Posted on 08/13/2005 9:03:35 AM PDT by TVenn
NEW intelligence reports suggesting that 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta arrived in the US in late 1999 or early 2000 - six months earlier than previously thought - are likely to spark a reassessment of public servant Johnelle Bryant's incredible story of a face-to-face meeting with the terrorist.
In an extraordinary 2002 interview later branded a hoax by some media -- including the ABC's Media Watch -- Ms Bryant claimed to have met Atta in late April or early May of 2000 when she worked as a loan officer with the US Department of Agriculture's farm services agency in Florida.
Ms Bryant, who was medically retired from the department last year, said Atta had tried to apply for a $US650,000 US government loan to buy a six-seat, twin-engine aircraft that he wanted to convert to a crop duster.
In her interview with the US's ABC network, Ms Bryant told how Atta became angry when told he was ineligible for the loan and how he became fixated with an aerial photo of Washington DC hanging on her office wall.
When told the picture was not for sale, Ms Bryant said Atta became "very bitter".
"I believe he said: 'How would America like it if another country destroyed that city and some of the monuments in it'."
But despite some independent support for her claims, Ms Bryant's account was dismissed as a fake on the grounds that Atta did not get a visa to enter the US until May 18, 2000, and did not arrive until June 3 that year on a flight from Prague that landed at New Jersey's Newark airport.
Her claims were ignored in last year's 9/11 commission report on the events leading up to the terrorist attacks. The commission accepted the advice of US immigration authorities that Atta did not arrive until June 2000.
But revelations that a military intelligence unit known as Able Danger believed Atta had actually arrived in the US in late 1999, or at the latest very early in 2000, have lent new credibility to Ms Bryant's claims, while at the same time raising questions about the exchange of intelligence between US security agencies.
Investigations are now under way into what was done before September 11, 2001, about Able Danger's identification of Atta and three of the other future hijackers as members of an al-Qa'ida cell operating in the US and why the 9/11 commission also chose to ignore the unit's intelligence findings.
Republican congressman Curt Weldon has accused the commission of ignoring material that would have forced a rewriting of the September 11 events.
Spokesman Al Felzenberg admitted this week the commission had been sceptical when an Able Danger officer briefed it in July last year and said Atta had been in the US in late 1999 or early 2000. The investigators knew this was impossible, Mr Felzenberg said, since travel records confirmed he had not entered until June 2000.
"The information that (the officer) provided us did not mesh with other conclusions that we were drawing," he said. "There was no way that Atta could have been in the US at that time."
But British columnist Mark Steyn, who wrote an opinion article for The Australian last month describing Ms Bryant's meeting with Atta as "the defining encounter of the age", claims US immigration did not keep then -- and still does not keep now -- reliable and comprehensive records of entry by foreigners.
"It (US immigration) cannot authoritatively state the date of Atta's first visit to the US," Steyn said. "If you choose to believe June 3, 2000, as the definitive date of his first visit, that's basically an act of faith. There were a number of sightings of Atta in the US before that time, in Florida and elsewhere."
In his column Steyn attacked Ms Bryant for failing to realise the danger Atta represented because of political correctness.
"She knows an opportunity for multicultural outreach when she sees one," he wrote.
In her interview, Ms Bryant said Atta had threatened to cut her throat and initially didn't want to deal with her because she was a woman.
But she said: "I felt that he was trying to make the cultural leap from the country that he came from. I was attempting, in every manner I could, to help him make his relocation to our country as easy for him as I could."
Ms Bryant recognised Atta from a newspaper photograph after the 9/11 attacks and defied Agriculture Department orders in telling her story to the media.
"The American people, the public, need to be aware that if these men can walk into my office, they can walk into your office, they can walk into anyone's office," she said.
Ms Bryant could not be reached for comment this week but Bob Epling, president of Community Bank of Florida, which let office space to the agency Ms Bryant worked for, said he had no doubt Atta visited the premises.
