Posted on 09/12/2001 11:00:22 AM PDT by veronica
Fla. University Quiet on Possible Student Link to bin Laden
By Jim Burns
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
September 12, 2001
(CNSNews.com) - Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a major aeronautical school in Daytona Beach, Fla., will not confirm or deny reports that a Middle Eastern student believed to be a supporter of terrorist Osama bin Laden, was missing from its Florida campus on Tuesday.
Authorities continue to look into reports that the student may have been on one of the hijacked planes in connection with the terrorist incidents that toppled both towers of the World Trade Center in New York and crumbled a wall of the Pentagon Tuesday morning.
"We do not have any information for you at this time," an unidentified university official said, and reporters were referred to the institution's website for a statement.
"Because of the University's long history of educating professionals in the aviation and aerospace industries, it is likely that one or more of the commercial airline pilots with American Airlines and United, who lost their lives, are Embry-Riddle graduates," the ERAU statement said.
U.S. authorities suspect that bin Laden may have been involved in the September 11 attacks, but law enforcement officials have announced no conclusive evidence linking him to the catastrophes.
"Embry-Riddle graduates account for more than one-fourth of all commercial airline pilots in the United States. Further, the University has more commissioned officers and rated pilots in the Air Force than any other education or military institution with the exception of the Air Force academy," the ERAU statement said.
Embry-Riddle is a fully accredited university with a large aeronautical science degree program. It has campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla. and Prescott, Ariz.
Meanwhile, the Orlando Sentinel and Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported Wednesday that federal agents investigating the terrorist attacks have focused some of their efforts on Florida, looking for possible supporters of bin Laden.
Law enforcement officials told both newspapers on Tuesday that they identified a person listed on the passenger manifest of one of the four jet liners downed in the attacks Tuesday as a suspected hijacker and a possible associate of bin Laden, who federal authorities identified as the prime suspect for the attack.
The FBI executed search warrants in Davie in Broward County north of the Miami area, the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale reported.
Numerous phone calls to the FBI in Miami, the Justice Department in Washington and local law enforcement agencies in Florida went unreturned.
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