PROBE OF BLIND SHEIK LED TO ATTA (Able Danger)

WASHINGTON — A Pentagon secret intelligence team identified 9/11 leader Mohamed Atta through a probe of blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman — the mastermind of the first attempt to destroy the World Trade Center, it was revealed yesterday.

An outside contractor to the intelligence unit, code named Able Danger, has told congressional staffers Atta's name was discovered by a computer data-mining search of connections to Abdel-Rahman, the Muslim cleric in prison for inspiring the 1993 trade center bombing and a plot to blow up New York landmarks.

Contractor James D. Smith testified that a California researcher was later able to purchase Atta's photograph from an Islamic Web site, officials confirmed.

"[Data analyst J.D. Smith] found Atta by linkages not to immigration issues but to the mosque system," he said. "Basically [Atta] was associating with known radical clerics."

::still not at my desk. Will try to find a reference to why I thought they received a package in ME. Timeline notes and comments in the meantime.::

A timeline

“ The FBI effort in Greater Portland is part of the most intensive and high-stakes investigation in the agency's history , the kind of mobilization not seen since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.”
(Portland Press Herald, 10/14/01)

“’It is a criminal investigation,’ said Lee Colwell, director of the University of Arkansas System's Criminal Justice Institute and former second-in-command of the FBI. ‘The goal of the investigation must be to establish as clearly as possible exactly what happened, how it happened, who was involved, who assisted and who abetted the effort in any way.’”
(Portland Press Herald, 10/14/01)

Since April 2000:
“Portland police interviewed two employees at the Portland Public Library who are sure they saw Atta on several occasions. Spruce Whited, head of security at the library, said he first saw a man he is convinced was Atta in April 2000. He said the man came to the library several times, using the computers. "I only recognized him because he'd been here a few times," he said.”
(Portland Press Herald, 10/5/01)

And he did not only see Atta:
“’I remember seeing (Atta) in the spring of 2000,’ he said. ‘I have a vague memory of a second one who turned out to be (Atta's) cousin.’”
(Boston Herald, 10/5/01)
This might be Marwan Alshehhi.

”Kathy Barry, a reference librarian, also reported seeing Atta, whose photograph has been distributed widely through the media since the Sept. 11 attacks.
(Portland Press Herald, 10/5/01)
“’It was either him or his twin brother,’ Barry said.”
(Newsday, 11/18/01)

“Whited said no investigators have asked to look at the library's computers.
(…)
He said the FBI had not interviewed him.”
(Portland Press Herald, 10/5/01)

Comment: (from Paul Thompson’s Timeline): According to the official story, Atta doesn't arrive in the US until June 3, 2000. (Miami Herald, 9/22/01, Australian Broadcasting Corp. 11/12/01)

But there are many more people who believe to have seen Atta or Al Omari in Portland before 911:
“Investigators have received hundreds of calls from Portland, Maine, residents who claim to have spotted Atta several times earlier in the year, the Portland Press Herald reported last month.”
(New York Post, 10/5/01)

“There were other reported sightings, too, including a worker at Micucci's Grocery on India Street who is convinced he saw Atta in late August ; former state Rep. Herb Adams, who believes he saw Atta at the Big Apple convenience store on Park Street this summer ; and an employee at the Convention and Visitors Bureau on Commercial Street, who reported seeing two men she believed to be Atta and Alomari. ”
(Portland Press Herald, 10/5/01)

"There were sightings all over," (Portland Police Chief Michael) Chitwood said. "At the library, the Chamber of Commerce. There was a report that they were seen in the [city's] old port drinking.
(Newsday, 11/18/01)

Later concluded:
“But without hard evidence, there is no way to corroborate the sightings. "No credit card receipts, no phone records, nothing to document it," Chitwood said.”
(Newsday, 11/18/01)

August 28, 2001:
“Suspected hijacker Mohamed Atta bought tickets for a connecting flight from Portland, Maine, to Boston and for American Airlines Flight 11 out of Boston on Aug. 28, two weeks before Flight 11 hit the World Trade Center.”
(Dayton Daily News, 9/14/01)

“His (Al Omari’s) first connection to Atta is his purchase of his airline ticket with Atta's American Advantage card and his credit card.”
(Cox News, 10/4/01)

A week before 9/11:
“On Wednesday, new reports surfaced about another potential terrorist link to Portland. A Saudi pilot, who is on an FBI watch list for people wanted for questioning about possible terrorist ties, told a Moroccan newspaper that he had left a small plane at the Portland jetport.

Khaled Alzeedi, owner of an aviation company that operates in Delaware, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, had bought two small planes in Tennessee in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks. Alzeedi and three of his assistants later flew one of the planes to Portland.

Alzeedi said he dropped the plane at the jetport because he realized it needed a bigger fuel tank. He then left the country and said he planned to return, but could not because of the terrorist attacks.

The FBI says that Alzeedi, who is now in Morocco, is not believed to have any connection to the attacks.

Yet, the FBI refuses to say why they want to speak with Alzeedi or why his plane is under surveillance at Northeast Airmotive Co., Portland's general aviation contractor.

Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood says he has a lot of unanswered questions about the plane and the Saudi pilot. He sent two detectives to Northeast Airmotive on Thursday, but employees there said the FBI told them not to talk with anyone about the plane.

"The FBI is saying there's no connection with this plane to Atta or Sept. 11, but they're not sharing why they want to talk with the pilot," Chitwood said. "It bothers me. If there's no big deal to this, then why the hell didn't the FBI tell us about this six weeks ago?"
(Portland Press Herald, 10/21/01)

NOTE below: Alzeedi.

September 7-9, 2001:
“Dr. Mohamed Atta and his new wife, Sophie, spent the weekend before the terror attacks in New York City, arriving on Friday, Sept. 7 and staying until Sunday, Sept. 9, when they returned to Maryland. (…)
But this Mohamed Atta was not the hijacker who crashed a jumbo jet into the World Trade Center. The New York City visitor was a soft-spoken kidney specialist from Maryland whose horrible case of mistaken identity has led to months of harassment.”
(New York Post, 5/28/02)

September 9, 2001:
“Just before the suicide mission, Newsweek reports that Atta returned a rental car in Pompano Beach, Fla. , on Sept. 9, and even took the time to remind the dealer that the car needed to be serviced.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/23/01)

Comment: But on the same day Atta is also very active in Boston. Is there any proof that Atta flew from Florida to Boston on this day? New York Times 5/10/01 states that Atta and Al Omari flew to Boston but gives no details.

“Meanwhile, another investigator was interviewing a manager of Alamo Rent A Car at the jetport. A search of the company's computer records showed Atta had rented a blue Nissan Altima Sept. 9 in Boston and that it was due back Sept. 11 by 6 p.m. It was listed as overdue.”
(Portland Press Herald, 10/14/01)

“Using credit card receipts and telephone records, the FBI traced their whereabouts almost to the minute. Records show they rented a blue Nissan at an Alamo office in Boston on Sunday, Sept. 9 and checked into the motel at 5:43 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 10.”
(Newsday, 11/18/01)

Comment: But it’s not clear who actually rented the car. Some accounts say Atta, some say Atta and Al Omari and some are cautious.

“A blue 2001 Nissan Altima that someone, maybe both of them, had rented in Boston.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/23/01)

September 10, 2001:

Afternoon: “Sometime on Monday afternoon, September 10, 2001, ATTA and AL-OMARI departed Boston, Massachusetts, and arrived in Portland later that same day.”
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/100401.htm

Comment : But it’s not clear actually if both were inside the Nissan.

Comment: Is there any proof that Atta and/or Al Omari not already departed on September 9? Is the detail that they departed on September 10 only based on the next known fact, their arrival at the Comfort Inn?

“It is not clear when the two arrived in South Portland, or if they even arrived there together.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/23/01)

5:43 p.m.:“Atta and AL-OMARI checked into the Comfort Inn, 90 Maine Mall Road, South
Portland, Maine.”
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/100401.htm

« one of the suspects rented a room at the Comfort Inn in South Portland, McCausland disclosed.”
(AP, 9/13/01 e)

Comment: So only one rented a room. Is there any proof that both stayed at the hotel? Is there any proof that Al Omari wasn’t already in Portland?

The hotel is a mile from the airport.
(Portland Press Herald, 9/13/01)

“They” took a no-smoking room
(Evening Standard, 10/5/01)

“At reception Atta asked if he could have 15 copies of USA Today, intending perhaps to bulk up his luggage, but had to make do with four copies instead.”
(Independent, 9/8/02)

Comment: The Independent account is very bizarre and has some mistakes. Nonetheless I inserted this. What are all the USA Todays for?

7:00 – 8:30 p.m.: “There were reports the two were sighted at two nearby restaurants - a Pizza Hut and Weathervane Seafood Restaurant - between 7 and 8:30 p.m.”
(New York Post, 10/12/01)

Comment: The second Restaurant is not mentioned by the FBI!

“A waitress at Weathervane said two Middle Eastern-looking men – one who resembled Atta - dined at the restaurant that night and asked for the details of how the fish and chicken were cooked.

Sue Paquette, a spokeswoman for Weathervane, said the two men may have been part of a group of five Muslim men - wearing traditional Middle Eastern dress, including turbans - who dined at the restaurant two nights before, on Saturday.”
(New York Post, 10/12/01)

Comment: A group of five. We will meet them again!
Remark that only Atta is recognized. Who is the second person?

