A Second Strike?

CBSNEWS ^ | Friday, September 21, 2001

[JohnHuang2]

A Second Strike?

• Authorities Move To Ease Fears About Rumors Of Saturday Attack
• Man Arrested In Chicago Being Held On Knife Charge
• Investigators: Some Hijackers Used Fake ID's, True Names Unknown
  
  

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20, 2001

AP
The wreckage of the World Trade Center

(CBS) Reports are circulating that the terrorist hijackers and some accomplices were planning another action this Saturday, but officials say that although they don't totally discount the possibility they have no firm evidence that is the case.

The concern was prompted by the fact that a couple of the dead hijackers and a very small number of people on the watch list had booked flights for that date.

Florida Democrat Senator Bob Graham said Wednesday, last week's attacks were "part of a larger plan with other terrorism acts, not necessarily hijacking of airplanes."

Graham, also the chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, said "those acts were going to occur in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world."

Mohamed Atta

Of all the hijackers, Atta appears to have traveled the most extensively. Investigators believe that if the terrorist cell had a leader, this was likely the man. A native of Egypt, Atta lived and traveled extensively in Italy and Germany where he obtained a master's degree from a Hamburg technical school in 1999. Last year, he got his pilot's license in Venice, Fla., and in January, he reportedly traveled from Miami to Madrid, then back to Germany, before returning to the U.S. in July. While in Hamburg, neighbors say he often met with a group of seven or other eight men.

to learn more about the hijackers.

He said the terrorism plans could have included such acts as "putting a chemical in a city's water system, or blowing up a bridge in a major urban centre."

A man on the FBI list of people wanted for questioning in the terrorism investigation was captured outside Chicago, the FBI said Thursday.

Nabil Al-Marabh 34, was arrested Wednesday night in suburban Justice by police and FBI agents, FBI spokeswoman Mary Muha said. She said he was being held on a warrant issued in Boston in March, charging assault with a knife.

Federal agents had been looking for him since at least Monday. That day, they raided a Detroit house with Al-Marabh's name on the mailbox and arrested three men after discovering false visas, passports and other ID, as well as what appeared to be a diagram of an airport flight line.

Officials say first indications are he was not involved in the attack, but they want to make sure, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart.

In other developments, officials now confirm "several of the hijackers apparently had false identifications" and their true names are still not known. Some of the identification appears reportedly was stolen from law-abiding Saudi Arabian citizens.

There is no evidence thus far that the 19 dead hijackers ever met as a group. Agents, instead, have found they clustered together in four and five man teams around Boston, Newark and Washington just before the hijackings.

Meanwhile, federal investigators believe that some of the pilots and co-pilots of the four hijacked aircraft last week were murdered before the planes crashed. But investigators will not disclose what leads them to that conclusion.

FBI technicians have also recovered fragments of conversations from within one of the doomed cockpits — much of it is described however as "a jumbled mixture of grunts and screams."

Officials say reconstructing details of how the planes were taken over is important not from an evidentiary standpoint, but a preventive one.

They confirm, for example, that the bodies of two stewardesses from United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, were found with their hands bound. And they theorize the pilots from that flight and others may have left their cockpit seats when they saw stewardesses being slashed with box knives.

U.S. officials have already confirmed they believe hijacker Muhammed Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence official in Europe early this year. Atta, 33, is believed to have been the cell leader of the 19 hijackers, although investigators have no concrete proof of that thus far. Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri denied his country was involved.

Ashcroft has directed the head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to revise its regulations to allow longer detentions of aliens, including those taken into custody during the investigation.

He said new rules will allow suspected illegal immigrants to be detained for 48 hours, instead of 24 hours, added that a new anti-terrorism task force will have links to every major U.S. city. Some 200 people are wanted for questioning, the FBI said. Seventy-five people are in custody for immigration violations. Four have been arrested as material witnesses.

Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath were plucked from a train in Texas after their flight landed prematurely following Tuesday's attack. Zacarias Moussaoui — perhaps the most promising suspect — was arrested before the attacks last month when he tried to get flight simulator training in Minnesota. Little is known about the fourth man, Albador Alhazmi, a radiologist in San Antonio.

Pilot training is a central theme of the massive investigation into Tuesday's attacks. Several of the 19 hijackers whose names were released by the FBI Friday were pilots and had gone to aviation schools in Florida.

Besides Atta, the hijackers who were believed to be pilots included Hani Hajour, who was on the flight that crashed into the Pentagon; Wail Alshehri and Abdulaziz Alomari, who were on one of the Boston flights; Marwan Al-Shehhi, hijacking on United Flight 175 out of Boston and Ziad Jarrahi, who flew on United Flight 93 out of Newark, N.J., which crashed in a field 80 miles from Pittsburgh.


