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Terrorism: Three years ago, we speculated that a deadly shooting at LAX was a terrorist act. But political and cultural sensitivity caused authorities and the media to play down the terror angle. Is this happening again? [snip] But we flashed back to July 4, 2002, when an Egyptian man shot and killed two people and wounded three at an Israeli airline ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport. It took a while before authorities could bring themselves to call it a terrorist act. So far, the big media have laid off Hinrichs' death. Apparently the fact that he was on...

<p>A strange thing often happens when the news media descend on the home of a suspect in a high-profile crime and start asking the neighbors about him. Suddenly, the suspect will seem to have been afflicted with a multiple personality disorder.</p>

Communications intercepts by U.S. intelligence agencies indicate that the July 4th attack on El Al Airlines at Los Angeles International Airport may have been an al Qaeda dry run in preparation for a larger attack, two members of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security said Sunday. Asked on CNN's "Late Edition" whether the committee had developed any information linking LAX shooter Mohamed Hedayet to al Qaeda, ranking Democrat Jane Harman, D-Calif., described a meeting she attended at LAX last Monday, where FBI and Transportation Security Administration officials revealed that "chatter" monitored by U.S. investigators pointed to a...

<p>The latest statements from the Federal Bureau of Investigation insist that although Egyptian immigrant Hesham Mohamed Ali Hadayet went to the El-Al Airline ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport intending to kill people, "his motive remains unclear." The response thus far in the United States and abroad to these July Fourth killings is reminiscent of the tale of the five blind men and the elephant, each man groping a different part of the animal and insisting on a different beast.</p>

FONT face="Courier, Times New Roman"> Friday, July 5, 2002Report Links LAX Shooter to Egyptian Jihad Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, who killed two people Thursday at Los Angeles International Airport, was a radical Muslim extremist involved in terrorism, the respected Israeli intelligence Web site DEBKA.com reported today. "During his ten years in the United States, he was a secret operative of the Egyptian Jihad who maintained undercover links to the same Jihad cell in Brooklyn, New York, as the 'blind sheikh' Abdul Rahim Rahman and Ramzi Yousef. Both are doing time for perpetrating the first attack on the New York World Trade...

CAIRO: The father of Egyptian gunman Hisham Mohammed Hadayet who opened fire at a check-in counter of Israeli carrier El Al in Los Angeles was a general in Egypt's army, his neighbors said Friday. The former general, Ahmad Ali Hadayet, lives in the family household in the central Abbassiya district in Cairo, an AFP reporter said. The information was confirmed by security sources here, but the family refused to talk to reporters. On Thursday, Hisham Hadayet opened fire at the check-in counter of Israel's national airline El Al killing a 20-year-old female clerk and a middle-aged man, before being shot...

The Egyptian-born gunman who shot dead two people at an El Al ticket counter in Los Angeles airport had been trying to force a neighbour to take down an American flag raised after September 11, it emerged yesterday.The US authorities yesterday identified the man as Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, a 41-year-old limousine driver who was killed by Israeli security agents during the attack. The facts have heightened suspicions that the shootings were a terrorist attack timed to coincide with America's Fourth of July celebrations.The FBI was last night trying to determine whether Hadayet was acting alone. Egyptian Islamic groups said he...

<p>New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly says the Fourth of July incident at Los Angeles International Airport, in which an Egyptian man shot and killed two persons at the ticket counter of Israel's El Al airline, "could very well" have been an act of terrorism.</p>

<p>The man who killed two persons at Los Angeles International Airport on July 4 gained legal residence in the United States through a limited amnesty program that has since expired but that President Bush and Democrats in Congress want to reopen.</p>

Israel calls it 'an act of terrorism' Was LAX gunman trying to kill Peres granddaughter? By Published 7/5/02 12:30:00 PM Hesham Mohamed Hadayet LOS ANGELES -- Israel calls the shooting at Los Angeles International Airport a terrorist event but U.S. investigators say they are unsure. Egypitan limousine driver Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, 41, began shooting people in front of the El Al airline ticket counter yesterday. A security guard shot and killed Hadayet. A drivers licence found by police listed his birthday as July 4, 1961, as well as a second birthdate. Los Angeles Police and the F.B.I. are searching...