After 8 :00 p.m. : “Sometime between 8:00 pm and 9:00 pm, two Middle Eastern males were seen at Pizza Hut, 415 Maine Mall Road, South Portland, Maine, for approximately fifteen (15) minutes.”
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/100401.htm

Comment: This is the only time the FBI doesn’t say Atta and Al Omari but “two Middle Eastern males”.

“Employees at a Pizza Hut in South Portland, Maine, recall seeing two Arab men that could have been Atta and Alomari stop in between 8 and 9 p.m. They stayed only 15 minutes.”
(Cox News, 10/4/01)

The following statement hints at but does not prove that they paid with credit card:
“Larry Ponemon of Privacy Council, a Dallas consulting firm, said in an interview in June that one study reportedly done on the 19 airline hijackers involved in the Sept. 11 attacks found a pattern in their orders for pizza.
"Most college kids order pizza all the time," Ponemon said. "But most people pay cash for pizza. These guys paid with a credit card. That was an odd thing. That became one of the correlates for doing a profile."
(San Diego Union-Tribune, 9/3/02)

“Employees at the Wal-Mart and Pizza Hut have been instructed by the F.B.I. not to comment on what the men bought or ordered. (…)Today in South Portland and Scarborough, employees at the Comfort Inn, Pizza Hut and other places in the chronology said they had been told not to talk. Most said they had no recollection of the men anyway.”
(New York Times, 10/5/01)

Comment: It’s rather difficult to see what kind of national security is at stake if we know if Atta eat “Pizza Hawai” or preferred more the Mexican style?

Comment: Atta and Al Omari seem to have been very hungry. But they most likely went to another restaurant, too.

“They (agents) checked Dimillo's floating restaurant, where a waitress reportedly served the men the night before the attack.”
(Portland Press Herald, 10/14/01)

“Steven DiMillo, the owner of DiMillo's Floating Restaurant in Portland, said an FBI agent last Saturday interviewed about 40 of his employees. DiMillo said he was busy at the time and did not learn why the agency was interested in talking to his workers.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/21/01)

Comment: This makes three restaurants in one and a half hour!

8:31 p.m. : “ATTA and AL-OMARI were photographed by a Key Bank drive-up ATM located at 445 Gorham Road, South Portland, Maine. They were driving a 2001 blue Nissan Altima rental car bearing Massachusetts license 3335VI.”
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/100401.htm

Comment: But this photo is not released by the FBI on their homepage.

8:41 p.m. : “ATTA and AL-OMARI were photographed by a Fast Green ATM located in the parking lot of UNO's restaurant, 280 Maine Mall Road, South Portland, Maine.”
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/100401.htm

Comment : This seems to imply that they demanded twice money at a bank machine within ten minutes. What did they need all this cash for? And why not once simply take the whole amount of money one wishes to have?

Time unknown : « An official at the Kittery Trading Post told The Associated Press that he turned over surveillance tapes made the night before the attacks showing two men inquiring about items, including knives and rubber bullets. ”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/20/01)

“They (Agents) checked out the Kittery Trading Post, where some men from the Middle East had reportedly sought to buy knives and rubber bullets.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/14/01)

Comment: Why did the FBI not release the photos of this surveillance tape?
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/100401picts.htm
And if theses are not Atta and Al Omari then who else (who has strong resemblance to the hijackers) is interested in knifes on 910?

9:15 p.m. : “ATTA and AL-OMARI were at Jetport Gas Station, 446 Western, Avenue, South Portland, Maine. ATTA was wearing a half dark, half light colored shirt with light colored slacks.”
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/100401.htm

“(T)hey asked directions to the local Wal-Mart.”
(New York Times, 10/5/01)

9:22 p.m. : “ATTA was at Wal-Mart, 451 Payne Road, Scarborough, Maine, for approximately twenty minutes.”
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/100401.htm

“Atta spent 17 minutes in the store.
One security picture appears to show him in the store's electronics department.
He is seen leaving at 9:39 p.m., carrying a plastic bag with his purchases.
The FBI refused to say what Atta bought during one of his final encounters with American capitalism.
A store manager and a Wal-Mart spokesman at the company's Arkansas headquarters refused to give details of Atta's visit, and said only that they are cooperating with the FBI.”
(New York Post, 10/5/01)
(Cox News, 10/4/01)

Comment: Why is it a secret what Atta bought?
Why does Atta spend much time in the electronic department? Why is this photo not released? Would it imply what (else) he bought?

“In South Portland, Atta and Alomari had found a Wal-Mart and were on a spending spree. They blew about $ 200 on T-shirts alone, and Atta was so impressed with one of the sports shirts he had bought that he put it on before he left the store. ”
(Independent, 9/8/02)

Comment: Most likely this account is simply BS as the security photos show Atta leaving (alone) Wal Mart with his black and white shirt on. Did the “Independent” make up the story about the buying of a T-Shirt as well?

One week later the workers at Wal-Mart finally reveal a piece of info:
“Staff members at the Wal-Mart in South Portland told The Post yesterday that Atta bought the $1.84 boxcutters he used to hijack American Airlines Flight 11 less than 12 hours before he commandeered the plane.
(…)
He got there just in time. The store closed for the day at 10.
The staffers, who asked not to be identified, said they had been warned not to give details.
"We all know what he bought," one of them said. "We're just not allowed to talk about it."
The staffer was surprised the hijackers had not made their deadly purchase earlier.
"It's unbelievable they would leave it to the last minute," the staffer said.
Wal-Mart spokesman Tom Williams refused to talk about what Atta purchased.”
(New York Post, 10/12/01)

Comment: So, to make this clear: The hijackers wait till the very last second before buying the central weapon of their suicide mission and are even so little prepared that they have to ask the way to the Wal-Mart?
Why are the workers not allowed to talk at all? Then a bit but their chief remains completely silent?
Or is there another possibility? The staffer inventing the boxcutter story because it seemed plausible knowing Atta bought something else? How else to explain that they say what he bought and at the same time telling the journalist Atta bought cutters?

"It was shocking to the employees that they were in the parking lot and in our store, but nobody has come out and said they saw anyone ," said Cheryl Giordano, a photo lab technician at Wal-Mart.”
(New York Times , 10/5/01)

Comment: Nobody saw anyone. Too bad although Atta had this eye-catching shirt.

Comment: But the secrecy surrounding Atta and Al Omari and their activity on September 10 goes even further:

“The FBI has ordered a blackout on how much money the men withdrew from the bank and what they bought at the Wal-Mart.”
(Evening Standard, 10/5/01)

“The banks have not released how much or even if Mr. Atta and Mr. Alomari withdrew money from the A.T.M.’s”
(New York Times, 10/5/01)

“Today in South Portland and Scarborough, employees at the Comfort Inn, Pizza Hut and other places in the chronology said they had been told not to talk. Most said they had no recollection of the men anyway.”
(New York Times, 10/5/01)

Comment: Again: Why this secrecy?

Time unknown: “Comfort Inn manager Laura Wale said that she recalled nothing unusual about Atta and Alomari and that she didn't believe they had any visitors in their hotel room.”
(New York Post, 10/5/01)

Comment: The journalist speaking to Laura Wale two years later stressed that Wale didn’t see the hijackers personally. (Portland Press Herald, 9/9/03) Is this believable in view of above mentioned quote?

September 11, 2001:
3:40 – 4:00 a.m. : “Chris Lyons of Brunswick, a newspaper delivery driver, said he saw four or five men he described as Middle Eastern near the entrance to the jetport terminal between 3:40 a.m. and 4 a.m., near where he parks his car to drop off papers.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/22/01)
“"They stuck out because usually no one is around at that hour," Lyons said.” (…)
Four or five men got out of the car. "They had a tremendous amount of luggage," Lyons said. "About 10 bags."
The men were dressed well in sweaters and leather jackets and used a
skycap cart to haul their luggage inside the airport. Lyons, who says he lived in Malaysia for nearly eight years, believed that a couple of the men were Egyptian and two others, Iranian.
Lyons walked by the men twice as he filled his newspaper racks. "They were talking Arabic and I said 'hi' to them and they looked surprised and then all clammed up.
Lyons talked to the FBI three weeks ago about the incident. "They asked me to repeat my story over and over," he said.
The FBI had Lyons look at several photographs of Middle Eastern men. He didn't recognize any of the men in the pictures.
"I don't think any of the guys I saw was Atta," Lyons said. "I'm more concerned that these guys were support people, who helped the operation out somehow.
"It's just too much of a coincidence that this group of businessmen was leaving Portland the morning of the terrorist attacks."
(Portland Press Herald, 10/21/01)
“Portland police said they checked his tip and did not think it was connected to the attacks because the behavior varied from the pattern shown by the terrorists.
(Portland Press Herald, 9/22/01)

Comment: Another surprising coincidence on 911! There are many accounts of four or five Eastern men that day! Keep in mind the group seen in Weathervine a few days earlier.

