to 18,000 Iraqi troops have Invaded Jordan en route to Israel
************************************************************
La Voz de Aztlan Exclusive. There has been a general "blackout" of U.S. mainstream media news to Americans. - LaVoz@Aztlan.Net
ALL AMERICAN SHOULD READ:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/halluc.htm
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 17:48:48 EDT
Subject: the real news
To: stonenote@qwest.net
Antagonist news - I keep wondering why my friend in Jordan is getting different news than I am - perhaps some of the answer lies here:
SUNDAY, AUGUST 19. In 1977, Carl Bernstein wrote a piece in Rolling Stone which revealed that 400 US reporters, editors and media execs were working for the CIA.
ADD: A few months later the NY Times ran a story which augmented Bernstein's findings. During a 20-year period, the CIA owned or funded 50 newspapers, news services, radio outlets, magazines, journals, many of which were outside the US. But the CIA also ran reporters in 20 major US news outlets. 10 US book publishers had printed 1000 books "that had been produced or subsidized by the CIA," writes author Daniel Brandt.
ADD: Two organizations which go a long way in controlling the world--the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations--can count many members among the US media. As of the mid-1990s, here is a very brief sampling:
ADD: Laurence Tisch, CEO of CBS. Dan Rather. Frank Stanton, CBS. John Welch, CEO of NBC. Lester Crystal, NBC. Tom Brokaw. David Brinkley. John Chancellor. Marvin Kalb. Irving R Levine. Tom Murphy, CEO of ABC. Barbara Walters. Diane Sawyer. Jim Lehrer, PBS. Charlene Hunter-Gault, PBS. Daniel Schorr. Tom Johnson, Pres., CNN. David Gergen. Richard Gelb, NY Times. Cy Vance, a director of the NY Times. George Will. Meg Greenfield. William F. Buckley. George Grune, CEO, Reader's Digest.
ADD: What does it mean?
ADD: It means that information is controlled, and mostly by the exclusion of many stories.
ADD: It means that media have become a sculpted art form, in which the truth is the first casualty.
ADD: It means that lies are safe and very profitable.
ADD: It means that organizations like the CIA and the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission can promote the myth of separate nations, while behind the scenes, these orgs can keep building a world in which the globe is carved up like a chicken for the benefits of the controllers.
ADD: It also means that corporations like Viacom, Disney, AOL Time Warner, and GE, which own the major media networks, are in fact serving an agenda of lies.
ADD: And when you look at the full list of members of the CFR and the Trilateral Commission, and when you find that not only media but military, intell, medical, government, energy, and banks are amply represented, at the highest levels, it means that the world is being run by a COLLABORATION of these sectors.
ADD: It isn't just money, it isn't just media, it isn't just government. When I use the word CARTELS, this is what I am talking about.
ADD: And here's the kicker. The NY Times can actually publish a story about CIA influence in American media, and no one cares. The story dies.
ADD: The truth has been so cheapened that no one cares.
ADD: Well, actually, the government did pass a regulation forbidding the CIA to use media in this way, but hidden in the fine print was a clause, which indicated that the CIA director could ignore the regulation if he decided that more important matters were at stake.
ADD: And THAT little secret was NOT reported in the major press.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 18. Last week I wrote a piece about the dangerous, devastating, and massively lied-about substance, FLUORIDE.
ADD: So now the CDC says that 100 million Americans lack sufficient fluorides in their drinking water.
ADD: Drink it, brush your teeth with it.
ADD: This medical treatment is a prime example of a mandated chemical that millions of people can't escape, because cities put it in the water.
ADD: Blatantly illegal. Every citizen has the right to reject a medical treatment.
ADD: But most Americans are too brainwashed to realize that. They think that "protection" is compulsory and should be.
ADD: The CDC is sitting on top of a volcano of evidence that fluorides lower IQ, sedate people, and cause bone damage. But it keeps the lid on. For how much longer?
SATURDAY, AUGUST 18. Famous author Gore Vidal is now saying he believes Tim McVeigh did not detonate the bomb(s) that killed 168 people at the Murrah Federal Building in OKC on April 19, 1995.
ADD: Vidal also says he is close to proving it. And that the FBI was complicit in the bombing.
ADD: McVeigh, Vidal states, took the blame and became a willing patsy.
ADD: I'll tell you this. Vidal is a solid researcher. He is also a patriot in the best sense of that word. He is neither right nor left in his politics. He knows the score, when it comes to the decimation of freedom in America.
ADD: Of course, the media cartel is busy positioning him as a genius gone nuts, a brilliant man who has lost it in his later years.
ADD: In the early 1980s, I watched Vidal give a speech in Venice, California, during his run for a US Senate seat. He understands what happens to a country when diverse non-mainstream groups are attacked for their views, and his tolerance of all types of people is genuine and he is just the kind of man who should have served in the Senate.
ADD: I await his evidence re McVeigh.
ADD: Vidal seems to have a grip on the Elohim City situation, which involved BOTH a pre-planning for the blowing up of federal buildings and US government infiltration to "stop" such bombings. Elohim City is a "religious" community in Oklahoma where paramilitary types of the Aryan movement have been given weapons training. Its leader, Reverend Millar, was apparently playing both sides, encouraging race war while spying for the FBI.
Toll of missing at World Trade Center rises to 5,422
NEW YORK, Sept 17 (AFP) -
The number of people missing from the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center has risen to 5,422, with 201 bodies recovered, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Monday.
He told a news conference that 135 of the bodies had been identified and that they included 34 New York firefighters and one from New Jersey, two emergency workers and two Port Authority police.
The mayor said that New Yorkers "must prepare for the reality that we're not going to recover a significant number of people."
The previous toll from the terrorist onslaught was 5,097 people missing and 180 bodies recovered. Five survivors have been found, but none for five days.
