America - Hijack 'suspects' alive and well

BBC ^ | Sunday, 23 September, 2001, 12:30 GMT 13:30 UK

[enrg]

Another of the men named by the FBI as a hijacker in the suicide attacks on Washington and New York has turned up alive and well.

The identities of four of the 19 suspects accused of having carried out the attacks are now in doubt. Saudi Arabian pilot Waleed Al Shehri was one of five men that the FBI said had deliberately crashed American Airlines flight 11 into the World Trade Centre on 11 September.

His photograph was released, and has since appeared in newspapers and on television around the world.

Now he is protesting his innocence from Casablanca, Morocco. He told journalists there that he had nothing to do with the attacks on New York and Washington, and had been in Morocco when they happened. He has contacted both the Saudi and American authorities, according to Saudi press reports.

He acknowledges that he attended flight training school at Dayton Beach in the United States, and is indeed the same Waleed Al Shehri to whom the FBI has been referring. But, he says, he left the United States in September last year, became a pilot with Saudi Arabian airlines and is currently on a further training course in Morocco.

Mistaken identity Abdulaziz Al Omari, another of the Flight 11 hijack suspects, has also been quoted in Arab news reports.

He says he is an engineer with Saudi Telecoms, and that he lost his passport while studying in Denver. Another man with exactly the same name surfaced on the pages of the English-language Arab News.

The second Abdulaziz Al Omari is a pilot for Saudi Arabian Airlines, the report says. Meanwhile, Asharq Al Awsat newspaper, a London-based Arabic daily, says it has interviewed Saeed Alghamdi.

He was listed by the FBI as a hijacker in the United flight that crashed in Pennsylvania. And there are suggestions that another suspect, Khalid Al Midhar, may also be alive.

FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged on Thursday that the identity of several of the suicide hijackers is in doubt.

[enrg]

UH OH........... This is gonna f--k things up for Bush in his attempt to create a coalition for an attack (with the Arabs anyway).... The CIA and FBI are definetely showing their verification abilities with this.......

Lets see how this pans out

[nancetc]

I think this just points out that some people's identities were stolen and that is part of the terrorist's plan.

[Slyfox]

Sounds like these guys used the names of other Muslims who were already pilots. And supposedly, 1500 Muslims were killed at the WTC. They are doing this to fellow Muslims?
No wonder patriotic Muslim-Americans are lining up at military recruitment centers.

[Polybius]

I think this just points out that some people's identities were stolen and that is part of the terrorist's plan.

Terrorists’ trade in stolen identities

[Diogenesis]

"I think this just points out that some people's identities were stolen and that is part of the terrorist's plan."

A modus operandi of Iraq.

[mass55th]

I'd check these "alive & well" individual's bank statements to see if perhaps they may have sold their identities to the highest bidder.

[TigerLikesRooster]

This is rather stupid. Everybody knows that terrorists assume bogus or stolen identities. And they did not check more paper trails to make sure that id info's are genuine. FBI spends all its time covering for Clinton regime and clamping down on domestic political dissent.

[woollyone]

As far as the real identities of the perps goes, it matters very little. The Arab world will try to use it for negative propaganda globally, alleging that we are targeting OBL (et al) with mis-information. The fact the these no-name perps can be traced to specific groups through their contacts, the flow of money and their training, is all that is needed to open the bomb bay doors. I'm glad that these jerks don't have real names, so that they can't be saluted back in der vaterland. May all of their vigins be men! Really ugly, nasty men!

baa

[wingnuts'nbolts]

It seems to me that it has been a scant 11 days since this henious act, and in that short period of time the FBI has accomplished the amazing act of getting all the information released, plus much that I suspect has not been released. This is a far cry from prior to 9/11/01. Clinton/Gore are gone! New Ball Game!!!

[enrg]

Yes it is stupid, but whats even dumber is that the FBI was so quick to release names, without (as you say)even doing any verification on the possibility that they may have been stolen ID's..... That would have removed/minimized the up'n'coming "You just blame Arabs for everything etc..." rhetoric that will pour out of the Arab nations.....

FBI = Federal Bureau of Idiots

[Clinton's a rapist]

The earlier stories I saw about this mentioned the possibility that the identities were stolen. In any case, the FBI would have been remiss not to publicize those names ASAP, given that people may have known the hijackers under those identities.

[FormerLurker]

Sounds like these guys used the names of other Muslims who were already pilots. And supposedly, 1500 Muslims were killed at the WTC. They are doing this to fellow Muslims?

Perhaps they weren't Muslim at all. Just a thought.

[Let's Roll]

"Perhaps they weren't Muslim at all. Just a thought."

Right, they weren't muslim, that's why they were using muslim IDs instead of IDs that would have been more appropriate to their oh so obvious All-American looks and accents. /sarcasm>

[veeman]

"***Perhaps they weren't Muslim at all. Just a thought.****"

Cannot be! Bin Laden's already been fingered. By hook or crook, it has to have been his ragheads.

[Amelia]

whats even dumber is that the FBI was so quick to release names, without (as you say)even doing any verification on the possibility that they may have been stolen ID's

If the FBI had not publicized the names, do you think they'd have found these people (who are on the other side of the world, if you'll notice) so quickly?

Now, rather than suspecting that some of the identities were false, they have proof that they were.

Of course, some of these people might just have the same name?

[Slyfox]

They are Ladenites, an offshoot of the Muslim religion,
only holding onto the tenets of Islam in which they agree.

[Congressman Billybob]

It struck me at the time that the hijackers would not give their real names before they boarded the planes. First, the terrorists have good forgers who can manufacture whatever they need in passports, credit cards, drivers liceses, etc. Second, very few criminals are so dumb that they "sign" their work.

Occasionally in the Darwin Awards you read of a would-be bank robber who writes the hold-up note on the back of one of his own deposit slips. The terrorists (this group anyway) are not that dumb. They are vicious, deadly, and all their kind need to be exterminated like vermin -- but they are not dumb.

I agree with the previous poster who said that their real names are irrelevant. If they can be traced back trough money, calls, and other transactions to any group and/or any nation, that is all we need to target that entire group, and the leadership of that entire nation.

We neither knew nor cared what the names of the pilots were who attacked Pearl Harbor. In this killing, which caused twice as many deaths, it is likewise irrelevant what the real names of the specific perpetrators were.

The (More er Less) Honorable Billybob,
cyberCongressman from Western Carolina

Click here for Billybob's latest, "The Engineering (and Law) of War." The next will be, "Bush is DEAD Wrong.

Click here and go to "ALCU Watch" for a detailed legal discussion of how the US declares war, both historically and in this instance.

[AM2000]

Right, they weren't muslim, that's why they were using muslim IDs instead of IDs that would have been more appropriate to their oh so obvious All-American looks and accents.

So it hasn't occurred to you that the real hijackers may have stolen identities that they knew the FBI would trace back to Osama Bin Laden? This could be part of some intra-Arab turf war, with one faction trying to incriminate the Ladenites.. and what better way to do that, than to piss off the strongest nation on this planet?

[garyhope]

I think this is called lying. It's not exactly a surprise. It doesn't mean it's a failure of US intelligence. They probably knew/know this.

[imperator2]

I wouldn't trust anything an Arab says. Lying is as much part of their culture as Islam, and probably a lot older.