5:33 a.m. : “ATTA and AL-OMARI checked out of the Comfort Inn.”
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/100401.htm

5:40 a.m. : “The 2001 blue Nissan Altima rental car, bearing Massachusetts license 3335VI, entered Portland International Jetport Airport parking lot. It was parked on the first floor directly across from the airport entrance.”
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/100401.htm

“Inside the car were parking receipts showing that the men had arrived at the garage at 5:40 a.m., just minutes before their flight was scheduled to leave.”
(Portland Press Herald, 10/14/01)

Comment: Actually it is only assumed that the Nissan went from the Confort Inn to the jetport. It could have come from somewhere else as well. The fact that Atta and supposedly Al Omari checked out and then their Nissan entered the parking lot seven minutes indicates but doesn’t prove that they are in the car as well.

5:43 a.m. : “ATTA and AL-OMARI checked in at US AIRWAYS counter.”
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/100401.htm

Comment: “Even if Portland offered an easy way into the system, the layout of Logan required the two hijackers to pass through security a second time when they changed to American Airlines Flight 11, said Jeffrey Monroe, Portland's director of transportation.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/18/01)

5:45 a.m. : “ATTA and AL-OMARI passed through airport security.”
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/100401.htm

Comment : This time is in dispute ! Keep in mind that on the video stills two different times are given! Moreover it seems hard to see how they can manage to park the car till they passed the security in 5 minutes (keep in mind that they had two bags).
The photo is actually of no help trying to establish who passed the security check.

5:45 a.m. : “at 5:45 the next morning, flew from Portland International Jetport to Boston.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/14/01)

“Despite a clear sky, the 5:45 American Airlines flight from Portland was slightly delayed. Not until 6:00am did the men board the plane for the one-hour trip to Boston. ”
(Financial Times, 9/15/01)

Comment: The official take off time is of course 6:00 a.m. But still it’s worth pointing out that according to some accounts Atta and Al Omari simply wouldn’t have made their flight if it wouldn’t have been delayed!

[b) 5:53 a.m. [/b]: “Their photographs were taken at 5:53 a.m.”
(Grand Forkes Herald, 9/13/01)

“The images were taken at 5:53 a.m., seconds after the two men had passed through an airport security gate, (Portland Police Chief Michael) Chitwood said.”
(The Record, 9/13/01)
(London Times, 9/13/01)

6:00 a.m. : “ATTA and AL-OMARI departed on Colgan Air en route to Boston, Massachusetts.”
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/100401.htm

“US Airways Flight 5930, a commuter plane with 19 seats that left at 6 a.m. for Boston, Portland Transportation Director Jeff Monroe said.”
(AP, 9/13/01 e)

“Airline ticketing information obtained by the Dayton Daily News shows Atta's name is on the tickets along with a second man, Abdulaziz Alomari.
The ticket information shows the two men were to fly out of Portland at 6 a.m.”
(Dayton Daily News, 9/14/01)

“The 19-seat Beech 1900 (…) took off a few minutes late. ”

(Portland Press Herald, 9/23/01)

Comment: Take off time is in dispute!
Portland Press Herald, 9/15/01 even gives 5:30!

At the gate and inside the plane they’re seen by Roger Quirion, his colleague Brian Guerette and Jane Isenberg. Inside the plane also Vincent Meisner witnesses them.
So we do know 6 passengers of 8.
Quirion and Guerrette are later on Delta 1989 and made an emergency landing in Cleveland.
Vincent Meisner was diverted to Chicago.
Nothing is known about Jane Isenberg’s connecting flight (if she took one)

Comment: While there is a contradiction in the accounts of Quirion, Isenberg’s description also differs slightly from the Guerette’s and Quirion’s: Here the hijackers are in a hurry. Moreover Isenberg seems to imply to me that the hijackers would have missed the flight if it would have been in time? This corresponds to the “Financial Times” observation.
More Info. See: “Guerrette, Quirion and Meisner”.

“Mr. Atta traveled to Boston on a commuter airline from Portland, Me., with Mr. Alomari. Mr. Alomari was assigned seat 3C; Mr. Atta, seat 8D.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/16/01 b)

Comment: If one keeps in mind that Vincent Meisner states to have been seated behind Atta: how is it possible that a machine with 19 seats has nine rows?
http://www.portsmouthherald.com/2001news/9_15maine2.htm

Comment: Why does nobody talk to the media about his experience of having been seated next to a hijacker?

Comment: There is much reason given for the suspicion that actually there is no Colgan commuter flight connecting Portland and Boston.
Was this plane out of schedule?

6:30 a.m. : “Atta and Marwan (Al Shehhi) rented a Mitsubishi sedan, which they left at Logan Airport in Boston.”
(London Times, 9/13/01)

Comment: Besides owning a Pontiac, how many cars did Atta rent? Is this a trace to follow in order to figure out if in the last days before 911 there are more than one Atta?

Late afternoon : “Late Tuesday afternoon, federal agents and local police converged on the Portland airport and began a lengthy search for a car they were trying to locate, officials said.”
(The Record, 9/13/01)

Time unknown: That evening, just hours after the attack, Portland and South Portland police were canvassing area hotels, trying to learn where the men had stayed.
(Portland Press Herald, 10/14/01)

Time unknown: “The two officers spent four hours looking at every one of the 700 or so cars in the parking garage.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/16/01)

7:00 p.m. : Laura Wale, manage of Comfort Inn “got a phone call from the hotel. An FBI agent was on the other line.
“Your hotel has had direct involvement in 9/11. We need you to come in,” the agent told her, according to Wale.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/9/03)

Comment: So the very first object of interest on 911 is not Atta’s apartment nor Bukhari’s but the Comfort Inn in Portland.
Why is the FBI agent so sure (while even the press accounts were cautious at the beginning)?

Laura Wale has some interesting questions:
“Her story veers off into conspiracy theories.
How did government agents know to storm the Comfort Inn only hours after the Twin Towers fell? Why did the FBI release surveillance video of Atta and Alomari at various locations in South Portland, but not the lobby of the Comfort Inn?
What, she wonders, is on that tape?
(Portland Press Herald, 9/9/03)

Comment: Hearing theses questions one seriously doubts the journalist who states “She never met Atta or Alomari.” (Portland Press Herald, 9/9/03).

“She also made sure to keep photocopies of Atta’s hotel receipt and an inventory of items the FBI took out of his hotel room.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/9/03)

Comment: Why?
Laura Wale’s behaviour seems to imply that there have been two guys who reserved room 233 but that physically they are different from September 14 photos and apparently something is wrong with their name as well. Otherwise why does she mention that she kept the photocopy of the hotel receipt?
She seems to imply that Atta and Al Omari didn’t stay at her hotel. But why does she not say it straight forward? Fear? But then why does she implies it?
Comment: After the FBI praised her for her help Wale got problems.
“But perhaps the biggest blow came when she discovered on Sept. 26 that the federal government had cited her in court records in its case against the alleged 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/9/03)
Wale’s lost her job and ended up having a nervous break down and was hospitalised.

9:00 p.m. : “Portland's link in the macabre chain of events began to emerge Tuesday night, as federal investigators compared the passenger manifests of the hijacked jets with those of connecting flights coming into Boston. (…) Investigators matched two names from American Flight 11 and a US Airways flight that left Portland on Tuesday at 5:45 a.m.
State police arrived at the Comfort Inn on Maine Mall Road in South Portland about 9 p.m.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/13/01)

Night : “The Dumpster needed to be moved,” she (Laura Wale) said. “The picture of (Atta’s) shirt on the FBI Web site? They pulled that out of our Dumpster at the Comfort Inn.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/9/03)

Comment: How strange after Atta was easily recognizable thanks to this shirt (and thus allowed the FBI to follow his traces in Portland) he throws it into a dumpster before leaving. Looks once again like assuring one’s traces are found!

“Several employees at Portland area hotels said that FBI agents and local investigators had looked at registration and credit card records Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
The investigators had several names they were looking for, certain license plate numbers, as well as the numbers of a particular Visa credit card and another bank debit card, several hotel employees said. ”
(The Record, 9/13/01)

Comment: Why “several names”? Why weren’t they only looking for Atta and Al Omari? No sense looking for other hijackers in Portland!

Time unknown : “Atta seems to have surfaced last Friday afternoon at Shuckum's, a neighbourhood bar in Hollywood, Florida. On Tuesday, in the hours following the atrocity, a barmaid was visited by FBI agents who showed her pictures of two Middle Eastern men.”
(London Times, 9/13/01)

11:30 p.m. : “The rental car, a blue 2001 Nissan Altima, was identified at 11:30 p.m. in a parking lot at the airport, said Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood.”
(AP, 9/12/01 j)

“FBI and state police declined to comment on what may have been found in the car that was seized at the Portland airport.”
(AP, 9/13/01 d)

Comment: Again: Why this secrecy? But we know partly what’s in the car nonetheless:

“(Portland Police Officer Robert) Burke noticed a broken cigarette on the ground, on the painted line of the parking space, alongside the passenger door. He saw a few maps in the car and what looked like loose tobacco — as if a cigarette had broken and spilled some out — on the console, between the two front seats.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/16/01)
(New York Times, 10/5/01)

Comment: This is maybe not important but somebody who smokes in his car also would take a smoking room, wouldn’t he. But Atta and Al Omari went for a non-smoking room in the Comfort Inn.

