Posted on 08/02/2002 8:17:14 AM PDT by swarthyguy
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Just three nights before President George W Bush arrived at the swank Colony Resort on Longboat Key on the evening of Sept 10, 2001, Mohamed Atta was staying at a slightly-less tony hotel just two miles down the beach, the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites—Longboat Key, according to eyewitnesses who contacted the FBI in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Predictably, the story went nowhere. So too did early wire reports stating that on the day of the attack Sarasota police said the Secret Service interrogated four Sudanese men after getting a tip that the men intended to harm President Bush during his visit to the city. The incident was found to be "unrelated" to the attacks, the AP reported, and ended in the release of the men. But these stories are now being resurrected in the wake of recent reports of a possible Longboat Key assassination attempt against Bush on the morning of the terrorist attack, and they are provoking disturbing questions about how much, or how little, Americans have been told about the events surrounding the attack on their country. In an exclusive interview with the MadCowMorningNews, the bartender at Marty's Pub at the Holiday Inn, Darlene Sieverts said, "Mohamed Atta sat right on that bar stool, drinking rum and coke." "I didn't have any real interaction with him. A bartender can tell when a customer doesn't want to talk, and he didn't." "How do you say 'I'll have what he's having?'" "About fifteen minutes later he was joined by a second man. When I approached (the second man) and asked what he'd like to drink, he indicated that he didn't speak English, and motioned for Atta to intercede. Instead of ordering something for him, Atta asked for the bill," bartender Sieverts told us. "He left a $20 bill to cover a $4. tab." Sieverts recollections of spotting on Longboat Key the most cold-blooded killer of the still-young 21st Century—just a few short days before Bush's arrival—were confirmed to the FBI by other hotel employees, several of whom also recalled seeing Atta on another occasion, dining in the hotel's Gulfstream restaurant with a man identified by the restaurant manager and a waiter as Marwan Al-shehhi. The two both dined on the hotel’s featured 'Surf & Turf' buffet. The revelation of Atta's proximity to Bush, first reported in the local Longboat Observer, deepens the mystery surrounding the pre-dawn warning received by the Secret Service detail protecting the President on his Florida trip in the early morning hours on Sept 11. Alarmingly, The Colony, which bills itself as "the nation's no. 1 tennis resort," is just two miles of mostly-deserted white sand away from the Holiday Inn Hotel frequented by Atta and Al-shehhi. Longboat Key is located just outside Sarasota, Fl., itself the home of such curious attractions as the Ringling Bros. Circus, and Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, now running for Congress, the local daughter of a citrus magnate who became internationally-famous overnight in the aftermath of the Presidential election of 2000. Bush was in Florida to promote his administration's new education bill. His first stop of the day was to be at the Emma E Booker Elementary School in Sarasota—a 25-minute drive from the Colony.
In the warning, Zainelabdeen Omer, a Sudanese national who has since disappeared, told authorities of an immediate threat of a possible assassination attempt and terror attack on America from a friend of his, a man named "Ghandi" who had just arrived in Sarasota to bail someone out of jail. To bring the day's chronology into focus, a little after 6am on September 11, 2001, according to an AP report, "Bush awoke in the magnificent surroundings of the Colony Beach Resort on Longboat Key, an upscale and relatively-pristine tropical island enclave located directly on the Gulf of Mexico a spindly coral island in the Gulf of Mexico, off Sarasota, Florida." "The previous evening Mr Bush had dined beachside with his brother Jeb, the governor of Florida, the state that had controversially handed him the presidency. Now, on the morning of his 234th day in office, a light, warm breeze was slipping in from the ocean, and, after breakfast, Bush led his Secret Service crew on a four-mile run around the nearby Serenoa golf links." "On his return to the Colony, the President showered, changed into a lightweight, dark blue suit, and, still glowing from the morning's exertion, sat down for the first routine intelligence briefing of the day. It was 8am." "At the same time Atta, was fourteen hundred miles away, making his way onto American Airlines Flight 11 taking off from Boston's Logan International Airport, followed 14 minutes later from the same airport by Al-Shehhi, aboard United Airlines Flight 175." "No van, no warning? No problem." The AP story neglects any mention of a van filled with Middle Eastern men attempting to gain access to the President at the same time as Bush is leaving for his morning jog. And although the story was reported on the local NBC affiliate, the AP also neglects any mention of the pre-dawn warning of an attack. Instead, the AP's account of Bush briefing that morning states that "The President's briefing appears to have included some reference to the heightened terrorist risk reported throughout the summer, but contained nothing specific, severe or imminent enough to necessitate a call to Condoleezza Rice, his 47-year-old National Security Adviser. The FBI, too, seemed unimpressed. "Nationwide the FBI has received over 200,00 such tips, stated FBI spokesman Sarah Oakes, "with more than 5000 of the tips coming into the Tampa office alone." "Mum's the word in Florida" Unlike whistleblowers who have come forward in the FBI's Minneapolis and Phoenix offices, to name just two, agents in the Tampa FBI office have maintained their silence. So too have agents in the Sarasota FBI office. Does their silence signal valid national security concerns? Or just embarrassment? Atta and Al-Shehhi's presence on Longboat Key just days before the President's arrival raise a number of disturbing questions. The most pressing is also the most obvious. What were terrorists doing on Longboat Key? Still, the Secret Service, no doubt very aware of Atta's suspicious presence on Longboat Key, has dismissed the pre-dawn warning they received as "just coincidence." This must mean that when, three days later, a van filled with Middle Eastern men attempted to gain entry to Bush's hotel by posing as journalists, it has nothing at all to do with "terrorist ringleader" Mohamed Atta's recent presence on Longboat Key. It is all just a coincidence. Nothing to see here. Move along.
