Sources ID TATP As Component Of [OU] Bomb (called 'Mother of Satan' by Islamist extremists)

Sources Identify TATP As Component Of Bomb TATP Same Component Used By Infamous Shoe Bomber

NORMAN, Okla. -- Sources confirmed Tuesday night that at least one of the components in the bomb used by Joel Henry Hinrichs III Saturday night was a product called TATP.

Technically, TATP is triacetone triperoxide. However, it's called the 'Mother of Satan' by Islamist extremists. Experts say it is made by mixing common household items such as drain cleaner and bleach to create a white powder with a strong smell.

It's so volatile that it can explode even if it's merely dropped. It can even explode spontaneously, experts say.

There have been very few reports of TATP being used in the United States; however, there have been more documented cases overseas -- including Richard Reid, who was arrested after he used TATP in his shoe and tried to light it on a flight.

The FBI is testing materials from the OU student's backpack, and from Hinrichs' apartment. Sources said a chemist from FBI headquarters was flown to Oklahoma to help with the gathering of evidence to be used for testing.

However, FBI officials will not comment on any aspect of the investigation, including what sources have told Eyewitness News 5.

Transcription of pages 299-302 from The Third Terrorist by Jayna Davis, as requested by her:

The FBI arrested Murad in early 1995 for conspiring with reputed Iraqi intelligence operative Ramzi Yousef in "Project Bojinka," a thwarted plot to detonate bombs aboard 12 US airliners originating in the Philippines in a murderous rampage over the Pacific Ocean. While being interrogated, the ME (Middle Eastern) terrorist hinted at a future scheme (paradigm for the 9/11 strikes) in which Muslim fundamentalists would train at US flight schools to learn to hijack commercial jetliners. One plan involved the recruitment of suicide pilots to dive bomb the Virginia-based CIA headquarters aboard general aviation aircraft rigged with explosives.

After conducting a perfunctory investigation, Murad's far-fetched tale of unspeakable carnage to come dissolved into the file of "false" leads. The stratospheric intelligence failure would not fully sink in until the FBI retraced the domestic flight instruction of the 19 AQ executioners. Their aviation skills were not only made in the USA, but several were previously flagged as visa violators and suspected terrorists who melted through the so-called safety net of intelligence gathering.

Yet even in death, their soulless eyes proved inescapable as their photographs dominated the international airwaves. Three men in particularly instantly jogged the memory of the motel owner where Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols once met with their ME handlers.

"Jayna, I've toiled with coming forward with this, but I can't shake the image of their faces," Cactus owner Randy Christian said with timid sincerity. "I'm positive three of the 9/11 hijackers visited my motel a month before the attacks."

Twin Towers/Terrorist Motel Intersection

Just 4 days before the WTC disintegrated on live tv, Randy recounted his fantastic story. The self-styled ringleader Mohamed Atta, his dutiful sidekick Marwan Al-Shehhi, and the surviving would-be hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui entered the Cactus Motel lobby in early August 2001. The trio inquired about renting a room with a kitchenette, but the owner cordially explained there were no vacancies.

Acting as the group's decision maker, Atta sauntered across the room, standing an arm's length from the owner. "We're going to be attending flight school in Norman and would really like to stay at your motel because we have heard such good things about it," the slight framed man insisted as he broke into a broad smile.

Randy considered Atta's persistence quite peculiar gaiven the ample availability of discount motels that provided convenient proximity to the Norman aviation schools.

"Our motel is at least a 30 mile drive, one way. I'm sure ou will have no problem renting a room at a reasonable rate much closer," Randy graciously suggested. But Atta, conspicuously clad in a heavy leather flight jacket on a blistering hot summer day was not dissuaded. He gushed with compliments about the outstanding reputation of Randy'shotel. In hindsight, themen appointed to die in a few short weeks, intended to deliver yet another humiliating slap in the face to American law enforcement by signing theirnames to the register at the very motel that served as the staging grounds for their ME predecessors, as if to say, "Ignore us at your own peril."

Shortly after the WTC disaster, Randy reluctantly promised me, "I'm going to report this to the FBI. But given my past history with the Murrah Building attack, I don't expect they will want to hear from me, much less take my statement. Regardless, I know it's the right thing to do."

"Did anyone else witness the meeting?" I inquired.

"Yes. The desk clerk on duty that day remembers the arrival of 3 men who pressed for a discounted rate to rent a kitchenette, but he does not recall what they looked like," he explained.

As expected, Randy's recorded voice message at FBI headquarters in OKC was ignored for several months. However, federal investigators exhibited a fortuitous change of heart after one of my law enforcement sources pressured OKC Police Sergeant Jerry Flowers, a ranking member of the newly formed OKC Joint Terrorism Task Force, to check into Randy Christian's testimony. On December 19, 2001, Sgt. Flowers and an FBI agent debriefed Andy about-his unforgettable encounter with Aatta, Al-Shehhi and Moussaoui.