The car was found like this: “The hotel typically requires guests to provide their vehicle registration numbers, and the suspects' Massachusetts license plate number was forwarded to investigators at the jetport.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/13/01)

“The car (…) had been rented from Alamo somewhere in Boston, Chitwood said.”
(The Record, 9/13/01)

September 12, 2001:

Night : “In Coral Springs, witnesses said about 50 FBI agents and police officers Tuesday night blanketed the apartment complex that Atta had listed with the motor vehicle division as his last address.”
(Boston Herald, 9/13/01)

3:30 a.m. : “The FBI's evidence recovery team was busy at Logan, so the car was taken by flatbed to the Maine State Police crime lab in Augusta at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/13/01)
(AP, 9/12/01 j)

5:00 a.m. : “FBI agents swooped down on two houses in Vero Beach, Fla., about 5 a.m. Wednesday, taking a man named Adnan Bukhari into custody, neighbors said.
They had a SWAT team and they just took him away, neighbor Phyllis Cromer said.”
(Grand Forkes Herald, 9/13/01)

Comment: On September 12 Adnan and Ameer Bukhari are believed to have been suicide hijackers. When Adnan turns out to be still alive while Ameer already dead for one year Adnan is considered an associate in the media and some unspecified evidence that was found in the Nissan linked him/them to the hijackers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1542153.stm

7:30 a.m.: “In North Jersey, a dozen FBI agents and sheriff's officers arrived before 7:30 a.m. in Fort Lee , where they searched Mail Boxes Etc., a private postal storefront in Linwood Plaza on Fletcher Avenue. They left 12 hours later carrying several small boxes; they declined to say what they were looking for.
“I asked them if there was something going on and they said it was a national security problem and they weren't at liberty to talk about it," said Dave Mesa, manager of Kings Supermarket in the same plaza.”
(The Record, 9/13/01)

Comment: Anybody an idea why the FBI was there?

Morning : “In Bangor, the FBI focused their attention on a cell phone company, where agents interviewed employees at Unicel's corporate office on Union St., next to the Bangor International Airport.
Rick O'Connor, senior vice president, said the agents were interested in knowing more about several men who attempted to buy cell phones recently. O'Connor said the company did not sell phones to them.
He said he didn't know how the FBI knew about the incident, but agents appeared at the office Wednesday morning. "No one had called them," he said.
(AP, 9/12/01 j)

Comment: The Bangor “connection” seems pretty interesting especially as again there are many eyewitness accounts of people who believe to have seen Atta and others. But without any further explication the case is closed as the case of the terrorists passing the Canadian border.

Time unknown : “And in Halifax, the provincial capital, which is 200 miles northeast of Yarmouth, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers impounded a car at the international airport there, officials said.
"I can confirm that we did seize a vehicle today at Halifax International," RCMP Sgt. Wayne Noonan said Wednesday in a phone interview from Halifax, declining to elaborate on the action. "I can't discuss any investigation in a public forum.”
(The Record, 9/13/01)

PRESS: The first article is published. But no names given. “Agents also interviewed workers at the Comfort Inn near the airport, where news reports indicated the terrorists may have stayed before the flight.”
(AP, 9/12/01 j)
(AP, 9/13/01 f)

On the reports about the Nissan: “Jim Osterrieder, the FBI chief in Maine, declined comment on the reports. The FBI's Boston office also declined comment.”
(AP, 9/12/01 j)

“FBI agents were at the airport and reviewed surveillance tapes, which captured the two suspects on video on Tuesday, Chitwood said.”
(AP, 9/12/01 j)

Comment: I find this rather surprising. They can’t have any photo of Abdulaziz at that moment. Moreover the video is very flue. Especially Al Omari is very hard to recognize on it. I believe the FBI assumed that theses are the two suspects because they recognized Atta and by somehow logical conclusion that the two had left the hotel and parked the car at the airport. But somehow the name creates a problem. Otherwise how explain they disclosed Atta’s name only on September 13 (although his name was already in the press one day earlier - but not in connection with Portland). And Al Omari later.

September 13, 2001:

Time unknown : “The FBI arrived at (the) home (of Dr. Mohamed Atta, a kidney specialist from Maryland, and his wife) on Sept. 13.”
(New York Post, 5/28/02)

Comment: It was this Mohamed Atta by the way who spend the week-end from September 7 – 9 in New York.

PRESS: Atta’s identity is revealed but not the one of Al Omari:
“One of the two suspects who boarded a flight in Portland was Mohamed Atta, 33, a Saudi national who had received training as a pilot in Florida. The other suspect's name was not disclosed by investigators.”
(AP, 9/13/01 d)

Some AP articles of that day still don’t disclose Atta’s identity.
(AP, 9/13/01 f)

Portland Press Herald is strangely vague: “ Two of the terrorists who crashed jets into the World Trade Center may have taken a flight from Portland.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/13/01).

Comment: Why the doubt? Why “may”? In the same account: “Portland's link in the macabre chain of events began to emerge Tuesday night, as federal investigators compared the passenger manifests of the hijacked jets with those of connecting flights coming into Boston. (…) Investigators matched two names from American Flight 11 and a US Airways flight that left Portland on Tuesday at 5:45 a.m.”
So, why if the two name matches does this incertitude remain?

“Gov. Angus King said the men probably drove from Massachusetts instead of crossing the Canadian border like some speculated. State police also sought to discount theories that the men came into Maine from Canada.”
(AP, 9/13/01 d)

“The 2001 Nissan Altima used by the men came from the same Boston rental location as another car used by additional suspects that contained incriminating materials when it was seized at Boston's Logan Airport.”
(AP, 9/13/01 d)

“"It was an Alamo rental with Massachusetts plates," he said, although officials are uncertain where it was rented.”
(Union Leader, 9/13/01)
“Kelly (commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety) said the FBI has names and, ‘They have drivers' licenses showing them out of New Jersey.’”
(Union Leader, 9/13/01)

“Atta and Marwan rented a Mitsubishi sedan, which they left at Logan Airport in Boston. When the abandoned car was found by the FBI, it contained flight manuals written in Arabic.
The two men separated for a final time in Boston, taking early flights that took off within a minute of each other, bound for Los Angeles.”
(London Times, 9/13/01)

“Law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity said they were investigating whether the hijackers crossed the Canadian border to enter the United States. They said the FBI was seeking passenger manifests from two ferries that travel between Nova Scotia and Maine.”
(AP, 9/13/01 f)

“It remained unclear Wednesday how the terrorists came into Maine, but attention focused on Canada.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/13/01)

Comment: Why is this unclear? It is as clear or unclear on September 13 as it is today: the Nissan was rented on September 9 and on September 10 Atta is in Portland. That’s all we know. So, why at that time the uncertainty and why today the certainty what happened, the certainty e.g. that they didn’t pass the Canadian border?

“One theory is that some of the hijackers entered the United States from Canada, possibly by a tourist ferry to Portland, Maine. American officials claim they have hard evidence that Atta did enter the United States from Canada. They believe 22-year-old Ahmad Ibrahim Ali-al Hazoumi, and the two Al Shehris might have used the same route. A gold Malibu rental car from Avis at Halifax airport has been searched by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.”
(London Times, 9/13/01)
(Edmonton Journal, 9/14/01)

“The two men are thought to have taken a ferry from Nova Scotia, Canada, this week.”
(Grand Forkes Herald, 9/13/01)

“The terrorists may have been divided into separate, self-contained groups, some recently crossing into this country from Canada. Others may have been here for some time, law enforcement authorities said.”
(Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/13/01)

”Chitwood said the men stayed in Greater Portland for at least one night. ”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/13/01)

“Records show that Atta once had a driver's license in Egypt.
The FBI in Miami also was looking for two cars. Florida Division of Motor Vehicle records show that one of them, [/b] a 1989 red Pontiac, was registered to Atta.” [/b]
(Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/13/01)

Comment: Why then is Atta so active to rent cars?

”The rented Nissan led police to Adnan Bukhari, who lived near Vero Beach Municipal Airport in Florida until two weeks ago.”
(London Times, 9/13/01)
(Edmonton Journal, 9/14/01)

September 14, 2001:
Finally both names are revealed:
“(Abdul !) Alomari and Mohamed Atta, both believed to be pilots, boarded a flight at the Portland International Jetport and then made a connection Boston for an American Airlines flight that was hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center, investigators said.”
(AP, 9/14/01 e)

But:
“police chief in Portland, Maine, Michael Chitwood, said two of the suspected hijackers spent the night before the attack at a Comfort Inn in South Portland, where a billboard now says, "God Bless America." He said the FBI believes the two were Atta and Abdulrahman Omari. ”
(London Times, 9/13/01)

But the regional press is still cautios:
While they said in the header:
“Mohamed Atta and Abdulatif A. Al-Omari spent the night at the Comfort Inn in South Portland on Monday”.
Later in the article it is:
“Atta, 33, whose name has been on a list of people associated with terrorist groups, checked into the Comfort Inn on Monday night with another man. ”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/14/01)

Note already here the two different versions of Al Omari’s name!
But the Portland Press Herald coming quite close with “Abdulatif A Al-Omari” (a version a few other newspapers used as well) gives the following the info:
“Al-Omari's most recent address was Vero Beach, Fla., in a neighborhood called Treasure Trails.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/14/01)