He said Ms Bryant had referred Atta to the "agriculture-friendly" CBF. "Atta was 15 steps away from walking into our loan department and making an application," Mr Epling said yesterday. "He chose not to."
I never knew the media here in the US had called Johnelle Bryant's story a hoax. I live near JAX, and we all heard her account, which was quite well supported.
Also, she called security to escort him out the second time he came around. (She used the call button under her desk, because he was clearly a nutcase.) She wasn't the only person who saw him.
I agree. Who appointed these people?
GITMO is too GOOD for Gorelick!! She needs much worse.
Mega-bump!
That, in a nutshell, is the problem: people like Ms. Bryant are all 'feelings' and no 'thinking'.
bump for JUSTICE! Gorelick...Sandy Burglar....Hillary....Bill...all need to stand trial.
I believe that the Democrats in Congress picked her as well as the other Democrat members of the committee.
Shes dumber than a donut.
They all need to stand trial. Bush's biggest error, IMHO, has been that of not holding the Clintonistas responsible for the devastation that they wrought. I know he was trying to establish a "new tone," etc., but even that failed, since the Clintonistas simply took it as a sign of weakness.
Investigate, prosecute, and convict - even BJ himself.
Indictment ties Moussaoui to plot
By Times staff writer
© St. Petersburg Times,
published December 12, 2001
Through implication and circumstance, Tuesday's indictment repeatedly ties Zacarias Moussaoui to the 19 men who killed themselves and thousands of others on Sept. 11. It contains the broadest official picture yet of how the plot came together during a period spanning more than 18 months. Here are some excerpts from the indictment, which is available on the Internet at www.usdoj.gov.
Atta inquires about aerial application of pesticides
At various times in 2000 and 2001 in Florida, Mohammed Atta made inquiries regarding starting a crop dusting company.
At various times in 2000 and 2001 in Florida, Mohammed Atta made inquiries regarding starting a crop dusting company.
From reply in #31
OMG LMFAO, your screen name is the frickin BEST I have EVER seen!!!!!!!!!! It's the best jerry, the best!!!!
Interesting that the press would try to deny that any of these people were known before 9/11. They were certainly known in Florida, although obviously, at the state level, nobody would have known enough to make the connections.
The original Moussaoui indictment in pdf format
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/speeches/mous.pdf
Atta inquires about aerial application of pesticides
At various times in 2000 and 2001 in Florida, Mohammed Atta made inquiries regarding starting a crop dusting company.
Attorney General John Ashcroft
Yesterday the FBI issued a nationwide alert based on information they received indicating the possibility of attacks using crop-dusting aircraft. The FBI asses the uses of this type of aircraft to distribute chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction as potential threats to Americans. We have no clear indication of the time or place of any such attack.
The FBI has confirmed that Mohammed Atta, one of the suspected hijackers, was acquiring knowledge of crop-dusting aircraft prior to the attacks on September 11th.
"Her claims were ignored in last year's 9/11 commission report on the events leading up to the terrorist attacks. The commission accepted the advice of US immigration authorities that Atta did not arrive until June 2000."
This doesn't preclude the possibility that Atta was in the country under an assumed name.
AFTER THE ATTACK; New Crop-Dusting Restrictions Weighed; Aircraft: Report that terrorists may have visited a company that flies the agricultural planes spurs concerns about chemical and biological weapons.
The Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.; Sep 25, 2001;
AARON ZITNER;JOHN-THOR DAHLBURG;
Excerpt
Epling said the loan officer recalled the incident after the FBI asked his bank last week to search its records for any signs of contact with Atta, particularly in connection with crop-dusting.
The FBI also said that Atta had approached an area branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in person, for a loan. Epling said his bank shared a building with a branch office of the Agriculture Department.
A civil lawsuit against Gorelick brought by some 9-11 families!!!! Fabulous idea!!
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