FBI labels inquiry into Los Angeles airport shooting a terrorism investigation

The Associated Press | 9/3/02 8:38 PM | Christopher Newton

[freeperfromnj]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI is investigating the July 4 double killing at Los Angeles International Airport as possible terrorism even though there's no evidence linking the alleged shooter to any terrorist group, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Justice Department officials have said all along that terrorism was among several possible motives for the attack at an Israeli airline counter, and investigators were looking for evidence the shooter, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, had terror group connections. But until now the FBI had not publicly characterized the probe as a terrorism investigation.

The Israeli government has called the event a terror attack since it occurred, and Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and other members of Congress had complained about the FBI's reluctance to characterize it that way.

According to witnesses, Hadayet yelled racial slurs before opening fire at the ticket counter of El Al, Israel's airline. El Al employees Yaakov Aminov, 46, and Victoria Hen, 25, were killed. An El Al Security Guard then shot Hadayet dead.

"The shooting is being classified as a terrorism investigation," Matt McLaughlin, spokesman for the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said Tuesday. "If there is the slightest chance it could be terrorism, you open it up as a terrorism investigation. It's the only prudent course of action."

FBI agents had refused to describe the attack as terror because its legal definition of terrorism was work of "subnational groups or clandestine agents." No evidence has been found to link Hadayet with one.

Because of the attack, however, the Bush administration reconsidered the definition, and President Bush's domestic security plan now says criminal acts can qualify as terror without participation of a group. "Terrorism is not so much a system of belief ... as it is a strategy and a tactic -- a means of attack," the plan says.

[Auntie Mame]

The FBI is investigating the July 4 double killing at Los Angeles International Airport as possible terrorism

Well, that sure makes me feel better.

It's only been 60 days since this incident, this murder. What could possibly be taking so long?

I know it takes a long time to get a word redefined, but redefining "terrorism" shouldn't take 60 days, should it?

[spyone]

Next up the Antrax mailer, then the Queens plane crash, then....right up to the Iraq invasion and the overthow of tyranny to be be replaced with democracy in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudia Arabia, and Egypt. Reagan's legacy is defeating communism. If Bush does this half right, he has the huge oppourtunity of making over half the world democratic. Pretty good legacy, I'd say.

[tall_tex]

Amazing, they finally figured out what we FREEPERS had it nailed that day. GET OUT YOUR SHINEY SILVER HATS, place them upon your heads, kind'a tilted toward your left eye, or toward your right eye if you are left handed. Us Army folks know what I am talking about.

It is this one Texans opinion that we have all been victims of spin from our federal government since 9/11, and before.

I am sure that you'l can post all the terrorism activities that have taken place before and after 9/11. Go for it. I will love to read them all.

Why would our government be covering up for the "EVIL DO'ERS"?

You tell me. I do have my own thoughts. No charge.. Tom

[coloradan]

The FBI is investigating the July 4 double killing at Los Angeles International Airport as possible terrorism even though there's no evidence linking the alleged shooter to any terrorist group, a spokesman said Tuesday.

LOL!! The FBI called OKC a terrorist attack from day one, despite the fact that they bent over backwards trying to prove that McVeigh did everything very much in isolation and without any connection whatsoever to "others unknown." They didn't try to prove that he had culpability for the bombing, they tried to prove that he was "the lone bomber." Gone were witnesses who would testify seeing him with John Doe #2, for example.

[tall_tex]

Gosh, golly gee whiz, airliner crashes on Veterans Day which, as I recall was 11/11, while taking off from NYC. I am still trying to figure out how in the world that could that possibly happen. People got killed at LAX, on 7/4 by an Arab, who chose his targets and killed them. Why in the world would would both of these, of course unrelated events, take place on 11/11 or 7/4. Stuff happens... Where is my silver hat, oh no my lady just wraped up my left over steak with it. I could be wrong, I hope that I am.. Tom

[Lion's Cub]

FYI. Not sure, but I expect they had to reclassify this to invoke the broader powers of the Patriot Act. They probably ran into a liberal judge who wouldn't let them investigate known associates to look for a sleeper cell. Just guessing, since this happened in La-La Land...

[Abar]

This criminally negligent and criminally incompetent agency should have been 86ed long ago.

Americans are still at grave risk.

[sheik yerbouty]

They have a mutation of Waldheim's Disease. They're sand nazis. but they forgot!

[Dr. Eckleburg]

BTTT.