Many thinks still remain unclear:
“State officials said the men probably drove to Portland from Boston, where they had rented their car.”
(AP, 9/14/01 e)

“Investigators don't yet know exactly when Atta and Al-Omari arrived in Maine , but they know that someone, perhaps Atta, recently rented a blue Nissan Altima from Alamo Rent A Car in Boston, and that the two drove it to Portland.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/14/01)

Had Al Omari a girl friend in Portland?
“The disclosure that a Portland woman may have had a relationship with one of the suspects in the attack on the World Trade Center raised new questions Friday about the city's role in the attacks.”
(AP, 9/14/01 e)

Roger Quirions witness account gets in the news:
“On Friday, the suspects aboard US Airways Flight 5930 were described as clean-cut and aloof by one of the passengers.
"They were very serious. They didn't make eye contact with other people. They were almost attached to the hip, even in the terminal while waiting to board," said Tammy Quirion of Winslow, whose husband was on the plane.
Her husband, Roger Quirion, was on the flight with fellow state worker Brian Guerette of Oakland and described the suspects to her. Neither could be reached immediately for comment on Friday because they were driving back from California, where they were stranded.
The two state workers nearly ended up on American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the World Trade Center, but that flight was too expensive. Instead, they flew to California on a Delta flight, Tammy Quirion said.”
(AP, 9/14/01 e)

September 15, 2001:
“FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz, reached in Boston, would not confirm Friday night that two of the terrorists traveled on US Airways Flight 5930.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/15/01)

September 16, 2001:
The story becomes more definite:
“Investigators believe Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari spent Monday night at the Comfort Inn in South Portland, arriving there in a rental car.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/16/01 b)

The story about Al Omari having a girl friend changes:
“Among the investigative leads in Portland is one involving a man who claimed to be a member of a hated terrorist organization before he disappeared a month ago.
A local woman has told police she was romantically involved with the man, who has not been identified. She said he claimed to be from Turkey, routinely flashed large sums of money despite having no steady job, and kept a gun under his pillow.
The woman, who has not been identified, said she met the man at Maine Mall in South Portland, where he briefly worked selling beads.
"I'm absolutely not allowed to make any comment whatsoever," said Jerre Bryant, general manager of the Maine Mall, when asked if he had been questioned by investigators.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/16/01 b)

Comment: I would assume that the FBI showed the woman a photo of Al Omari. And if on Friday she was convinced that her love had the body of Al Omari how come then that two days later it’s simply an unknown but very suspicious person?

September 18, 2001:
Problem with a name:
Portland Press Herald uses “Abdulatif A. Al-Omari” (Portland Press Herald, 9/18/01 b) while in another article using “Abdulaziz” (Portland Press Herald, 9/18/01)

New doubts if Atta drove alone:
“The two men who flew out of Portland had to go out of their way. Atta rented a Nissan Altima from an Alamo rental agency in Boston and drove here. It is unclear whether Atta met Alomari in Maine or if the two traveled here together. ”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/18/01)

Comment: Apparently Atta rented the car alone. So this implies that there is no way of knowing if Al Omari didn’t already stay in Portland. This seems plausible as he might have had a girl friend and was seen several times in Portland.

September 20, 2001:
Now Atta and Al Omari have no connection to Portland:
“"As far as we know, neither man had any connection with this city, or Greater Portland or the state of Maine other than arriving here to catch a flight."
Chitwood and other investigators arrived at that conclusion belatedly, as they initially received local tips that a man believed to be Alomari may have spent time in Portland before the attack. Authorities later decided there was no evidence to support that idea. ”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/20/01)

Comment: And all the eyewitnesses?

And later even the news of Al Omari possibly having an affair with a local women is now only “a rumour”!
(Newsday, 11/18/01)

KNOWN FACTS:

New Jersey driver licence: “The two men apparently were using New Jersey driver licenses but little else was known about them, (Gov. Angus) King said.”
(AP, 9/12/01)

“Investigators believe the occupants of the car used New Jersey drivers' licenses to rent it from an Alamo rental center, state officials said.”
(Portland Press Herald, 9/13/01)

”Maine Gov. Angus King said the men were using New Jersey driver's licenses. But Col. Carson Dunbar, head of the New Jersey State Police, said that was not so.
"We have no known connection to New Jersey," Dunbar said.”
(The Record, 9/13/01)

“Kelly (commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety) said the FBI has names and, ‘They have drivers' licenses showing them out of New Jersey.’”
(Union Leader, 9/13/01)

Alzeedi:
The FBI has said it wants to talk to Alzeedi in connection with a matter "totally unrelated" to the hijackings. Alzeedi is a pilot who owns Zidi Aviation, a company with offices in Saudi Arabia and Morocco. In August, he was in Nashville, Tenn. to arrange for the purchase of two Tampico TB-9 airplanes. He told reporters that he flew one of the planes to Portland and left it at Northeast Airmotive Co. to be outfitted with an extra fuel tank. Alzeedi said he planned to bring both planes to Morocco.
(Newsday, 11/18/01)

Mark Goodwin, a spokesman for Northeast, said the plane arrived about a week before the Sept. 11 attacks and that the company routinely outfits small planes going overseas with auxiliary tanks. He said the work is done in accordance with FAA regulations. Goodwin said this was the first time the company had been asked to do work by Alzeedi. He declined to say whether the company had done business with other Middle Eastern companies.
(Newsday, 11/18/01)

Portland in the news again:
On Nov. 7, Portland was in the news once more. In a crackdown on financial networks suspected of funneling money to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, federal agents raided the offices of two companies with offices in the United States - Al Barakaat, a money-wiring company based in Somalia, and Al Taqwa, a money-management company with offices in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the Bahamas and Italy.

The government targeted offices in Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle and Columbus, Ohio. The government froze the assets of 11 people and groups alleged to have ties to the two companies and arrested a principal of Al Barakaat, Mohamed M. Hussein, who runs the company with his brother, Liban.

Court papers say that in March 2000 Liban Hussein opened an account for Al Barakaat at Key Bank in Portland and applied for approval to wire up to $50,000 from Key Bank to the company's account at Emirates Bank International Ltd. in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. According to the court papers, $974,000 was transferred to the bank in UAE between March 17, 2000 and Aug. 1 of this year.

The tradition of sending money to family members in Africa and the Middle East is common practice among immigrants. Al Barakaat's executives vehemently have denied that the company has ties to terrorists.

"This is all lies," the company's chairman Ahmed Nur Ali Jim'ale said in an interview with the Associated Press. "I was really upset. We have a lot of enemies who would say anything."

Citing customer confidentiality, Therese Meyers, a spokeswoman for Key Bank, declined comment on the Al Barakaat account.
(Newsday, 11/18/01)

'It's been a loss of a lifetime' (Atta hotel lady tested for anthrax)
Prtland Press Herald ^ | 9/11/03 | Josie Huang

Posted on 09/11/2003 6:43 PM PDT by Badabing Badaboom

'It's been a loss of a lifetime' Josie Huang, Portland (Maine) Press Herald, Tuesday, September 9, 2003, page 1 Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

Laura R. Wale was general manager of this Comfort Inn in South Portland where two terrorists stayed before they flew an airliner into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Since then she has lost her job and suffered an emotional breakdown.

Terrorists' stop in Portland still mystifies: FBI agents continue to follow up leads that could explain why the pair drove here from Boston, then flew back.

Laura Wale says her life was good. Maybe too good.

As general manager of the Comfort Inn in South Portland, she was a popular supervisor and savvy moneymaker for the hotel chain. She bought a three-bedroom house in Portland on her $70,000-plus annual salary and took regular trips to Las Vegas with her partner.

Then on Sept. 10, 2001, at 5:43 p.m., terrorist mastermind Mohamed Atta and a companion, Abdulaziz Alomari, checked into the hotel she managed. Twelve hours later, they left for the Portland International Jetport to strike the World Trade Center and change the world.

Two years after the attack, Wale has become one of the terrorists' most unlikely victims. She never met Atta or Alomari. But she believes her connection to 9/11 and the stress of dealing with federal investigators, the national media and her company sent her life into a tailspin.

In the past two years she has gone from corporate darling to persona non grata, banned from the hotel she ran for about seven years for allegedly threatening to hurt an employee.

Many people learned to cope after crossing paths with the terrorists at flight schools, universities and stores. But Wale's mental health deteriorated. Her behavior became so erratic that she eventually checked into a psychiatric unit during a visit to the Washington, D.C., area last fall.

"I mean, it's been a loss of a lifetime," Wale said, smoking a cigarette as she sat on a Portland park bench on a recent afternoon. "My life up until now is over as I know it."

Unemployed for almost a year, Wale said the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks would be the first time she wasn't "under someone's thumb" and could talk freely about her experiences.

"Nobody has really told the story about what it was like to be on the inside," said Wale, a gravelly-voiced woman of 38, with a thin, determined mouth. "That's the story and there's a whole lot of people like me who don't know what to do."

Wale gamely answers most questions, telling the story of her meltdown with bitterness and biting humor.

"For a long time, a lot of people thought I felt responsible. . . . What could I have done?" she said. "But when you're a hotel (general manager) . . . you're accountable for that property 24-7. . . . And it happened at that hotel. That's where it all started out."

At turns, she sounds impatient and agitated. Her story veers off into conspiracy theories.