With rumors swirling of a possible link to the al-Qaida terrorist network, the FBI insisted Monday that investigators still don't know why Hesham Mohamed Hadayet went on an Independence Day shooting rampage at LAX. ONLINE EXTRA Recent stories on the shooting at LAX:• Outpouring of grief for 2 shot to death in LAX attack• Arab-Americans fear backlash• Jewish leaders urge calm• Airport security to be boosted• Victims mourned across Valley• LAX shooter full of anger• Local man slain, father of eight• El Al security tops in industry• 3 dead at LAX IN MEMORY Memorial funds have been created to...

Hadayat met al-Qaida's No. 2 man twice Airport terrorist linked to al-Zawahiri, Egyptian Islamic Jihad While the FBI is still debating whether Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, the Egyptian who shot up an El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport, was a terrorist, an Arabic newspaper in London reports he met twice with Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant and a leader of the Egyptian Jihad Islami terror group. The Arabic London-based Al Hayat reported Sunday that Hadayat was a member of the Egyptian Jihad Islami and met al-Zawahiri twice in California – once in 1995 and again...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The FBI appeared on Tuesday to be moving closer to establishing a motive for an Egyptian limousine driver's deadly July 4 shooting at Los Angeles airport, saying investigators may have "significant developments" in the case later in the week.A Muslim community leader helping authorities dig up information about Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, 46, said the FBI was preparing a first-round analysis of the information gleaned from early interviews and evidence."That's where they put all the pieces together and look into the totality," Salam al Marayati, director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, told Reuters. "It should...

AIRO, July 8 — The wife of an Egyptian immigrant who fatally shot two people on the Fourth of July at Los Angeles International Airport said today that she could find no reason for the shooting. "There is no motive that would make him do such a thing," the woman, Hala el-Awadly, said in a telephone interview. "He is a quiet person who lived his life in peace. He carried no hatred for anyone, and he was never aggressive nor violent, never." American law enforcement officials have said her husband, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, 41, went to the counter of...

Today I went to the residence of the man who gunned down the two innocent citizens at LAX on July 4, 2002 to see what kind of story I could bring back to Free Republic. This is my story. Hesham Mohamed Hadayet lived in a newer, tree-lined, well-maintained, family-friendly but very quiet apartment complex in Irvine, California. His apartment is on the ground floor, on the corner of the building, near the entrance to the complex. There is an apartment on top of his unit, to the side of his unit, and to the back of his unit. There was...

Hesham Mohamed Hadayat was no stranger to El Al’s Los Angeles airport office. According to DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources, the man who murdered two Israelis on the El Al ticket line at Los Angeles airport on July 4th worked for the American Mercury ground service company from 1993 (one year after he arrived in the US) until 1998, when he left to set up his own limousine service for air passengers. Exactly what he did at Mercury is vague, but during his five years in their employ, this former bank clerk from Cairo was free to move around Los Angeles international...

The gunman who killed two Israelis during his Independence Day rampage at Los Angeles International Airport may have ties to Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man, an Arabic-language newspaper reported yesterday.Although FBI officials have yet to label Egyptian-born gunman Hesham Mohamed Hadayet's murderous attack an act of terrorism, the London-based newspaper Al Hayat reported yesterday that Hadayet may have met twice — in 1995 and 1998 — with Ayman al-Zawahiri, a key Bin Laden strategist.Al-Zawahiri, who's on the U.S. most-wanted list and is believed to be alive, visited California in 1998, when he was leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.Two...

Hashem Mohamed Hadayat, 41, who gunned down Yakov Aminov, 46, and Vicky Hen, 25 – both from Los Angeles - on the 4th of July at the El Al terminal of Los Angeles, and wounded 7 others, is revealed by DEBKAfile’s intelligence and counter-terror sources as a Muslim extremist. During his ten years in the United States, he was a secret operative of the Egyptian Jihad who maintained undercover links to the same Jihad cell in Brooklyn, New York, as the “blind sheikh” Abdul Rahim Rahman and Ramzi Yousef. Both are doing time for perpetrating the first attack on the...

<p>Armed guards, including undercover officers, will patrol public areas after attack at LAX's El Al site.</p> <p>Armed police officers, some working undercover, will be deployed near ticket counters and other public areas of airports nationwide in response to this week's deadly Independence Day shooting by an Irvine man at Los Angeles International Airport, federal officials said Saturday.</p>

<p>July 7, 2002 -- JERUSALEM - The special authorization that the FBI and Secret Service granted El Al security agents years ago to carry weapons while protecting passengers and planes proved rewarding Thursday in Los Angeles.</p> <p>Some Western European and Asian countries have refused repeated Israeli requests to allow armed guards on the state airline to protect passengers while on foreign soil, insisting that their own police can do the job.</p>