By PAT DOYLE, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
NORMAN, Okla. - Nearly a year before he aroused suspicion in Minnesota, a man who is believed to be a high-ranking operative for Osama bin Laden corresponded by e-mail to a flight school under the pseudonym ''Zuluman Tango Tango,'' sometimes expressing vague fears about security.
After Zacarias Moussaoui arrived at the training school in Norman, he shunned the housing accepted by nearly all students and belabored such routines as getting a checking account. He was described as contrary and intense.
''I swore I'd never fly with him again,'' said flight instructor Azim Sumar, recalling one episode. ''He was stubborn. He wouldn't listen.''
In his intensity, Moussaoui often pressed the controls too hard - ''a death grip,'' Sumar called it.
Moussaoui has been detained since Aug. 17 on an immigration violation after flight instructors at a training center in Eagan, Minn., became suspicious when he wanted to learn to fly a commercial jet but not take off or land, sources have said. The New York Times reported Monday that Moussaoui is the most significant of four people flown to New York for questioning in last Tuesday's attacks.
He had established an odd persona in Oklahoma long before last week's events.
Norman police said Monday that they did an intensive investigation but still don't know where he lived during his stay in their city.
In September 2000, he inquired about attending Airman Flight School in Norman, sending e-mails to Brenda Keene, the admissions director.
''Originally, he said he wanted to become a commercial pilot,'' Keene said.
Moussaoui said he wanted to start classes in November. But his e-mails soon expressed concerns about the cost of the program, particularly the need to pay at least one-third of the tuition at the beginning. Instead of signing up for lessons that would include commercial flying, at a cost of $18,995, Moussaoui eventually opted for lessons to become a private pilot. Those cost $5,000.
The two corresponded by e-mail through February. He had persistent questions about the cost of the program, whether he could get extra training if he initially failed, and what assurance he had of getting a job as an instructor. He referred to himself simply as Zuluman TangoTango.
In January or early February, Keene said, she sent Moussaoui a student visa form that required him to provide a name, date of birth and other information. Moussaoui identified himself and said he was born May 30, 1968, in St. Jean de Luz, France. He listed a London address and appeared to have a valid French passport, she said.
On Feb. 22, he sent a final e-mail to Keene saying he was arriving in Chicago the next day on a United Airlines flight from London's Heathrow Airport.
Moussaoui enrolled Feb. 26, paying $2,500 in cash. Keene remembers the enrollment taking more than 2-1/2 hours because Moussaoui asked so many questions.
''It normally takes 15 minutes,'' she said.
Similarly, ''I sent someone to the bank with him to open an account, and it took him two hours,'' she said. ''He was very inquisitive. ...''
Although Moussaoui took the private pilot lessons, he continued to talk about flying commercially. ''That was weird,'' flight instructor Sumar said.
From March 5 to May 24 he took 57 hours of flying lessons, but he never flew solo and never got his private pilot's license.
At the end of the training period in late May, Moussaoui ''just left,'' Keene said.
Although it's unclear where he went from Norman, he appeared in Eagan this summer.
Moussaoui wound up at Eagan's Pan Am International Flight Academy, asking questions about renting a flight simulator for flying a commercial jet, sources said. He was arrested Aug. 17 in Minnesota after an instructor at Pan Am became suspicious and the FBI and immigration officials were notified.
He is being held on an alleged immigration violation and was transferred Friday from the Sherburne County jail to a site in New York.
Publication date: 09-18-01
Oh God! This man is toast!
Reply 15 --- Zacarias Moussaoui sending e-mails --- probably when he crossed paths with Nicholas Berg.