How did government agents know to storm the Comfort Inn only hours after the Twin Towers fell? Why did the FBI release surveillance video of Atta and Alomari at various locations in South Portland, but not the lobby of the Comfort Inn?

What, she wonders, is on that tape?

A fastidious record-keeper, she produces documentation of her falling out with the Silver Spring, Md.-based Sunburst Hospitality Corp., which runs the Comfort Inn hotel chain, including a photocopy of the criminal trespass notice.

Sunburst's executive vice president and chief operating officer, Kevin Hanley, refused to comment for this story.

But in a Sept. 25, 2001, letter he commended Wale and her staff for their "unparalleled professionalism" after Sept. 11. He reserved special praise for Wale, passing on a compliment from an FBI agent.

"(The agent) indicated that the FBI would not have been able to perform its duties effectively without the total support and cooperation from you and your staff," Hanley wrote. "As he said, 'No' is not in Laura's vocabulary."

Wale entered the hospitality industry as an 18-year-old in Toledo, Ohio, and developed a reputation as a trouble-shooter and able leader. She climbed up the ranks and after a successful stint in Phoenix, was transferred to the Comfort Inn in South Portland in 1995.

"When she came, it was like a breath of fresh air," said Lynda Eaton, who worked at the South Portland hotel. "It just felt like she knew what she was doing."

Eaton said Wale was known for being fair-minded and fun. She threw regular pizza parties to show her appreciation for employees and treated them to buffet dinners whenever the hotel won an award for excellence.

Her staff thought she could handle anything - even a hotel stay by two of the most notorious Sept. 11 terrorists.

"She dealt with it by herself," Eaton said. "Nobody came up from corporate. It was a little too much but she was a very strong woman. I always admired that of her."

Wale felt just as confident about her abilities. After watching the "Today" show and learning that American Airlines Flight 11 had crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center at 8:45 a.m., Wale rushed to work, prepared to go into crisis mode. She arrived just in time to see United Airlines Flight 175 crash into the south tower at 9:03 a.m.

Because flights were halted, she thought, "I'm going to have guests who can't get out. Guests who can't get in. Phone service is going to be interrupted. The whole shooting match is going to go down."

She put all her managers on 24-hour call. After she went home for the day, around 7 p.m., she got a phone call from the hotel. An FBI agent was on the other line.

"Your hotel has had direct involvement in 9/11. We need you to come in," the agent told her, according to Wale. Wale turned to her partner, Dee Franks, and said: "Our world just changed. Our world just changed."

Wale spent the next 48 hours at the hotel, bringing in crisis counselors for her staff, signing evidence forms, retrieving the surveillance video, running names, making faxes - whatever the FBI wanted.

"The Dumpster needed to be moved," she said. "The picture of (Atta's) shirt on the FBI Web site? They pulled that out of our Dumpster at the Comfort Inn."

Wale said little help came from corporate headquarters, other than a script she was to repeat to reporters neither confirming nor denying the investigation.

After more than 574 calls from the media in the first two weeks after the terrorist attacks - everybody, Wale said, from the Washington Post's Bob Woodward to the National Enquirer had contacted her - she began referring reporters to the company.

The constant pressure was beginning to wear her down.

Wale said it upset her that she needed to be tested for anthrax because she had been one of the first people to enter the terrorists' hotel room after the attacks.

But perhaps the biggest blow came when she discovered on Sept. 26 that the federal government had cited her in court records in its case against the alleged 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui. As the Comfort Inn's general manager, she was the custodian of hotel records being used as government exhibits.

"What does anything they acquire from my hotel on 9/11 have to do with him or (what do) I have to do with it?" she asked.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where Moussaoui is facing trial for conspiracy to murder, would not comment on the case.

In the ensuing months, Wale says she became depressed and had trouble sleeping. Medication did little to help her mood and she began to distance herself from friends and family. Long after the FBI and reporters left her hotel, she became fixated on understanding what happened on Sept. 11, and pulled all-nighters conducting research on the Internet.

She also made sure to keep photocopies of Atta's hotel receipt and an inventory of items the FBI took out of his hotel room.

On an August 2002 trip to Las Vegas to see Cher in concert, Franks, Wale's partner of nine years, realized that something was undeniably wrong.

"The emotional abandonment made me think, what's wrong with her, what's wrong with me," Franks said. "The walls came up high, the walls came up higher."

Wale's workplace relationships also became increasingly strained. Eaton, the hotel's assistant executive housekeeper, quit last September, a year after the attacks. Wale had become unbearably demanding, Eaton said, and picked on her relentlessly.

Wale herself knew something wasn't "quite right" and flew to Maryland last November to share her concerns with hotel executives.

That's when Wale suffered a nervous breakdown and checked herself into Potomac Ridge Behavioral Health Adventist Healthcare in Rockville, Md., on Nov. 11, said Ralph Tucker, her workers' compensation lawyer and former head of the state Workers' Compensation Commis- sion.

Wale had been stopped for speeding, according to Tucker and hospital reports, and told police that she had been trying to get away from government agents.

She had initially stopped as demanded by police, but had moved her car to avoid blocking a bus stop, Tucker said.

Police charged Wale with eluding arrest and told her to voluntarily enter a psychiatric ward. After an 11-day stay, Wale emerged with a diagnosis that included depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - and no job.

Sunburst had fired Wale the same day she entered Potomac Ridge, saying that she had threatened an employee with bodily harm in November and bothered others with phone calls at work and at home.

Tucker said that burnout caused the nervous breakdown and Sunburst should rehire Wale. At the very least, Tucker said, the company could give her workers' compensation benefits. Money has dried up for Wale and forced her to sell her house.

The state is expected to schedule a mediation session between Wale and Sunburst sometime soon. In the meantime, she is still looking for work in the hospitality industry. Maine hotels, she said, have labeled her the "9/11 G.M." so she has begun searching outside the state, particularly in the D.C. area.

"It is who I am," she said. "I've been doing it for the last 20 years and I'm damn good at it."

Wale is working on a book on her post-Sept. 11 experiences while trying to regain a semblance of her old life with the help of a therapist, her friends and family. She said she has no use for medication. The anti-depressants she took for about a year after Sept. 11 may have exacerbated her stress, she said.

"It's a blessing . . . that I've been able to get it back together," Wale said. "I lost my lifetime prior to Sept. 11. That person is completely gone and changed now. The only way I can look at it positively now, is that I got through it."

Occasionally, she talks to her old friend and employee, Eaton, who now manages a clothing store in South Portland. They meet for coffee and discuss anything but the hotel, or Sept. 11.

Wale looks good, Eaton said. She's lost weight and dresses as smartly as she did at the Comfort Inn. She can be as funny as ever.

But it's apparent to Eaton that Wale's familiar spark is missing and she always walks away from their meetings feeling a sense of loss.

"I still try to think of her and see her in my own eyes: a strong, feisty, in-charge person at the hotel," Eaton said. "That everything just crumbled, it saddens me."

Josie Huang can be contacted at 791-6364 or at: jhuang@pressherald.com
TOPICS: Anthrax Scare; US: Maine; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 2NDANNIVERSARY; 911; 911HIJACKERS; ALOMARI; ATTA; BIOTERRORISM; COMFORTINN; HOTEL; MAINE; TERRORISM; WMD Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
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So when did she get tested for anthrax? The day after 9/11, or the middle of October?

1 posted on 09/11/2003 6:43 PM PDT by Badabing Badaboom
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To: TopQuark; Shermy; mrustow; HitmanNY; Allan; TexKat; pokerbuddy0; Fred Mertz; Mitchell; Wallaby; ...

ping

2 posted on 09/11/2003 6:44 PM PDT by Badabing Badaboom (http://anthrax2001.blogspot.com)
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To: Badabing Badaboom

Some information here that hasn't been reported before, not only the anthrax but the existence of the lobby videotape of Atta and Alomari.

3 posted on 09/11/2003 6:50 PM PDT by denydenydeny
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To: denydenydeny

Contrary to popular belief, the FBI spent September and October fanatically trying to find any link between the 9/11 hijackers and the anthrax attacks (and, of course, turned up nothing.)

So it's hardly breaking news or interesting that she was tested for anthrax; they tested all over the place, anywhere the hijackers had been.

4 posted on 09/11/2003 6:52 PM PDT by John H K
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To: denydenydeny

I emailed the reporter to ask her if she knows exactly when the anthrax test was made. It would help perhaps if a few more peole emailed her - that way she might get the message it's important.
jhuang@pressherald.com

5 posted on 09/11/2003 6:53 PM PDT by Badabing Badaboom (http://anthrax2001.blogspot.com)
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To: Badabing Badaboom

Tragic story, but I just don't quite get it!

6 posted on 09/11/2003 6:54 PM PDT by ladyinred (The left have blood on their hands.)
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To: John H K

Yhey were looking for links to anthrax in September? Now that would be interesting!

7 posted on 09/11/2003 6:54 PM PDT by Badabing Badaboom (http://anthrax2001.blogspot.com)
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To: John H K

Err, meant to say October and November, of course.

8 posted on 09/11/2003 6:55 PM PDT by John H K
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To: John H K

how do you know they turned up nothing?