By Jay Hughes
Associated Press Writer
Monday, Sept. 17, 2001; 1:06 p.m. EDT
CHICAGO –– Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan condemned the "wild beasts" who carried out a terrorist attack on America and agreed with government leaders that a strong response is warranted.
But during a Sunday service at Mosque Maryam, he also hinted at doubts about whether the administration should declare war on terrorism.
"Indeed, this was an act of war. The leadership of America and the people of America are justly angry," he said. "We agree with President Bush that there must be an appropriate response, but anger and wounded pride must not determine what the appropriate response should be."
Farrakhan denounced the attacks in New York and Washington on behalf of the Nation of Islam and American Muslims.
He also said U.S. foreign policy has helped foster overseas hatred of the United States, and suggested policy changes as part of any response.
The overflow crowd cheered as Farrakhan recounted how many people jumped to the mistaken conclusion that Muslims bombed the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995 and talked of attacks against Muslims after Tuesday's tragedies.
"As Muslims, the greatest thing we can do right now is pray because it looks like this war could take American soldiers into Muslim countries and many innocent Muslims could die," Farrakhan said.
© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
By Pete Yost
Associated Press Writer
Monday, Sept. 17, 2001; 1:32 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON –– The FBI has detained 49 people for questioning in the terrorist attacks, officials disclosed Monday as they pledged numerous federal agents would also fly commercial airlines for added safety.
Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the new sky marshals as he also pleaded with Congress to pass by week's end anti-terrorism laws that could assist the current investigation.
The changes would expand wiretapping and increase prison penalties for those who aid terrorists.
"We need these tools to fight the terrorism threat which exists in the United States and we must meet that growing threat," Ashcroft said.
FBI Director Robert Mueller disclosed that 49 people – nearly double the number when the weekend began – have been detained for questioning in the probe or because of questions about their immigration status.
Mueller also said there were a number of material witness warrants that have been issued for suspects, but he said the warrants were sealed. Officials previously disclosed two arrests.
Ashcroft said law enforcement officers believe there is a continuing threat because "associates of the hijackers that have ties to terrorist organizations may be a continuing presence in the United States."
He directed the U.S. Marshals Service to assign more than 300 deputies to assist FBI field offices in the probe, which has received 7,700 phone calls and 47,000 tips on the Internet.
The attorney general said a growing number of federal law enforcement agents from the Justice Department would be boarding commercial flights as air marshals. Typically, air marshals are armed.
Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Transportation aviation subcommittee, said the first group of new air marshals would be transferred from existing federal law enforcement agencies to get them aboard flights quickly. More eventually will be hired.
"Each day as flights increase we will be adding additional enforcement officials ... as air marshals in addition to the heightened security on the ground," Ashcroft said.
Mueller also disclosed that at least two killings were possibly inspired by anti-Arab sentiment and he sternly warned against any vigilante attacks.
He said federal law enforcement is not singling out Arabs. "We do not, have not, will not target people solely based on their ethnicity," he said.
Congressional leaders emerged from FBI headquarters Sunday saying they were pleased with the progress of the investigation, and the Justice Department disclosed that a federal grand jury in New York is working on warrants for material witnesses.
At least two arrests have been made to keep witnesses in custody; authorities said they won't disclose any others because of grand jury secrecy rules.
The first arrest was of a man at John F. Kennedy International Airport who had a fake pilot's license. No details were released on the second.
In regard to the wiretap legislation, suspicion of terrorism is not a valid legal reason currently to get a wiretap.
Ashcroft said wiretap authorization should be focused on the person rather than the phone he uses because with the advent of "disposable telephones ... it simply doesn't make sense to have the surveillance authority associated with the hardware."
Penalties for people who aid terrorists should be raised to at least the same level as the punishment for those who help people involved in espionage, Ashcroft said in a televised address from Camp David, Md., where he and other top national security officials met with President Bush. People who harbor terrorists now face five-year prison terms.
"Our effort is to develop all the information we can about terrorism, the terrorists and the terrorist networks that have inflicted this injury on the United States and this assault upon the people of the world, and to do everything we can to disrupt them and to put an end to their capacity," Ashcroft said.
An early expression of support came from Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"We need to modernize our laws to make sure that no stone goes unturned in this investigation," Hatch said after the FBI meeting. He embraced the administration's proposal for nationwide jurisdiction of court orders authorizing law enforcement officials to identify telephones, computers, and other communications devices being used in terrorist act.
Senators including Richard Shelby, R-Ala., vice chairman of the intelligence committee, expressed satisfaction with the pace of the investigation after CIA and FBI briefings.
© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Monday, September 17, 2001
CAIRO — Arab states are becoming increasingly wary of a proposed U.S. campaign against international terrorism.
Virtually all Arab League members appear unwilling to supply military troops or provide logistical support for U.S. or Western forces in any attack against Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden or any of his government sponsors, Arab diplomatic sources said. The United States is believed to require bases in the Persian Gulf and Pakistan to launch a sustained attack on Bin Laden bases in Afghanistan.
The sources said many governments in the Middle East have expressed reservations over a demand by the United States to join an international coalition against terrorism and have imposed conditions on such participation.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said such a coalition must be under the auspices of the United Nations. Instead of military retaliation, Mubarak has called for an international conference against terrorism under UN auspices.
"A coalition grouping a select number of countries must not be formed since that will not permit decisive and collective international action against terrorism," Mubarak said. "It would be better to hold an international conference against terrorism under the auspices of the United Nations to adopt binding resolutions for all the countries of the world."
Gulf Cooperation Council states are said to be particularly worried over a U.S. attack. The fear, Gulf diplomatic sources, is that they will be face both a domestic backlash as well as Iraqi-sponsored insurgency attacks.
"There is no doubt that the situation is dangerous and that nobody knows what will happen," a Gulf Arab official told the London-based Al Hayat daily on Monday. "The Americans are intent on a military operation and we can only hope that this will not have repercussions on the region."