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Not to mention validation of the letter Rush read on his program a few months back from the moron who was sure that Bush was one of the conspirators, planning the attacks to boost his ratings and political position.
Hey parsy, any word on what the DUh'ers are blathering about today. Have they seen this story?
EBUCK
If not, he should be.
That is, he was the Producer until Dan produced a 2-hour special on the CIA and drugs, Mena, Arkansas and Barry Seal called "The Secret Heartbeat of America." Dan was told by his biggest friend in Hollywood, "Your show will not air while Clinton is President." When a subsequent attack in broad daylight on Wilshire Boulevard outside the Federal Building in Los Angeles confirmed his friend's judgment and prediction, Mr. Hopsicker began work on a book called "Barry and 'the boys," due to be finished by the end of 1999.This guy couldn't talk straight if his life depended on it.
The two Arabs who killed Gen. Masoud in a suicide bombing on Sept. 9th were posing as journalists.
It was. Clinton was definitely hitting on a woman.
Maybe, maybe it's an indication that someone was feeding them some info that could have enabled them to make an attempt at assassinating the president. It would be pretty foolish to assume that there aren't traitors in the huge government we have.
It's entirely possible that Atta was there to set up an assassination attempt for the same day he intended to fly an airliner into a building and the cell he used screwed up or chickened out. If that was the case, he was being fed some info by somebody.
The incident was found to be "unrelated" to the attacks, the AP reported, and ended in the release of the men.
I don't know whether to give this article credence or not. Can't find one single "early wire report" or "AP report" to support this, except for the article that honway posted up above. Maybe I'm not holding my tongue right...
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Two hijackers on Longboat?
By Shay Sullivan, City Editor
Wednesday, November 21, 2001
If three eyewitnesses are correct, terrorist hijacker Mohamed Atta came to the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites-Longboat Key Sept. 7 — the day the media announced President George W. Bush would be coming to the area Sept. 11 to speak at a Sarasota school. Atta may have been there to meet a second hijacker, Marwan Al-Shehhi. Local authorities became aware of the incident when Longboat Key resident Milton Stein told them of a strange conversation he had with a Holiday Inn bartender, Darlene Sievers.
Stein said when he sat down at the bar, Sievers told him he was sitting in the same seat Atta had used. The bartender then went on to help other customers and Stein could not question her further about what she meant.
After getting the report, police asked Sievers to what she was referring. Sievers told police Atta came to the bar and ordered a rum and Coke. She said she remembered his face because of the sizeable tip he left her. Atta gave her a $20 bill for a $4 drink and let her keep the change, Sievers said.
Atta left the bar after another Middle Eastern man arrived, Sievers said. When the FBI released Atta’s picture Sept. 27, Sievers called the FBI and told authorities what she saw, she told Longboat Key police.
Local police left the investigation at that, but a waiter at the Holiday Inn said Atta did not go far from the bar.
The waiter, Frank Boyal, said Atta and his companion had the hotel’s $18.95 “Surf and Turf” buffet on Sept. 7. “They were just here. I remember the face.”
Boyal said he was struck by the two men’s lack of appetite. The pair only picked at the buffet, Boyal remembered.
Boyal didn’t overhear the two men’s conversation, because it was a busy night and he was “running around like a chicken with its head cut off,” he said. Although he knew Sievers had spoken with the authorities about the sighting, Boyal chose not to mention it to anyone, he said.
The Holiday Inn’s assistant food and beverage director, Mark Bean, was watching television with his girlfriend when he first saw the pictures of the hijackers. Immediately, Bean said, “I know that guy,” but he was not referring to Atta.
The two men stand out in Bean’s memory because they did not look like the usual clientele, he said.
Bean did not get a look at the man Sievers and Boyal believe was Atta. He only saw the back of that man’s head. But he did get a look at the second man.
Bean believes Al-Shehhi — whom the FBI says crashed into the World Trade Center on United Airlines Flight 175 —was the other man eating the buffet.
Bean said he didn’t mention the sighting because he didn’t want people thinking he is crazy. But after he learned Sievers spoke to the FBI, Bean decided to tell investigators what he saw as well.
Bean believes the pair paid cash, because there are no credit card receipts in either man’s name. The Holiday Inn had no video cameras to confirm the sighting. Sievers told police she believed Atta came to Longboat Key three weeks before Sept. 11. Boyal does not agree, he insisted Atta came on Sept. 7. Bean also thinks the incident occurred on Sept. 7 — a night the trio worked together.
It is believed that the three weeks Sievers is referring to is the time frame between Sept. 7 and when the FBI released Atta’s picture on Sept. 27.
As to what the meeting means to the Sept. 11 investigation, the FBI had no comment. Asked whether Bean and Sievers were indeed interviewed, Special Agent Sara Oates said she “cannot confirm or deny that.”
Both Al-Shehhi, 23, and Atta, 33, are believed to have been pilots in the Sept. 11 attack. According to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Atta entered the United States on June 3, 2000, and Al-Shehhi came stateside in May of the same year.
The FBI site also states both men may have resided in Hollywood, Fla. Atta had recently taken flight lessons at a school in Venice.
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