9 posted on 09/11/2003 6:55 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: John H K

Well that's what we're trying to ascertain here - WHEN she got tested. If it was October it's only mildly interesting.

10 posted on 09/11/2003 6:56 PM PDT by Badabing Badaboom (http://anthrax2001.blogspot.com)
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To: oceanview

Oh, right, I forgot, they FBI of course immediately determined the 9/11 hijackers, in league with Iraq, were responsible for the anthrax attacks, but Aschroft and Bush decided it would be a better idea, while the US was building a case for war with Iraq, to vaguely try to pin the anthrax attacks on a US government employee.

(sarcasm off).

11 posted on 09/11/2003 6:58 PM PDT by John H K
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To: John H K

In fact the scenario you give is exactly the one portrayed by Bob Woodward in "Bush at War" as being the actual events that took place.

12 posted on 09/11/2003 7:01 PM PDT by Badabing Badaboom (http://anthrax2001.blogspot.com)
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To: John H K

how do you know they turned up nothing?

do you really think that Bush could have released such information, a trial run WMD attack, in October of 2001? what do you think would have happened in this country, to the economy, if something like that was just released without any consideration for the consequences?

13 posted on 09/11/2003 7:01 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: John H K

did Hatfill do it? tell us your opinion, did Hatfill send the anthrax?

14 posted on 09/11/2003 7:02 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: Badabing Badaboom

I'm not sure I get why it is so important when she was tested.

15 posted on 09/11/2003 7:05 PM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace ((the original))
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To: John H K

My theory is that we didn't want to find a connection because if we did, we would have had to nuked Iraq in our basically unwritten or written? policy of deterance.

16 posted on 09/11/2003 7:07 PM PDT by FreeAtlanta
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To: Badabing Badaboom

Many thanks for the post and the ping. Interesting read.

I wish I could help this poor lady.

17 posted on 09/11/2003 7:08 PM PDT by TopQuark
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace

if she was tested BEFORE the anthrax attacks took place, then that means the FBI had information that the 9/11 hijackers had access to the material, without actually seeing the mailings take place, to trigger the testing.

18 posted on 09/11/2003 7:13 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: Badabing Badaboom

Chronology from the FBI. No Comfort Inn videotape mentioned.

http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/100401.htm

Monday, September 10, 2001

5:43 pm Atta and AL-OMARI checked into the Comfort Inn, 90 Maine Mall Road, South Portland, Maine.

8/9:00 pm Sometime between 8:00 pm and 9:00 pm, two Middle Eastern males were seen at Pizza Hut, 415 Maine Mall Road, South Portland, Maine, for approximately fifteen (15) minutes.

8:31 pm ATTA and AL-OMARI were photographed by a Key Bank drive-up ATM located at 445 Gorham Road, South Portland, Maine. They were driving a 2001 blue Nissan Altima rental car bearing Massachusetts license 3335VI.

8:41 pm ATTA and AL-OMARI were photographed by a Fast Green ATM located in the parking lot of UNO's restaurant, 280 Maine Mall Road, South Portland, Maine.

9:15 pm ATTA and AL-OMARI were at Jetport Gas Station, 446 Western, Avenue, South Portland, Maine. ATTA was wearing a half dark, half light colored shirt with light colored slacks.

9:22 pm ATTA was at Wal-Mart, 451 Payne Road, Scarborough, Maine, for approximately twenty minutes.

Tuesday, September 11, 2001

5:33 am ATTA and AL-OMARI checked out of the Comfort Inn.

5:40 am The 2001 blue Nissan Altima rental car, bearing Massachusetts license 3335VI, entered Portland International Jetport Airport parking lot. It was parked on the first floor directly across from the airport entrance.

5:43 am ATTA and AL-OMARI checked in at US AIRWAYS counter.

5:45 am ATTA and AL-OMARI passed through airport security.

6:00 am ATTA and AL-OMARI departed on Colgan Air en route to Boston, Massachusetts.

____________________________
http://www.ci-ce-ct.com/article/showquestion.asp?faq=3&fldAuto=684
Also this NYTimes article. Why did they go to Maine rather than board at Boston???

19 posted on 09/11/2003 7:14 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: ladyinred

"Tragic story, but I just don't quite get it!"

That part about "her parnter, Dee..." tells me all I need to know.

20 posted on 09/11/2003 7:14 PM PDT by PLMerite ("Unarmed, one can only flee from Evil. But Evil isn't overcome by fleeing from it." Jeff Cooper)
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To: Shermy

so, who was on the lobby tape with them in Portland? If it were a tape of just them, what would be the big deal. For it to mean something, they it must mean that they were with someone. Who could it be?

21 posted on 09/11/2003 7:17 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: Badabing Badaboom

I emailed the reporter to ask her if she knows exactly when the anthrax test was made. It would help perhaps if a few more peole emailed her - that way she might get the message it's important.

Yes. From the chronology of the article it's unclear.

But if it's before the AMI attack, I don't think it's necessarily unusual. Right after 9/11 politicos were warning us of "asymetrical" attacks, including biologicals. Testing could be part of a mandatory protocol. Klayman contends the White House went on Cipro right after 9/11, no?

But, when did the information about Atta's compatriot's black lesion come out first???

Worth following up. Reporter should ask when, and what the lady was told were the reasons. Did it seem normal procedure?

Finally, got to admit that this lady has "issues" other than her brush with fame.

22 posted on 09/11/2003 7:21 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: Shermy

< Finally, got to admit that this lady has "issues" other than her brush with fame. >

I agree. I can't believe the number of people coming out of the woodwork since 9/11/01 who "just can't work anymore".

23 posted on 09/11/2003 7:40 PM PDT by GOP_Proud
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To: oceanview

if she was tested BEFORE the anthrax attacks took place, then that means the FBI had information that the 9/11 hijackers had access to the material, without actually seeing the mailings take place, to trigger the testing.

The anthrax scenarios started immediately after 9/11 in the media. Anthrax seemed to be the only hypothetical second-wave attack the pundits were even considering.

At the time, I felt like we were being braced for something. When weaponized anthrax turned up in Boca Raton, I knew we had been.

24 posted on 09/11/2003 7:43 PM PDT by WhistlingPastTheGraveyard
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To: Shermy

Why did they go to Maine rather than board at Boston???

Just a theory: maybe they figured there'd be less scrutiny during boarding in Maine, and less chance their carry-on would be checked for box-cutters, etc. Also, as transferring passengers in Boston they'd draw less attention during boarding. Of course there are several other possible scenarios too.

25 posted on 09/11/2003 7:45 PM PDT by Bernard Marx
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To: oceanview

how do you know they turned up nothing?

He knows everything.

26 posted on 09/11/2003 7:47 PM PDT by WhistlingPastTheGraveyard
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To: Badabing Badaboom

Many people learned to cope after crossing paths with the terrorists at flight schools, universities and stores.

What's to cope with? People need to grow some backbone.

27 posted on 09/11/2003 7:50 PM PDT by Sloth ("I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!" -- Jacobim Mugatu, 'Zoolander')
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To: oceanview

do you really think that Bush could have released such information, a trial run WMD attack, in October of 2001?

Uh, everyone already knew what was going on. I think the news may even have mentioned the anthrax attacks in passing once or twice. :-P The only question was who did it. I think pinning it on the hijackers would have brought a sense of relief.

28 posted on 09/11/2003 7:55 PM PDT by Sloth ("I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!" -- Jacobim Mugatu, 'Zoolander')
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To: oceanview; Badabing Badaboom; pokerbuddy0

so, who was on the lobby tape with them in Portland? If it were a tape of just them, what would be the big deal. For it to mean something, they it must mean that they were with someone. Who could it be?

"June 9, 2001 | The main thing Joann Van Buren says she remembers about Timothy McVeigh is the $50 bill he wanted her to break. That, and the two men who accompanied him.

One day before he tore a hole in the nation's psyche with the bomb that destroyed Oklahoma City's Murrah Federal Building, McVeigh, Van Buren says, pulled up to the little Subway sandwich shop where she worked in Junction City, Kansas, driving the yellow Ryder truck that would contain the bomb.

Van Buren didn't pay any particular attention to them at first. Another clerk waited on the men, but when they tried to pay for their meal with a large bill, she took notice.

"As soon as the $50 bill came up, I had to go to the safe to get the change," says Van Buren today. "And when I gave them the change and they got their sandwiches, I remember them going back over to the corner, sitting down. And when they left, I remember three people getting into the truck. There were three people at the table."

The clerks she worked with later told FBI agents that two of the men matched the descriptions of McVeigh and his cohort, Terry Nichols. The third was a shorter, dark-haired and muscular man with an olive complexion: a perfect fit for the figure destined to be known as John Doe 2.

Luckily, the Subway shop actually had a video camera recording that day's events. When Van Buren contacted the FBI, agents interviewed everyone working in the shop on April 18. And when they were done, they confiscated the video recorded that day.

And never to be seen again...

The mystery of John Doe No. 2

29 posted on 09/11/2003 7:57 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: Sloth

"I think pinning it on the hijackers would have brought a sense of relief."

Not as much as pinning it on a rogue scientist who eally cares for our safety and wanted to alert us...

