From: United Press International
Oct 12, 2001
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- A list of 370 individuals related to the Sept. 11 inquiries, complied jointly by the FBI and European security agencies, has been distributed to central banks and government financial authorities in countries that have agreed to cooperate with the financial war on terrorism, United Press International learned Thursday.
The list, which provides the clearest road map so far to the unprecedented global manhunt for links to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was obtained by UPI after it was inadvertently posted on the Rahoitustarkastus, RATA or "Financial Supervision Authority" Web site in Finland. Within 24 hours, it was withdrawn from the public domain.
More than 300 of the names on the list come from American sources, mostly with U.S. addresses or Social Security numbers. Other lists with British, French, Dutch, Belgian and German addresses, provided by the relevant national security authorities, are then tacked onto the end of the 22-page spreadsheet.
Administration sources told UPI Thursday that a list of "close to 400 names" had been circulated to European authorities, with a request for financial and other searches. Diplomatic sources said the list had initially been circulated to them from the U.S. Justice Department.
Twelve of the names on the German list come from the port city of Hamburg, where Mohammed Atta, who flew the American Airlines airliner into the north tower of the World Trade Center, lived and studied.
Contact addresses for Atta in the United States are given on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, DC and on Bonnie Ridge Road Drive in Baltimore, Md. One of Atta's supposed U.S. telephone numbers has been disconnected. Another number was registered to the Cabrini Medical Center in New York City, who had no record of a patient of that name. Another was a Verizon cell phone, whose subscriber was "temporarily not accepting calls."
One of the names on the Hamburg list, who also has a contact address in Silver Spring, Md., is listed as "Contact Person bin Laden," with a further note identifying them as both "suspect" and as "witness."
The list represents a unique snapshot, at one moment in time (and dated by the Finns to Oct. 3), of an unprecedented international enquiry. The list has since been refined, FBI sources told UPI, and narrowed down.
But more than any "official" government statement, the document gives an idea of the enormity of the problem facing federal and international investigators. The European Central Bank and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision forwarded the list to financial agencies around Europe, hoping for a massive trawl through more than 200 million bank accounts in countries across Europe.
But the FBI and other security authorities could identify the nationalities of only 163 of the 370 suspects, all of whom had Arab names.
Many of the individuals have aliases, and some have up to 20. Mohammed Atta, , had nine aliases. Hani Hanjur, one of the hijackers killed in the airliner that crashed into the Pentagon, had five aliases, and at least two U.S. Social Security numbers. Others have as many as five Social Security numbers.
Those whose minorities were identified come from: Abu Dhabi (2), Afghanistan (2), Algeria (5), Bangladesh (2), Egypt (7), France (6), Germany (3), Great Britain (1), Eritrea (1), Holland (2), India (3), Indonesia (1), Iraq (1), Ireland (1), Israel (1), Jordan (3), Kenya (1), Kuwait (5), Lebanon (4), Libya (1), Morocco (5), Pakistan (2), Saudi Arabia (59), Somalia (1), Syria (5), Qatar (3), Tunisia (4), the United Arab Emirates (3), and Yemen (4).
Two of the possible suspects were born in the United States, in St. Louis and Denver. One had the prophetic e-mail address, "LAST_DAY_11@hotmail.com. mailto:LAST_DAY_11@hotmail.com." It is noteworthy that the list contains no Turks, Iranians, Omanis, Filippinos, nor any suspects from the Central Asian nations of the former Soviet Union.
None of the "22 Most Wanted" suspects whose names were released by the U.S. Justice Department Wednesday is on the financial watchlist. Lotfi Riassi, the Algerian pilot who is thought to have helped in flight training, and who was arrested by British police last month, also figures on the list, with an address in Arizona.
The FBI was unable to identify the nationality of 207 of its listed suspects, 56 percent of the total. With the exception of the two Americans, all of the suspects had to apply for American visas in their home countries. Yet the spreadsheet's sparse information seems to indicate that the FBI has apparently been unable to locate the information that these applications would normally contain. A number of entries contain a name only. Yet many others give dates and places of birth, various addresses and phone numbers and email addresses in the United States.
Nineteen hijackers perpetrated Sept. 11 atrocities. One unnerving factor of the list is that at least 77 of those on the list lived at locations in close proximity to flight schools, several of which were already identified with the Sept. 11 hijackers.
Forty seven of the suspects on the list apparently lived at one point in Vero Beach, Fla., where the Flight Safety International Academy is located, and where at least two of the hijackers studied.
Five more lived in Daytona Beach, where the Embry-Riddle Flight School is located, where another hijacker signed up for classes.
Five suspects were listed at a Lemon Grove, Calif., address, where there are eight flight schools within a twelve-and-a-half mile radius of the town another eight suspects are listed at San Diego addresses, less than eight miles away.
Suspects are associated with Lackland AFB, Texas, and the U.S. Army Logistics Med Center in Vero Beach, Fla., military facilities.