Some Arab League members, such as Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, have expressed willingness to provide the United States with intelligence information on Islamic insurgents said to be aligned with Bin Laden. Algeria has already submitted a list of 350 names.
In Israel, officials have endorsed a U.S. coalition against terrorism. But the government appears divided over a U.S. demand to meet Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.
Peres said Arafat has given his security agencies an order to stop fire against Israel. Peres said he received such information from Israeli intelligence agencies.
For his part, Arafat said he is ready to meet Peres at any time and at any place. Sharon has stopped Peres from meeting Arafat. But he said he would allow such a meeting if the Palestinians impose 48 hours of calm.
"If there are 48 hours of absolute calm, Shimon Peres will meet Arafat to further discuss a ceasefire," Sharon said.
Israeli military sources, however, have warned the government of repercussions of any U.S. attack on Iraq. The sources said such an attack would result in Iraq firing the remainder of its medium-range ballistic missiles toward Israel. A leading analyst, Haifa University's Amatzia Baram said the missiles would probably be tipped with chemical warheads.
US push for terror coalition sparks rift with Israel
JERUSALEM, Sept 17 (AFP) -
Washington's push to forge an international coalition to fight terrorism has caused a sharp split between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Israel's closest ally, the United States.
Sharon has warned he is unwilling to make any sacrifices to help the United States stitch together the coalition that would mean an easing of his campaign against the Palestinians, including military strikes.
He has rejected US pressure to reopen direct talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, an initiative which Washington believes could attract the maximum number of Arab nations to sign on to the nascent US-led coalition.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has even mooted teaming up with Syria nd Iran, both considered pro-terrorist states by Washington, so that a hoped-for broad coalition against terrorism does not seem to be targetting Islam.
Saudi-born dissident Islamist Osama bin Laden, being sheltered by the hardline Islamic Taliban militia in Afghanistan, is Washington's prime suspect in last week's suicide attacks on New York and Washington.
But Sharon flatly ruled out taking part in any operation that involves Syria, which hosts nearly a dozen radical Palestinian groups largely opposed to any peace negotiations with the Jewish state.
Israel also considers Islamic Iran -- whose supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calls the Jewish state a "cancerous tumour" which must be destroyed -- as its principal threat to survival.
Just as US President George W. Bush's father left Israel on the sidelines to win Arab participation in a coalition to oust Iraqi troops from Kuwait in the Gulf War, the Jewish state looks again to be left out of the spotlight.
"That's like in the Gulf War," says Israeli analyst Mark Heller from the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv. "Exactly the same thing."
Israel provided only discreet intelligence help during the 1991 conflict.
Now the Bush administration has been pressing the hardline Sharon to go ahead with talks with Arafat, which the premier has vowed will not go ahead without a prior 48 hours of "absolute calm" -- meaning no anti-Israeli attacks.
The public announcement of Washington's request seems to be aimed at countering Sharon's bid to delegitimise Arafat through his comparison of the Palestinian leader with the suspected terrorist mastermind bin Laden.
A close Arafat advisor who asked not to be named told AFP: "The Americans understand that to build such a coalition, they cannot exclude the Palestinians and they cannot ignore the Palestinian question."
He said Bush's understanding of the need to include the Palestinians was a bit of "surprising wisdom."
Sharon on Sunday slightly backed off from his tough stance, saying a meeting between Arafat and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres could happen after 48 hours of calm, after earlier ruling out such talks.
He may have been keen not to appear to be snubbing the nation which gives Israel three billion dollars in aid every year, but few believe the talks have a chance because of the unlikelihood of two solid days without violence.
"It's a way for him to say no, to say 'yes but' -- and the 'but' is the onus on Arafat," analyst Heller said.
And, indeed, Sharon has not softened his stance all that much.
"Israel will not make any concessions, and I emphasize any concessions, when it comes to its security," he told the Jerusalem Post.
Indian media cautions government against war-mongering
NEW DELHI, Sept 17 (AFP) -
Indian newspapers on Monday urged the government to curb "over-enthusiasm" in joining any military offensive by a US-lead alliance against the Osama bin Laden and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
India on Sunday offered "fullest cooperation" to the United States in its war against global terrorism, but newspaper editorials warned such a step would be fraught with danger.
"Though the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee avoided detailing the exact nature of the cooperation, reports increasingly suggest that India will allow the US use of specific facilities, including perhaps its airbases," the Times of India newspaper said.
"Terrorism respects no logic, as India, which has had to pay a horrific price for it, knows only too well," it said.
"In this case, the consequences are graver still because it is the subcontinent that is to act as the theatre for global war that America and its allies have planned against terrorism."
The newspaper said the government's offer of support could lead to India getting sucked into a war which was not of its own making.
India has already given details to the United States of what it describes as terrorist camps operating beyond its borders of disputed Kashmir, where Islamic militancy has left more than 35,000 dead since 1989.
New Delhi is willing to extend military cooperation in case Washington planned to strike in the vicinity of the South Asian region.
The Hindu newspaper said it was an error of judgement to "openly or tacitly portray the present international crisis as an opportunity for India in realpolitik gamesmanship."
"For India, an arguable strategic card is to bank on America's military might to try and silence the guns of Pakistan-sponsored cross border terrorism during the course of a possibly total war," it added
"The Prime Minister could barely conceal such expectations as he took the nation into confidence in a televised address about his new U.S-supported initiative."
India does not recognise the ruling Taliban militia in Afghanistan and accuses Pakistan of training and deploying Islamic insurgents in disputed Kashmir.
By Rachel Zoll
AP Religion Writer
Monday, Sept. 17, 2001; 4:13 p.m. EDT
Synagogues nationwide are working closely with local police and hiring extra security guards for the Jewish High Holy Days, a period of intense personal reflection made more somber this year by the assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Most congregations activate special safety plans during the 10-day period that starts with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and ends with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Security was heightened shortly after terrorists hijacked four commercial jets last week.