30 posted on 09/11/2003 7:58 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: Sloth

such a proclamation would have demanded an immediate attack on iraq, because the next question would quikcly have been: where did they get it from? there aren't too many answers to that question. we were not prepared to attack iraq in 10/2001. or do you really thing that bush could have gone to a microphone and said: "don't sweat it, the terrorists sent some anthrax, they probably bought it at CVS, they are all dead now, nothing to see here, move on".

31 posted on 09/11/2003 8:03 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: Shermy

if indeed that hotel video showed them with a third person, a good bet is that that person is somehow connected to iraq or the saudis.

32 posted on 09/11/2003 8:05 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: Badabing Badaboom

Thanks for the heads up!

33 posted on 09/11/2003 8:14 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: oceanview

Gotcha. Definitely a tin foil hat kind of thought, but interesting nonetheless.

34 posted on 09/11/2003 8:16 PM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace ((the original))
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To: Shermy

Why did they go to Maine rather than board at Boston???

Interesting "isolated incident" :

SEPTEMBER 14 +/-, 2001 : (ZIDI AVIATION, SAUDI PILOT HUNT, PORTLAND MAINE) : "We had heard 3 or 4 days afterward (9/11) that there was a suspicious plane and that the FBI was watching it," Jeffrey Monroe, Portland's transportation director, said Wednesday. "The word was if anybody approached the plane or whatever, then that needs to be conveyed to the FBI." The FBI is looking for Alzeedi, a pilot who owns Zidi Aviation in Delaware, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, bought two Tampico TB-9 airplanes in Nashville, Tenn., in August.Alzeedi told the Moroccan newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that he flew one of the planes to Portland and left it there because it needed additional fuel tanks. He then left the country. http://www.portland.com/news/attack/011018saudiplane.shtml
* A London-based Arabic-language newspaper, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, reported Tuesday that it had interviewed Alzeedi by telephone from Morocco, and that Alzeedi expressed amazement at the investigation, saying he had already answered investigators' questions. The Associated Press called a Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, phone number listed on the Zidi Aviation Web site, but no one answered Thursday. http://www.airdisaster.com/news/1001/19/news2.shtml

35 posted on 09/11/2003 8:47 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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To: Shermy

check this out, too- I don't know what they mean by "northeast" but maybe this guy was in Portland, too:

SEPTEMBER 10, 2001 : (Muslim cleric Maotaz Al-Hallak leaves the northeastern US for Texas) Al-Hallak had been questioned by prosecutors in the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. After 9/11, authorities would try to find him again, believing he left the US northeast for Texas, according to a later AP report.- "More arrests coming, U.S. says : So far, 25 people arrested for immigration violations are being questioned by federal investigators in connection with Tuesday's attacks," © St. Petersburg Times, published September 16, 2001 - Information from Cox News Service, Associated Press, Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune was used in this report. cache , http://www.sptimes.com/News/091601/Worldandnation/More_arrests_coming__.shtml. , current page , http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:HBTXAfMKTmsC:www.sptimes.com/News/091601/Worldandnation/More_arrests_coming__.shtml+%22Mohammed+Jaweed+Azmath+%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

36 posted on 09/11/2003 8:51 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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To: Bernard Marx

Very plausible.

37 posted on 09/11/2003 8:54 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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To: Bernard Marx

maybe they figured there'd be less scrutiny during boarding in Maine

That was my thought as well. Before Sept. 11, I was always searched pretty thoroughly at O'Hare in Chicago. But when I flew out of Madison, WI's airport, security was a joke. One time, I went with my brother and nephew to watch the fighter jets take off. (Madison shares its airport with a fighter wing.) My nephew was 3 years old and in a stroller that would have been a very tight fight through the metal detector. The nice, old man running the metal detector said, "Aw, that's okay. Just bring it around." Nevermind that there were bags underneath it.

38 posted on 09/11/2003 9:01 PM PDT by July 4th
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To: Bernard Marx

Definitely could be.

39 posted on 09/11/2003 9:35 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: GOP_Proud; Shermy

Please understand thast this type of personality, in charge of a property 24/7, is a highly responsible, detail oriented, service oriented personality. Their sense of pride and worth directly is translated into the property they run, and becomes a reflection of them.

For their "baby" or property to be involved in this terrible event, makes them question what could they have done so that this event didn't visit upon them. The truth is , nothing. But to them, they take on the responsibility that this happened on their watch on their property.

This manager had a sterling record up to then. The added pressure of dealing with the FBI and other gov't officvials, perhaps to the point of even being under suspicion, turned this person's worldview of herself upside down. Even her corporate masters, either through negligence or through indifference, didn't realize the stress this person was put under.

Until you have personally been responsible for a staffed property 24/7 with all that entails, you really have no idea of the responsibilities involved just under normal circumstances. She had even more to deal with, and no one realized what it was doing to her.

I think she also may have become "damaged goods" within her own corporation because of the notoriety of what took place on her property, in spite of everyone saying what a great job she did in the aftermath.. Even her sterling response wasn't enough to take that stigma away. She probably felt that amongst her professional kin, and just wasn't equipped to properly deal with it.

Everyone reacts differently to the stress in this kind of situation. I don't fault her in any way. I hope she can get back on track.

40 posted on 09/11/2003 9:59 PM PDT by exit82 (Constitution?--I got your Constitution right here!--T. Daschle)
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To: Shermy

Hmmm. Northeast appears to be Laurel, Maryland. Wonder if al Hallack was big on tupperware minnow traps?

41 posted on 09/11/2003 11:37 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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To: John H K

John apparently thinks turning up anthrax production documents using a spraydryer on Khalid Mohammed's laptop is nothing -- or his statement under interrogation about Yazid Sufaat's work on anthrax R&D being related to Zacarias Moussaoui's inquiries into cropdusters. Sufaat was at the January 2000 meeting with the two pilots and allegedly had wired Zacarias $35,000.

42 posted on 09/12/2003 3:26 AM PDT by pokerbuddy0
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To: exit82

you are right.

My first thought is that she was also menopausal and going crazy, and that the 911 stuff put her over the edge.

and she said she had "no use for medicine" after "anti depressants" made her anxiety worse.

Mild anti depressants don't make "normal" people more nervous. If a simple dosage doesn't work, then you use second line medication and/or add a tranquillizer, and refer to a psychiatrist. You see, a lot of "normal" people are mildly bipolar, and anti depressants make them worse/nervous. And a lot of people who have a history of substance abuse (especially cocaine/crank/meth) don't respond to anti depressants for depression/panic attack...

43 posted on 09/12/2003 4:57 AM PDT by LadyDoc
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To: LadyDoc

My first thought.....She was already on the edge for whatever reason. 38 is a little early to be that menopausal.. but she was looking for a reason to trigger...she sounded too together according to witnesses..and boom she got her excuse and went for it. I do not think that 2 terroist staying at your place of business is cause to go over the edge. However, may those *astards roast in hell.

44 posted on 09/12/2003 5:28 AM PDT by DooDahhhh
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To: Shermy; rubbertramp; Fred Mertz; oceanview; Wallaby; hotshot

What, she wonders, is on that tape?

interesting, isn't it, how these pesky little video tapes keep disappearing from crime scene investigations.

all the WH video tapes of VWF's last day on earth (God bless sharlot donovan).
all the surveillance tapes at murrah.
the subway video of timmy mc & nichols w/ JD2
the portland hotel video of atta with ______?

45 posted on 09/12/2003 6:53 AM PDT by thinden
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To: LadyDoc

Good point about the bipolar/medication info. Thirty eight sounds young to be menopausal--I thought that was more for women in their late fortiesto early fifties. Do you see many women who are menopausal or pre-menopausal in their late thirties?

I know on any given night on FreeRepublic I can have tremendous mood swings!;)

46 posted on 09/12/2003 1:25 PM PDT by exit82 (Constitution?--I got your Constitution right here!--T. Daschle)
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To: John H K

The FBI did not spend any of September 2001 trying to link the terrorists and the anthrax attacks. Maybe they looked into October, but not more than a few days in September.

In the end they opted to rely exclusively on their laymen's knowledge of how the postal system works and decided the hijackers simply could not have mailed the anthrax letters.

Some of the extreme leftwing people the former Postmaster General, Bill Henderson had hired at the request of equally leftwing people on the USPS Board of Governors, were very persuasive in convincing the current PMG, Jack Potter, into going along with them and their friend Barbara Hatch Rosenburg in blaming Dr. Hatfill.

Without pressure from the PMG, the anthrax attack investigation is going nowhere. Creative approaches need to be used, and every possiblility examined. That's simply not happening.

47 posted on 09/13/2003 5:30 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah; Shermy

Terror Suspect alert after a sighting in Maine - El Shukrijumah

48 posted on 09/13/2003 10:35 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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To: genefromjersey

>>>>Wale said it upset her that she needed to be tested for anthrax because she had been one of the first people to enter the terrorists' hotel room after the attacks.

I think she is personally depressed and delusional; but ping anyway.

49 posted on 09/13/2003 10:49 PM PDT by Calpernia (Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does.)
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To: Badabing Badaboom; Shermy; genefromjersey

If she was general manager, is it unusual that she was one of the first people to enter the terrorists' hotel room after the attacks? Doesn't housekeeping normally enter rooms? Why the General Manager?

50 posted on 09/13/2003 11:00 PM PDT by Calpernia (Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does.)
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