© MMI, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press and Reuters Limited contributed to this report.

For Education And Discussion Only. Not For Commercial Use.

[maestro]

BUMP!!!

[Capt.YankeeMike]

i wish you well, and hope we can finally incarcerate bill and hill...be watchful, and very careful, and for God sakes carry a high caliber side arm....

[LoneGreenEyeshade]

Thank you all for your well wishes. They have kept me going. And though I am a little fearful, I am also hopeful. God entrusted me with evidence that will shed a bright light on some very dark dealings. I have not been afraid to talk to you on FR because I believe that in the days ahead your knowledge will cover me in a measure of safety. It has been a long, tedious and painful journey up to now. And patience is not my strongest trait!!! But all lawyers and accountants have finally put their pencils down, finished twisting and turning every shred of evidence and, at long last, we all agree as to what we have. And are poised....carefully aimed with finger on the trigger...

I am reminded ten times in every conversation that I can stop at any time. But a wise man told me "there are some things in life more important than life itself." This is one of them. I often wish it could have been someone else. But then . . .

. . .I am a covenant woman and, as such, I place my trust in God. I also believe he speaks to me in my heart. And a few words have been consistently jumping from my heart to head throughout this ordeal: "And do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord: that it will be well with you...to cast out the enemy" (Deut 6:18-19)

and then the story of Jericho: "and the people shouted with a great shout....and the wall fell down."(Joshua 6:20) Just a shout, and the wall that hid the enemy was destroyed, and the enemy and everything owned by the enemy was also destroyed, except for the things of lasting value, the silver and gold, which was recaptured for the house of the Lord.

The truth will prevail. It always does. And as I posted somewhere else recently, from David Horowitz's "Radical Son:" [Truth] floats on the wave of a future that is free."

Prayer works. Thanks for yours.

LOL,LGE

[KneelBeforeZod]

Hmmm anyone ever see "Battle of Algiers?"

[185JHP]

A great post. 'tarian fatuousness leads them to reflexively bloviate about anything that might restrict their activities. They're kinda into the "it's all about us" thing. The good news is, they're not that hard to mostly ignore - and as we found out in 2000, their "worst" ain't all that bad.

[MissAmericanPie]

You are in my prayers, please keep us informed on the details. May God bless your efforts.

[PatiPie]

Am continuing to stand with you in prayer, LGE!

God's strength, blessings, and peace be yours as you move forward in the days ahead.

[cgbg]

a powerful offense smashing the aggressors would have staved off the next round of terror. So now we are passively waiting for the next move.

I want to nuke them but not because I believe that would have prevented the next round of terror. I believe that next round is inevitable and has already been sent in motion and probably could not be recalled by Bin Laden dead or alive.

Our message is for the next group or generation of terrorists. The message should be:

We are ruthless and vicious. We will kill you, your families, all your relatives, anything you value or want, any states that supported you, any sub-state groups that supported you, etc. at a time and method of our choosing and without warning. While you use rhetoric that accuses us of imperialism you do not know what imperialism is. Any more of this stuff and we will become a true imperial power ruling the Arab world with an iron fist and a ruthlessness that will make the old empires seem like warm fuzzy places.

That will end Arab terrorism for generations (given, of course an equally ruthless immigration policy) with a little bonus of cheap oil.

If anybody has any better ideas I am always open to suggestions. :-)

[Mudboy Slim]

"The truth will prevail. It always does. And as I posted somewhere else recently, from David Horowitz's "Radical Son:" [Truth] floats on the wave of a future that is free."

Prayer works. Thanks for yours."

We're here for you, my FRiend...I know how long you've been working on this expose and very much look forward to finding out more!! In the meantime, I will continue to pray for your well-being...STAY THE COURSE!!

FReegards...MUD

[Mudboy Slim]

Norm (Firehat) Leibman "In my humble opinion, Bill Clinton believes he doesn’t have to obey any Commandment that doesn't specifically mention him by name."

LOL, Norm...but I'll be damned if I agree with yer apparent hatred of Dubyuh. SHEEESH, what could he possibly do that would ever make him appear positively, In Your Humble Opinion?!

FReegards...MUD

[The Westerner]

Sounds good to me. Hope you've got Bush's ear. The one turned away from Powell.

[f.Christian]

bttt

[f.Christian]

bttt

[f.Christian]

bttt

[f.Christian]

bttt

[f.Christian]

bttt

[f.Christian]

bttt