Some synagogues were planning to check bags and restrict parking for services starting Monday at sundown.
Few see an imminent threat. But there is concern that – given recent events – synagogues will become targets for hate crimes during the holiday period, the most important time of the year for Jews.
"Security experts have always told us that 75 percent of security in sanctuaries is awareness," said David Brook, executive director of Beth El Congregation of Phoenix. "I think we're all more aware of it this year than other years."
Brooke said some congregants have called to express concern about security. Yet many rabbis expect greater holiday attendance than usual, as Jews seek comfort in prayer and community after the terrorist onslaught.
Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, a popular synagogue on Manhattan's upper west side, has hired extra security, banned large bags from the sanctuary, and barred cars from entrances to its buildings.
At Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak Park, Mich., tickets distributed to members to reserve a space at new year services will be checked at the door. That's a rare step, said Rabbi David Nelson.
The Park Avenue Synagogue, on the upper east side of Manhattan, began speaking with local police immediately after the attacks. "We've been advised by the FBI and police not to give out specifics," executive director Barry Modlin said.
Rabbi Matthew Eisenberg of Temple Israel Ner Tamid, in the Cleveland suburb of Mayfield Heights, said his congregation has hired an extra officer "but we're not going to let these terrorists make us prisoners in our own country."
Two high-profile hate crimes in California two years ago prompted many synagogues to enact the safety plans they are using now.
White supremacist brothers pleaded guilty to setting fire to three Sacramento synagogues and an abortion clinic. In another incident, a white supremacist opened fire at a Jewish day care center in Los Angeles, injuring three boys, a teen-age girl and an older woman.
Baruch Fellner, president of Keshir Israel in Washington, where Sen. Joseph Lieberman has worshipped, said he sees the safety precautions as more beneficial for their "placebo effect," calming congregations unnerved by recent events, than for preventing any violence.
"Given the kinds of actions that terrorists are prepared to take, they cannot be prevented unless they are discovered in advance," Fellner said.
© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
By William J. Kole
Associated Press Writer
Monday, Sept. 17, 2001; 1:13 p.m. EDT
VIENNA, Austria –– Haunted by last week's terrorism, delegates from 132 nations opened an annual atomic energy conference Monday with calls for tighter security – and admissions that little can be done to shield a nuclear power plant from an airborne assault.
Governments, fearing a similar suicide jetliner crash at a nuclear plant, have tightened security outside nuclear power and radioactive waste facilities worldwide in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
But Japan, which is heavily dependent on nuclear energy and has 52 nuclear plants, warned Monday that nothing can shield the plants from a direct hit from a missile or an aircraft.
At the same time, the world needs to make sure nuclear materials are kept out of terrorists' hands, delegates to the International Atomic Energy Agency gathering said.
In a message to delegates, President Bush urged the Vienna-based agency to keep pace with "the real and growing threat of nuclear proliferation."
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the effort "more important than ever in the aftermath of last week's appalling terrorist attack in the United States."
The architects of the world's nuclear plants designed them more with ground vehicle – not airborne – attacks in mind, IAEA spokesman David Kyd said.
Most nuclear plans were built during the 1960s and 1970s, and like the World Trade Center, were designed to withstand only accidental, glancing impacts from the smaller aircraft widely used at the time, he said.
"If you postulate the risk of a jumbo jet full of fuel, it is clear that their design was not conceived to withstand such an impact," Kyd said.
In Japan, Takeo Hiranuma, minister for economy, trade and industry, noted that his country's nuclear plants were built to withstand earthquakes – not "hits from above by missiles or aircraft."
A direct hit of a nuclear plant by a modern jumbo jet traveling at high speed "could create a Chernobyl situation," said a U.S. official who declined to be identified. The 1986 nuclear explosion in Chernobyl, Ukraine, killed more than 4,000 people. Tens of thousands more were disabled in the cleanup afterward.
However, the buildings that house nuclear reactors themselves are far smaller targets than the Pentagon posed, and it would be extremely difficult for a terrorist to mount a direct hit at an angle that could unleash a catastrophic chain of events, Kyd said.
If a nuclear power plant were hit by an airliner, the reactor would not explode, but such a strike could destroy the plant's cooling systems. That could cause the nuclear fuel rods to overheat and produce a steam explosion that could release lethal radioactivity into the atmosphere.
In the United States, one solution could be installation of anti-aircraft weaponry manned by military personnel who would be stationed outside the nation's 104 commercial reactors, said Paul Leventhal, president of the Washington-based Nuclear Control Institute, a nonproliferation advocacy group.
Last week, military fighter jets scrambled over Massachusetts and Virginia to get to New York after being alerted to civilian airlines veering off course – but failed to get there in time, U.S. officials said.
"The problem is that the industry has been in a deep state of denial for many years. They don't want to unduly alarm the public," Leventhal said. "We feel the public should be duly alarmed. We're in a new era, and we must protect these plants in extraordinary ways."
–––
On the Net:
International Atomic Energy Agency:
© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
By Pete Yost
Associated Press Writer
Monday, Sept. 17, 2001; 12:55 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON –– Attorney General John Ashcroft said Monday that numerous federal agents will be flying on commercial jetliners to help guard against further terrorist acts.
The attorney general said law enforcement officers believe there is a continuing threat because "associates of the hijackers that have ties to terrorist organizations may be a continuing presence in the United States."
Ashcroft directed the U.S. Marshals Service to assign more than 300 deputies to assist FBI field offices in the terrorism probe, which has received 7,700 phone calls and 47,000 tips on the Internet.
From enhanced wiretapping authority to stiffer penalties for those who harbor terrorists, the Bush administration is asking Congress for sharper tools to help solve Tuesday's hijacking disasters.
© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
09/17/2001 - 05:26 PM ET
Military now a presence on home front
By Andrea Stone, USA TODAY
New vigilance: Aviation Boatswain's Mate Merissa Gibson directs an F/A-18 Hornet into launch position aboard the USS George Washington on Saturday off New York.
WASHINGTON — Fighter jets scream across the skies over the nation's capital and its largest city. Aircraft carriers and destroyers with surface-to-air missiles sit off both coasts. Soldiers in Humvees with M-16 rifles stand guard on street corners. Not even during the fiercest fighting of World War II, nor during the tensest moments of the Cold War, has the U.S. military mounted a defense of its home turf as massive as the one mobilized in the wake of Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington
"We are now into something we have never experienced before," says Robert Dallek, a presidential and diplomatic historian at Boston University. During World War II, homeland defense was mainly the preserve of civilian air wardens and coastal watch batteries. The Navy and Air Force patrolled coastal waters, but "they didn't fly over American cities as an umbrella of defense" as they are now, Dallek says.
Like every other military operation, the new homeland defense mission has a name: Noble Eagle. And like other wartime operations, details of the mission are secret. All the Pentagon will say is that it is prepared to keep Noble Eagle on high alert as long as necessary.
The name for the operation initially referred to air patrols launched by the Air Force after the attacks but was expanded to cover all defensive measures. A computer produced several names that hadn't been used before, and the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff selected one.
The Pentagon refuses to say how many aircraft, ships and troops are defending U.S. territory or where they are — even after TV cameras showed the carrier USS George Washington off New York.
Only the Coast Guard, which in peacetime falls under the authority of the Transportation Department, has released detailed information about the number and location of its ships and personnel involved in port security across the nation.
The enormous scope of the effort became clear on Friday when President Bush authorized the call-up of 50,000 National Guard and Reserve troops to aid in homeland defense. About 35,500 reservists are expected to be called as early as this week. They will provide port security, medical services and engineering support. They also will beef up ground maintenance and air traffic control at Air Force bases so jets can respond more quickly to threats of attack.
The Coast Guard, which has been authorized to board any ship — foreign or domestic — within 3 miles of U.S. soil, called up 700 reservists this weekend. They join 1,200 troops activated by Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta immediately after the attack.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on ABC's This Week Sunday that a just-completed review of military priorities "very much focused on homeland defense" and the threat of terrorist attacks. He said that he has raised concerns about assaults on U.S. Territory since January.
Indeed, in the past year, a flurry of commissions has pushed for more emphasis on protecting the 50 states from terrorist attacks. One report identified 46 different agencies with responsibility for homeland defense and urged they be coordinated by the vice president. It also said the National Guard should make defending U.S. Soil its prime mission. Army National Guard troops provided security on the streets of Washington and New York last week.
State militias and their successor, the National Guard, have responded to natural disasters and civil unrest since 1636. But no one was prepared for what unfolded last week. "Before Tuesday, we didn't think of airliners as weapons," said Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman.
Before Tuesday, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which once stood on 24-hour alert for a Soviet nuclear attack, had busied itself tracking drug smugglers and issuing Santa Claus alerts at Christmas time. Now, it is charged with ensuring that any future suicide planes are shot out of the sky.
In the days after the attack, when all U.S. airports were shut down, NORAD flew combat air patrols over some 30 cities. That was far more than during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, which brought the United States and Soviet Union to the brink of war. Then, only the Southeast was patrolled by fighter jets. After commercial air travel resumed this weekend, NORAD reduced patrols by fighter jets to the New York-Washington corridor.
But fighter pilots remain on alert at 26 Air Force bases across the country — all with the ability to be airborne within 15 minutes to fend off a possible attack.
Until Tuesday, the fighter base on alert closest to the Pentagon was 130 miles away at Langley Air Force Base, Va. That was too distant for fighter jets to intercept the hijacked jetliner before it crashed into the Pentagon.
Andrews Air Force Base, home to Air Force One, is only 15 miles away from the Pentagon, but it had no fighters assigned to it. Defense officials won't say whether that has changed.
Vice President Cheney said on NBC's Meet the Press that President Bush gave an order Tuesday to intercept and shoot down any commercial airliners headed for Washington that would not divert course. It is not clear whether fighter pilots would need the same clearance in the case of any future hijackings.
Quigley noted the problem of launching air-to-air missiles at a jetliner filled with innocent American civilians: The choice would be excruciatingly difficult over congested areas, where the debris might kill more innocent people.
To make sure the president won't have to face such a decision, the military will maintain a presence unfamiliar to Americans. Israelis and Europeans are used to seeing machine gun-toting soldiers guarding their government buildings and airports and stopping them at checkpoints. Soon, Americans may become accustomed to the sight also.
That prospect has some civil libertarians worried. After the post-Civil War Reconstruction period, when federal troops ran the South under martial law, Congress barred the use of military forces for law enforcement. Since then, "We've been squeamish as a nation about having the military play a strong domestic-security role," says Gordon Adams, a defense expert at George Washington University in Washington.
After Tuesday, there's been "a real rethinking of the role of the military," Adams says. "There's been a shift in the tectonic plates of national defense."
By Steven Gutkin
Associated Press Writer
Monday, Sept. 17, 2001; 11:42 a.m. EDT
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan –– The supreme leader of Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban will let a grand council of Islamic clerics decide whether to hand over suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden to the United States, the Taliban-run radio said Monday.
Mullah Mohammed Omar's announcement, read by a broadcaster on Radio Shariat, came after a day of meetings with a Pakistani delegation that included the head of the country's secret service. The Pakistanis were in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar to press Omar to deliver bin Laden as a way of avoiding a U.S. retaliatory attack.