When Randy contacted me in September 2001, the international travels and movements of the 9/11 terrorists indie the US had not yet been reported. But the official indictment against suspected AQ operative, Zacarias Moussaoui would yield a windfall of eagerly awaited corroboration. The government's prosecutorial evidence trail established that Moussaoui remained in Oklahoma through August of 2001, the same time frame in which Atta and his terrorist comrades purportedly visited the Cactus Motel. Maussaoui arrived in the Sooner State in February to attend Airman FLight School in Norman. The training lasted until May, but the French citizen of Morroccan descent resided in Oklahoma through the summer months to receive a $14,000 transfer from train stations in Dusseldorf and Hamburg, Germany. Bin Laden chieftain, Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh, wired the funds to Massaoui on August 1 and 3, 2001.

FBI - Fumbling Bumbling Investigation

The July 2003 omnibus congressional reporting into pre-September 11 intelligence failures admonished the OKC FBI field office as a repeat offender in the maddening chain of missed clues. The thread to America's heartland unravels to August 16, 2001, and a pivotal opportunity squandered in the string of government blunders. Federal authorities detained and charged Zacarias Moussaoui for an expired visa, but immigration violations merely opened a legal gateway to make the arrest. Maussaoui, a flight student with no pilot's license, less than 50 hours in the cockpit of civil aircraft, and no instruction on sophisticated commercial jets, paid $6,800 cash to train on a Boeing 747 simulator. The Islamic fundamentalist expressed an "ego boosting" desire to learn to fly from Heathrow Airport in England to JFK Airport in New York.

Minnesota FBI agents were frantically seeking evidence to warrant logging on to the potential hijacker's computer hard drive. Urgency in this case could not be overstated. The OKC field office was commissioned to assist. On August 23, two agents assigned to the international terrorism squad were dispatched to Airman Flight School in Norman where Moussaoui previously attended, but it wasn't their first visit. In 1999, the Oklahoma field office made inquiries about Osama bin Laden's chief pilot who had received training at the same aviation facility. Unfortunately, that pertinent fact slipped the lead FBI agent's mind when conducting the Maussaoui probe, depriving the Minnesota field office of critical information in its quest to obtain a search warrant.

Congress violated yet another intelligence gaffe during its inquiry. In August 2001, when INS officials nabbed Moussaoui and his roommate, Hussein Al-Attas, a notorious individual attempted to post bond for Al-Attas. That individual had been "the subject of a full field FBI international terrorism investigation in the Oklahoma City Field Office." Apparently, this unnamed former or current Oklahoma resident had impressive terrorist credentials that included "Vice President of Overseas Operations and Recruiting for AL-Fatah" as well as membership in the Muslim Brotherhood. The FBI "person of interest" was depicted as a close associate of the Muslim cleric who reportedly administered spiritual guidance to two of the 9/11 hijackers. The Justice Department invoked the "national security" shield when refusing to confirm or deny if the Oklahoma City FBI probe into the Al-Fatah recruiter was still alive.

Cactus Connection to Al Qaeda Comrade

The trail of Oklahoma missteps may trace as far back as April 19, 1995. On October 11, 2001, the FBI arrested Mujahid Abdulqaadir Menepta of Norman, OK, as a material witness in connection with the terror campaign of 9/11, charges that were never proven. Federal authorities detained the 51 year old Menepta because of his close friendship with alleged conspirator, Moussaoui. The twosome socialized during Moussaoui's training at Airman Flight School. On an October 2, 2001, interview with the Daily Oklahoman, Menepta vehemently defended Moussaoui, calling him a "scapegoat."

"I saw him daily at the mosque. We'd eat together sometimes. I don't think he is a terrorist, Menepta said. "I understand terrorism quite well. I am a victim of terror, America's terror. I am a descendant of slaves." The Missouri native changed his name from Melvin Lattimore to Mujahid Menepta after converting to the Muslim faith in 1989. One year later, he traveled to Pakistan to study Islam.

The FBI confiscated 3 weapons and 600 rounds of ammunition during the October 2001 search of Menepta's Norman home. WWeeks later, the former felon pleaded guilty to illegal possession of firearms. But the ensuing courtroom drama made it abundantly clear that the weapons charges provided a means to keep Menepta in custody after federal investigators failed to tie the ex-convict to the 9/11 attacks.

According to the November 7, 2001 federal court testimony of ATF Agent Jeffrey Whitney, a government informant who characterized Menepta as "violent" surfaced within 24 hours of the 1995 Murrah Building bombing. The source told the FBI Menepta was a member of a radical Islamic group in Norman and St. Louis that spewed vitriol against the US and advocated destroying government targets, killing police officers, and committing terrorist acts. The informant also claimed he witnessed Menepta threatening to shoot any police officer who entered the prayer area of a St. Louis mosque where he worshipped.

End page 302

Next page, Cactus Motel manager Gary Hammerstein singled out a picture of Menepta as a guest at the hotel in the spring of 1993. Menepta was always buying 50 cent cups of coffee and paying with $50 and $100 bills.

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