[Cindy]

Links of Interest:

FOX NEWS.com (AP): "FBI LABELS INQUIRY INTO LAX SHOOTING A TERROR PROBE WASHINGTON - The FBI is investigating the July 4 double killing at Los Angeles International Airport as possible terrorism even though there's no evidence linking the alleged shooter to any terrorist group, a spokesman said Tuesday. " (INFO NOTE: The LAX shooting occurred on July 4, 2002 and the suspect was identified as Hesham Mohamed Hadayet.) (090302)

WorldNetDaily.com: "HADAYAT MET AL-QAIDA'S NO.2 MAN TWICE Airport Terrorist Linked to Al-Zawahiri, Egyptian Islamic Jihad" (070902)

HAARETZ DAILY.com: "AL-HAYAT: LAX GUNMAN MAY HAVE MET WITH BIN LADEN -REPORT" (070802)

FOX NEWS.com: "LA AIRPORT SHOOTER DREW LITTLE ATTENTION PRIOR TO DEADLY ATTACK" (070602)

CNN.com: "LOS ANGELES AIRPORT SHOOTING KILLS 3 LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A gunman opened fire Thursday at Los Angeles International Airport near the ticket counter of Israel's El Al Airlines, killing two people and wounding at least three before airline security personnel killed him, officials said." (July 4, 2002) UPDATED JULY 5, 2002: The suspect is identified as 41-year-old Hesham Mohamed Hadayet aka Hesham Ali, came to the United States from Egypt in 1992 and had been living in Irvine, California..."Hadayet was not a U.S. citizen but had a "green card" that allowed him to work in the U.S., authorities said."

[Donald Stone]

BUMP!!!!!!

[mgc1122]

Kind of a "duh!" moment, isn't it. Maybe we should Federalize 'em .. ooops, too late.

[mikhailovich]

As a result of changing the designation of this investigation to a "terrorist act", agents have concluded that indeed, both ticket agents are still dead, and so is the gunman.

[Grampa Dave]

Great Find!

The internet just shreds all the Bravo Sierra that the Opecker Princes have been getting by with for decades.

Thanks for posting it.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Just out of curiousity, why would the Government cover up for the others involved in the plot with McVeigh?

[sam_paine]

LINKLINKLINK!!!

HELP! Somebody post a link to that idiot FBI spokesman that immediately ran out ON 7/4 and said "THIS IS NOT A TERRORIST INCIDENT!"

[coloradan]

Just out of curiousity, why would the Government cover up for the others involved in the plot with McVeigh?

If the OKC bombing were a Reichstag fire, then government involvement would of course have to be suppressed. (Note that there were many stories of government prior knowledge, such as the ATF agents getting a page to not show up at work that morning). By way of a motive, note that the anti-terrorism legislation that sailed through Congress after the bombing had failed to get through before it.

Less sinister, but still pretty sinister, is that the bombing may have been a sting that went sour ... again government involvement would be better suppressed. This too would explain the work-optional page for the ATF agents. There is precedent for this, namely, that the original WTC bombing, with the truck bomb, was indeed a sting gone sour.

From another angle, if there were political expediency to have going after white militia types, rather than Arab terrorists, then participation by others, and especially Arabs, would have to be suppressed. In this case, note that the shootdown of TWA 800 was effectively covered up by the combined efforts of a variety of government agencies. Interestingly, several Clinton operatives in the days after 9-11 cited TWA 800 as one of the many terrorist attacks that had happened in the years before, contradicting the NTSB's own decision that the crash was due to mechanical failure (and that the witnesses who thought they saw missiles must have been drunk).

Yet another is that the government really wanted to convict McVeigh, for whatever reason, so they wanted to convince the jury that he and he alone did it, such that they would be more likely to convict and sentence to death, than if others were also involved.

Then again, far be it from me to discern the depths to which the federal government operates. There may be yet other reasons why suppressing evidence of others was undertaken.

But in any case, and whether the reasons I have given are satisfying or not, the fact remains that at the trial the point was the McVeigh was the "lone" bomber, and that interest in John Doe #2 vanished, such that those who saw him with McVeigh weren't even called to testify. If you reject my reasons, then feel free to yourself come up with why it was so important for the government to make the case that it did.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

The only problem I have with these large multi-agency coverups is that I find it hard to believe there are this many bad apples all working together at one time. Surely there would be one or two people who would blow the whistle? Also, I find it hard to believe that so many people can keep there mouths shut about the coverup.