Posted on 10/01/2001 7:49:07 AM PDT by LarryLied
Men identified by the FBI as hijackers in the Sept. 11 East Coast terrorist attacks met more than once at a Starbucks coffee shop near the University of Nevada, Las Vegas earlier this year, a store employee said Sunday.
Sometime after the attack, FBI agents came to the Starbucks at 1340 E. Flamingo Road, near Maryland Parkway, with a list of suspect names and photographs and interviewed all of the shop's employees, the employee said.
Authorities close to the investigation have confirmed that five of the 19 terrorist suspects who died aboard hijacked jetliners made six trips to Las Vegas between May and August. Those suspects have been identified as Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi, Nawaf Alhazmi, Ziad Jarrah and Hani Hanjour.
The Starbucks employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, would not say which terrorist suspects visited the Flamingo Road store. The employee said store workers were prohibited from giving details of the suspects' visits.
Las Vegas FBI spokesman Daron Borst would not confirm Sunday whether agents contacted Starbucks employees as part of their investigation. Borst said agents have approached several Las Vegas area businesses to ask whether any employees had seen the suspects.
Authorities said the first confirmed Las Vegas visit by one of the hijackers came in late May, with the arrival of Al-Shehhi. He is thought to have flown United Airlines Flight 175 into the south tower of the World Trade Center.
Authorities said they have confirmed that Jarrah arrived in Las Vegas in early June, just days after Al-Shehhi. Jarrah is believed to have been at the controls of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field.
Authorities would not say whether the Las Vegas visits of Jarrah and Al-Shehhi overlapped. Each is thought to have departed within days of their arrival.
Atta, considered to be a leader in the planning of the attacks, was the next terrorist to visit Las Vegas.
The Review-Journal previously reported that Atta on two occasions stayed at the Econo Lodge at 1150 Las Vegas Blvd. South. He arrived June 29 for a two-night stay. He later returned for a one-night stay that ended Aug. 14. Atta is thought to have flown American Airlines Flight 11 into the north tower of the World Trade Center.
Atta's second trip to Las Vegas coincided at least in part with visits by two other terrorists.
Authorities said Alhazmi and Hanjour left Las Vegas on the same day that Atta ended his one-day visit in August. Authorities said Alhazmi was among the hijackers on American Airlines Flight 77, which smashed into the Pentagon. Hanjour is thought to have been the pilot of that hijacking.
At an extradition hearing Friday in London, British prosecutor Arvinda Sambir said Algerian pilot Lotfi Raissi, 27, made contact this summer with at least one terrorist suspect in Las Vegas. Sambir said a video surveillance tape confirms Raissi flew from Las Vegas to Phoenix on June 23 with his wife and Hanjour, according to newspaper reports.
Raissi, the first of dozens of suspects arrested across Europe and linked to the attacks against the United States, is being held without bail by British authorities. U.S. authorities might charge him with conspiracy to murder.
"He was a lead instructor for four of the pilots that were responsible for the hijackings," Sambir said in court. "We say he was there to ensure that the pilots were capable and trained for this purpose."
Terrorists pay $1.25 for coffee. Rescuers pay $200 for water.
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