Bin Laden, a millionaire Saudi exile who has lived in Afghanistan since 1996, is the prime suspect in the last week's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
From ANDREW PARKER in New York
HIJACKERS who smashed into the World Trade Center paid up to £3,100 each for first class seats, it emerged yesterday.
FBI documents also revealed that some bought their one-way tickets on the internet after registering as "frequent fliers".
Investigators piecing together the build-up to the attack have so far named 19 terrorists who spent a total of £35,000 on tickets between August 25 and 28. Seven were paid for on the same credit card.
All the gang - believed to have been led by Mohammed Atta, 32 - are thought to be well-educated Egyptians or Saudis. One, Waleed Al Shehri, was the son of a wealthy Saudi diplomat in the US.
They mingled with passengers in VIP and business class lounges, speaking together in German before boarding the planes.
All had ties to south Florida - 12 living there at one time during the past two years and almost all attending flying schools in the area. Seven, including Ziad Jarrah, 26, are known to have had pilot licences.
Maniac's passport found in rubble
RESCUERS searching the rubble of the World Trade Center have found one of the hijackers' passports.
The charred, torn document was picked up several blocks from the twin towers carnage.
It also emerged yesterday that two of the hijackers, Mohammed Atta and Marwan Al Shehhi, recently bought knives while staying in Zurich, Switzerland.
Air crew were attacked with blades during Tuesday's horror.
Meanwhile shattered rescuers yesterday continued searching for survivors amid fading hopes.
Police said there was still a slim chance that people were trapped in airpockets, but no one had been pulled out alive since Wednesday.
Just one per cent of the estimated 450,000 tons of debris has been removed. Heavy rain and hundreds of rats were adding to the hazards facing rescuers.
Officials may now switch the operation to recovering the dead.
Mayor Rudy Giuliani said body parts might be all that remain.
Relatives are being asked to bring in combs or other personal items that might contain hair so that DNA tests can identify victims. Officials have already taken more than 500 samples from close relatives.
Workers were allowed into Lower Manhattan offices to retrieve computer data ahead of today's stock exchange reopening.
FBI were hunting terror two
THE FBI was hunting two of the kamikaze hijackers for a fortnight before they launched their attacks.
Agents had been trying to find Khalid Al Mihdhar and Salem Al Hamzi - who crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon last Tuesday - Newsweek magazine claimed yesterday.
The hunt was launched after the CIA tipped off the FBI that the pair were Osama bin Laden's henchmen.
A second man was yesterday arrested by cops hunting those behind the attacks. He was nabbed at a New Jersey flat. The first arrest was made on Friday.
TERRORIST Mohammed Atta used a laptop to buy his American Airlines ticket from Boston to Los Angeles on August 28.
The website required a frequent flier number which he had established three days earlier. Atta, who used two Florida addresses, paid with a Visa card.
Abdulaziz Al Omari, 22, booked at the same time. They travelled from Portland, Maine, to Boston for the flight.
A bag belonging to Atta, 32, found at Boston's Logan International Airport contained a note, but the FBI have not revealed what it said. Atta sat in seat 8D.
In seat 10B was Satam Al Suqami, 25, who had paid cash. Fellow hijackers Waleed Al Shehri, 27, and Wail Al Shehri were in 2B and 2A. They had used post office boxes to get their tickets.
Both Al Shehris had pilot licences and were living in the Daytona Beach area of Florida. Waleed Al Shehri graduated from a four-year course in 1997 with a degree in aeronautical science.
Their Boeing 767 took off at 7.45am local time and smashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower at 8.48am.
HIJACKERS Ahmed Faiez and Mohaid Al Shehri paid £3,100 each for their first class United Airlines tickets from Boston to Los Angeles.
Marwan Al Shehri, Hamza Al Ghamdi and his cousin Ahmed Al Ghamdi paid £1,000 for business class tickets
Marwan Al Shehri, 23, from the United Arab Emirates, had studied with terrorist Atta at a flying school near Miami from last December.
Instructor Henry George said they spent three hours each in an airline simulator after claiming they wanted to be commercial pilots in their home countries. He said they had mentioned Egypt, but did not reveal exactly where they had come from.
He added: "They did not seem to have the skill to pilot jet liners - though they could turn the planes.
"All they were doing was making themselves prepared for that task."
Faiez had attended a flight school and Mohaid Al Shehri, 28, was a qualified pilot. Their Boeing 767 took off at 7.58am and hit the Center's South Tower at 9.03am.
FBI agents have less information about the hijackers of the American Airlines flight from Washington to Los Angeles.
But documents provided to German police involved in the worldwide inquiry show that Nawaf Al Hamzi booked his ticket through internet travel agents Travelocity on August 25.
The 31-year-old, who had an address in San Diego, paid with a Visa card. Then, as an apparent back-up, he bought a second ticket using a different address.
Another to book through Travelocity was Salem Al Hamzi, with addresses in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia as well as New Jersey and San Antonio. Meanwhile Khalid Al Mihdhar, who had been staying at Florida's Daytona Beach, booked on the American Airlines website, then picked up his ticket on September 5, paying cash.
He was in seat 12B next to fellow hijacker Majed Moqed whose address was traced using his mobile phone to Caldwell, New Jersey.
Also on the flight was 28-year-old Hani Hanjoor - another of the gang to have a pilot's licence and to have stayed at Daytona Beach.
Their Boeing 757 left Washington at 8.10am and crashed into the Pentagon at 9.39am.
ONE hijacker of the United Airlines flight from New York to San Francisco was qualified pilot Ziad Jarrah.
The 26-year-old had rented a bungalow in Hollywood, Florida, for six months.
Neighbours described him as a "flash young man" who dressed well and drove a sporty red Mitsubishi Eclipse. One added: "He always seemed to have a lot of Arab visitors. They included men, women and children and they never spoke English."
