Posted on 10/12/2001 2:56:09 AM PDT by jokemoke
Suspect sought medicine for red hands
By Eliot Kleinberg, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 11, 2001
DELRAY BEACH -- Mohamed Atta came in with red hands.
Pharmacist Gregg Chatterton, co-owner of Huber Drugs, 331 E. Atlantic Ave., said he didn't know his customer's name at the time of the visit, sometime this summer. Nor would the man in casual clothes who spoke clear English with only a trace of an accent give Chatterton a straight answer about why his hands were red. He just needed something for them.
Chatterton figured his customer had been around some chemicals that were basic rather than acidic, so he sold him a 1-ounce tube of a medicine called "acid mantle" for $5.49. Chatterton said he also sold Atta's friend, Marwan Al-Shehhi, a bottle of Robitussin for a nasty chest cold and directed him to a nearby walk-in clinic.
On Sept. 30, Chatterton looked over a woman's shoulder and saw a newspaper spread showing the faces of the men the FBI believes hijacked four airplanes on Sept. 11. The two men who'd come to his pharmacy looking for help jumped out from the page -- the FBI says Atta and Al-Shehhi piloted the planes that hit the World Trade Center towers.
"I feel angry," Chatterton said Wednesday. "I feel like I was used."
After Sept. 11, Chatterton said, a woman at the Hamlet Country Club, where some of the hijackers lived temporarily, apparently told authorities she had directed the men to Huber's.
In recent days, authorities from the Food and Drug Administration and the FBI have questioned Chatterton. The FBI came by Monday, Chatterton said. He said the recent anthrax case in Boca Raton had him wondering if Atta's hand irritation was the result of exposure to chemicals such as chlorine or ammonia or from repeated hand-washing with regular soap.
Chatterton also identified hijacking suspects Waleed Alshehri and Wail Alshehri, believed to be brothers who stayed this summer at the Homing Inn in Boynton Beach, as having come in several times to buy snacks and toiletries. He said they never came in at the same time as the men identified as Atta and Al-Shehhi.
Chatterton said he spotted Atta and Al-Shehhi -- they used different names he could not find in his records -- in the cream section. He said they caught his eye because most of his customers are retirees.
Chatterton quizzed Atta about his line of work, hoping to get clues about the source of the irritation, which had left his hands not peeling but extremely red.
He asked if the men were in construction; the rough concrete and its chemical makeup, heavy in lime, can be irritants. The man said no. He asked if he worked with toluene or other cleaning solvents. He asked, "Do you work with some sort of chemical?" No.
"I asked, `Do you work in a garden?' " He laughed, "No."
Finally, "He said, `Computers.' He changed the subject. He was evasive. I had to go around in circles."
Chatterton finally gave up and recommended the acid cream.
Al-Shehhi -- not as talkative, his English not as good -- pointed to his chest. Chatterton gave him the Robitussin and said he might need stronger medicine, which meant a prescription. He sent the men to the closest walk-in clinic, Urgi Med, at 950 S.E. Fifth Ave.
Urgi Med officer manager Kelley Williams said she did not recognize any of the alleged hijackers but that another employee identified two to federal agents.
Chatterton said the men returned other times for the prescription and other items, but he doesn't remember much about those visits. He says they definitely did not ask for any of the antibiotics suggested for exposure to the anthrax bacterium.
Dr. Richard Zemlin, who works at another walk-in clinic at 2280 W. Atlantic Ave., said he believes he treated another hijacking suspect, Ahmed Alghamdi, for indigestion. Alghamdi, who stayed for a time at a Delray Beach apartment, complained of symptoms -- heartburn, gas -- that seemed consistent with getting used to American food, or, in retrospect, with a case of nerves, according to the doctor. Zemlin said he recommended a bland diet and over-the-counter medications.
Staff writer Antigone Barton contributed to this story.
eliot_kleinberg@pbpost.com
Lady MacBeth
Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why,
then, 'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!--Fie, my
lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we
fear who knows it, when none can call our power to
account?--Yet who would have thought the old man
to have had so much blood in him.
Yair.
On a good day, maybe!
FReegards -- Brian
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Old ping.
Thanks, Shermy. I've linked half a dozen articles or more, and I think that was one of them. My anthrax file remains open at the top of the list under favorites!
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