Also on board were Ahmed Al Haznawi, 21, who was staying in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Ahmed Al Nami, who had an address in Delray Beach. The fourth terrorist on the flight was Saeed Al Ghandi, 25, who had been attending a flight safety school in Vero Beach, Florida, since 1999.
Students there come from Africa, Korea, and Germany as well as from Arab states. They have told FBI agents Al Ghandi spoke little English and "kept himself to himself".
He gave an address in Jeddah and another in Lexington Avenue, Manhattan.
That has turned out to be the Saudi Mission to the United Nations. The Boeing 757 left Newark, New Jersey, at 8.01am and crashed near Stony Creek, Pennsylvania, at 10.10am.
By Pete Yost
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, Sept. 16, 2001; 9:52 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON –– Authorities arrested a second man in connection with the twin terrorist attacks as the Bush administration said Sunday it will ask Congress for enhanced wiretap authority and other powers aimed at stopping terrorism.
Stressing the need for swift action, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller were talking to congressional leaders by phone and in person at FBI headquarters.
"We need ... to elevate the penalties for those who would harbor or assist terrorists to at least the same level as the penalties for those who would harbor, assist those who have been involved in espionage," Ashcroft said in a televised address from Camp David, Md. People who harbor terrorists now face five-year prison terms.
People linked to terrorism may be present in the United States and quick congressional action is needed because of the potential threats, said Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker.
Law enforcement officials issued a warrant and took a man into custody in New York as a possible material witness, the Justice Department said, following the arrest of a man at Kennedy airport who had a fake pilot's license. The first man also was picked up as a material witness.
Citing federal grand jury secrecy rules, the department refused to provide details. Law enforcement officials are using a grand jury impaneled in the Southern District of New York for the work on the arrest warrants.
After being briefed at the FBI about the investigation and the legislation, congressional leaders expressed satisfaction with progress in the probe, saying they had been given new information about it. They declined to discuss it on grounds that it was classified.
Separately, a man detained at Toronto's Pearson International Airport after the attacks was handed over to the FBI at the U.S. border.
The unidentified man, held by Immigration Canada officials since Tuesday, chose to be transferred to the United States and the FBI took him into custody, said Greg Peters, spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. An RCMP officer said Friday the man was being investigated for a possible connection to the attacks.
Another 25 people are still being detained for possible immigration violations, including some who are cooperating, law enforcement officials say.
In other developments:
–Several FBI agents, some dressed in protective clothing, searched a Delray Beach, Fla., apartment where hijackers Saeed Alghamdi and Ahmed Alnami previously lived. Both were aboard United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in rural Pennsylvania and Alghamdi was one of three hijackers with the same last name. A resident of the apartment complex, Stacy Warm, said that four Middle Eastern men lived on her floor and that she thought they were drug dealers, because they were coming and going at all hours, carrying dark bags.
–The Justice Department said that the cockpit voice recorder from the jetliner that struck the Pentagon was "unusable" because it had been damaged.
Ashcroft said he hopes Congress will expand the reach of wiretaps and take other steps immediately to assist the investigation.
"We need to upgrade" U.S. law because federal law enforcement agencies have better tools against organized crime and illegal gambling "than we do against terrorists," Ashcroft said.
Currently, suspicion of terrorism is not a valid legal reason to get a wiretap.
Ashcroft was talking about steps that would be wider-ranging than the Senate's passage last week of a measure enabling wiretaps on computers and phones of people suspected in hijacking, bombing or other terrorist acts.
Wiretap authorization should be focused on the person rather than the phone he uses because with the advent of "disposable telephones ... it simply doesn't make sense to have the surveillance authority associated with the hardware," the attorney general said.
The legislation will go Capitol Hill this week, said Tucker.
"We need to modernize our laws to make sure that no stone goes unturned in this investigation," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, the ranking Republican on the judiciary committee and one of those briefed at the FBI.
Others at the FBI briefing included House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, Senate Judiciary chairman Patrick Leahy and Richard Shelby, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
SEP 15, 2001
By MATTHEW L. WALD
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 — During the hour or so that American Airlines Flight 77 was under the control of hijackers, up to the moment it struck the west side of the Pentagon, military officials in a command center on the east side of the building were urgently talking to law enforcement and air traffic control officials about what to do.
But despite elaborate plans that link civilian and military efforts to control the nation's airspace in defense of the country, and despite two other jetliners' having already hit the World Trade Center in New York, the fighter planes that scrambled into protective orbits around Washington did not arrive until 15 minutes after Flight 77 hit the Pentagon. Even if they had been there sooner, it is not clear what they would have done to thwart the attack.
The Federal Aviation Administration has officially refused to discuss its procedures or the sequence of events on Tuesday morning, saying these are part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's inquiry. But controllers in New England knew about 8:20 a.m. that American Airlines Flight 11, bound from Boston to Los Angeles, had probably been hijacked. When the first news report was made at 8:48 a.m. that a plane might have hit the World Trade Center, they knew it was Flight 11. And within a few minutes more, controllers would have known that both United 175 (the second plane to hit the World Trade Center) and American 77 (which hit the Pentagon) had probably been hijacked.
Flight 77, which took off from Dulles International Airport outside Washington shortly after 8 a.m., stayed aloft until 9:45 a.m. and would have been visible on the F.A.A.'s radar system as it reversed course in the Midwest an hour later to fly back to Washington. The radars would have observed it even though its tracking beacon had been turned off.
By 9:25 a.m. the F.A.A., in consultation with the Pentagon, had taken the radical step of banning all takeoffs around the country, but fighters still had not been dispatched. At that same time, the government learned from Barbara Olson, a political commentator who was a passenger on Flight 77, that the plane had been hijacked. She twice called her husband, Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson, on her cellular phone to tell him what was happening.
Despite provisions for close communication between civilian and military traffic officials, and extensive procedures for security control over air traffic during attacks on the United States, it does not appear that anyone had contemplated the kind of emergency that was unfolding.
The procedures, first devised in the 1950's, cover how to send fighter planes to shadow a hijacked plane on its way, perhaps, to Cuba. They tell how to intercept a plane entering the nation's airspace through the air defense zone along the Atlantic Coast, but not what to do with kamikazes.
"There is no category of `enemy airliners,' " a recently retired F.A.A. official said. He and others said they could not recall any instance in which a military plane fired on a civilian one in the United States, though in 1983 a F-4 Phantom fighter that scrambled to intercept an unidentified target off Cherry Point, N.C., accidentally rammed it. That plane was a private twin-engine propeller plane on the way home from the Bahamas, carrying seven people.
The United States is signatory to a treaty that appears to bar using force against civilian airplanes. Congress has voted against letting the military shoot down suspected drug planes trying to cross into the United States. Whether those restrictions would apply to a plane showing clearly hostile intent has never been spelled out. An F.A.A. spokeswoman said earlier this week that there was a policy for shooting down civilian airliners but would not divulge it.
And shooting down a jet as large as a Boeing 757 or 767 raises other problems. One F.A.A. official said, "If you keep it from hitting a government building, it's going to hit something else." That was clearly true for the planes that hit the World Trade Center, which flew over other parts of Manhattan, and the plane that hit the Pentagon, which flew over urbanized Northern Virginia.
John S. Carr, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the controllers' union, said: "Our system of unfettered access and freedom has limitations in terms of responding to a case like this. We've created a system for transportation, not defense."
Today officials were trying to reconstruct that system. Ronald Reagan National Airport — with approaches that are within a few hundred yards of the Pentagon and just seconds, at jet speeds, from the heart of Washington — remains closed, "temporarily and indefinitely." Private planes were allowed to resume flying at 4 p.m. today, but only under air traffic control.
Combat aircraft are patrolling the skies; an aircraft carrier is at sea off Washington and another off New York to provide air defense.
Military officials have offered vague descriptions in public about their procedures against airborne terrorists. In a confirmation hearing on Wednesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. Richard B. Myer of the Air Force, who has been nominated to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he did not know whether the F.A.A. had contacted the Pentagon about the hijackings.
"When it became clear what the threat was, we did scramble fighter aircraft, AWACS, radar aircraft and tanker aircraft to begin to establish orbits in case other aircraft showed up in the F.A.A. system that were hijacked," he said. He added that once the fighters were aloft, it was not necessary to use force.
In part, that was because American Airlines Flight 77 had already hit the Pentagon, and the hijacked flight from Newark, its target unknown, had crashed in Pennsylvania.
Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, said today that the Pentagon had been tracking that plane and could have shot it down if necessary; it crashed about 35 minutes after the Pentagon crash.
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company Reprinted for Fair User Only
chamish@n...
9-16-1
Well they did it again. For the third time is less than a century, the illuminati manipulated a world war. They succeeded in creating an issue of good and evil that cannot be ignored. Yes, the Muslim extremists present a danger to the planet and have to be extinguished, just like the Nazis. So, who created the Nazis and who created Islamic extremism?
For hundreds of years the Arabs were quiescent and obedient servants of the Ottoman Empire. Then in 1917, the British expelled them and took over Palestine. They, and their secretive Round Table, approved a declaration permitting Jews to re-establish Israel, thus offering them a shelter from Europe's pogroms, which were fueled by the illuminati for just this purpose. Then they set Arab on Jew, creating such animosity that Islam gleefully allied itself with Nazism
After that, the illuminati ignited the Holocaust and when it was ended, the Vatican's Jesuit rulers, with Allied approval, shipped the worst of the genocidal criminals worldwide through its appropriately named "ratline." Europe's Jews were then shipped to Israel and a war was ignited which the Jews were supposed to lose, thus completing stage two of the Holocaust. But Israel overcame the odds and survived. Since then, the planet's hidden rulers have done their utmost to turn Islam into an improved version of Nazism, starting with the creation of an artificial, terrorism-based "Palestinian" nationhood. It took barely a generation after to create Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban out of the same mold.
So, who created the Taliban? President Jimmy Carter of the Council On Foreign Relations took the first step by ordering a covert war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Who originally funded the Taliban? CIA chief George Bush of the CFR affiliate, Skull And Bones Society. Who supplied the Taliban with all the sophisticated encrypted telecommunications equipment, which made its attacks on the dead twins and Pentagon possible? President Clinton of the CFR, who approved sales of the high-tech wonders to Syria, where it was inevitable that radical Islam would inherit it. Who handed the Taliban $48 million, to eradicate poppies, knowing full well it wouldn't be used for that purpose? Why our current American President, like his father, a Skull And Bones graduate. Who is Bin Laden's brother's business partner? Why Percy Rockefeller of the CFR- funding Rockefeller family. Who owned the land the World Trade Centers stood on? Why those pesky Rockefellers again.
And who created Islam in America? The same gang who imported Islam to Europe. No American black should identify with Islam. This religion captured territory in Africa in Medieval times and looted its conquests for slaves. Without Arab slave traders, it is unlikely the European industry would have taken hold. Even today, Muslims enslave huge numbers of Christian blacks in the Sudan and Mauritania.
American blacks picked up this religion in the late 1950s and it was spread in the prison system. Who is enforcing those laws, especially the drug laws, that assure most blacks of some prison time where many will have to adopt Islam or face the consequences?
The hidden rulers have created an angry community of Moslems in America and if they object too vigorously to this new war, there will be a race war in America. The same goes for the Moslems of Europe, imported by the millions for just this moment in history.
We've all been set up for a period of bloody, murderous chaos. Then lucky us, we get a new planetary order with guess who in charge? And if enough people choose not investigate how this war was really started and who was behind it, we'll all deserve this new world order as a collective punishment for collective human stupidity.