Posted on 07/05/2002 9:44:07 AM PDT by Brian_Baldwin
He's an Egyptian. Born on the Fourth of July ...
By Jill Serjeant
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. authorities on Friday identified the man who shot dead two people at the ticket counter of Israel's El Al airlines at Los Angeles International Airport as a 41-year-old Egyptian native and began searching his apartment and office for clues to his motive.
The attack, swiftly denounced by Israel as "terrorism," renewed a debate on airport security as Americans marked the first Independence Day holiday since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Three people, including the gunman, were killed and five were injured. Israeli officials said the evidence pointed to a terror attack, but the FBI and police initially said it appeared to be "an isolated incident."
The FBI named the shooter as Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, 41, an Egyptian native and resident of the United States since 1992.
FBI and police searched Hadayet's apartment in Irvine, 50 miles south of the airport and emerged from the building in the suburban neighborhood with boxes of evidence.
Hadayet lived at the apartment with his wife and two children, who were visiting Egypt this week, neighbors said.
Hadayet, a limo driver who also went by the last name Ali, was said to have had two drivers' licenses, one of them stating his birthday as July 4.
Hadayet went into the airport on Thursday armed with a .45-caliber handgun, a 9-mm pistol and a hunting knife and carried no identification, FBI investigators said.
VISIBLY UPSET
Witness accounts differed with some saying the attacker became visibly upset while talking to a ticket agent at the El Al counter, while others said he walked up to the counter and opened fire from as far as 15 feet away.
Arie Golan, a 54-year-old veteran of the Israeli army who was waiting in line at the time, and a security guard jumped on and subdued the shooter, Golan told the Los Angeles Times.
Witnesses told the newspaper that the attacker was shot once at close range after he had been disarmed by the two men and was being held on the floor.
Haim Sapir, chief of El Al security in Los Angeles, was treated for a stab wound sustained in the fight, which ended when he shot the assailant, Israel's Consul General Yuval Rotem said.
The mayor of Los Angeles, James Hahn, said on Friday that the gunman appeared to be acting alone.
"We certainly don't have information yet though to make him part of any conspiracy. It does appear to be something that only involved him," Hahn said on NBC's Today show.
Asked if Hadayet was a man with a grudge, Hahn said: "To the victims it really doesn't matter. It's an act of terrorism any time someone takes a gun into an airport."
The FBI had spent Thursday saying there was no indication of a terrorist connection in the mid-morning airport shooting. But officials held back from announcing definite conclusions.
"I am not sure whether this confirms there was a terrorist connection," said FBI spokesman Matt McLaughlin, adding that the attack could be a "hate crime" under U.S. law.
"There is a possibility that this may have been a terrorist act, but we don't want to jump to conclusions," McLaughlin added, saying Hadayet was not on an FBI watch list.
The assailant was identified from information found in his car at an airport parking lot eight hours after the attack.
Israeli officials condemned the shooting, which sent screaming passengers at the world's third busiest airport diving to the floor and hiding behind counters.
"It seems like terrorism. It looks like terrorism," Rotem, the consul general, said at a news conference on Thursday.
"The way it was conducted was very much similar to previous attacks at El Al counters throughout European countries. And therefore given this history we presume that it may be, and would appear to be, a terrorist attack," Rotem said.
MAY HAVE TARGETED ISRAELIS
One eyewitness, Hakim Hafidh, said the gunman was "very, very calm" as he shot a woman behind the El Al ticket counter.
One of the dead was identified as Jacob Aminov, a 46-year-old year old Jew who owned a jewelry distribution company in Los Angeles. Relatives described Aminov as a deeply religious family man, the father of eight.
The other victim was Victoria Hen, 25, an El Al ticket agent, the coroner's office said.
Canadian Sarah Phillips, 61, was shot in the ankle, a man was treated for injuries sustained when he was pistol whipped and two people suffered heart trouble.
Twenty international flights were delayed and 10,000 people had their journeys interrupted. Airport officials said flights were back to normal by midnight on Thursday.
Airport security has been tightened since Sept. 11, with emphasis on Los Angeles because it was a target in a failed plot by Algerian extremists to bomb buildings over the millennium.
Most of the enhancements have been in passenger and baggage screening. Hahn has proposed spending $9.6 billion on the Los Angeles Airport, moving a security perimeter farther from the boarding gates and capping passenger traffic.
" He was said to have two drivers' licenses, one of them stating his birthday as July 4." - Born on the Fourth of July. Well what do you know. I was also Born on the Fourth of July, and celebrated my birthday yesterday watching the fireworks, my family waving Red-White-and-Blue. Two drivers' licenses? What do they mean by that? One was an expired one, and the other valid? Or, one fake? Or both fake? What? You know what the number one criminal craft is right now in the Market and Mission areas of San Francisco, bigger than drug dealing, bigger in profits? The stealing of others identity, fake drivers' licenses, SSN numbers, for use by illegal aliens, Mexican or otherwise. Because we have NO borders.
"The mayor of Los Angeles, James Hahn, said on Friday that the gunman appeared to be acting alone." - The Mayor is this same idiot I saw yesterday on every channel, every third word out of his mouth was "isolated incident". I wish someone would throw a pie in the face of the Mayor in an "isolated incident". Pretty soon, every Fourth of July will be an "isolated incident". Because we have no borders.
"Asked if Hadayet was a man with a grudge, Hahn said: We don't know yet." - We don't know yet. We don't know anything. And if Hahn has his way, we are never going to know anything.
"I am not sure whether this confirms there was a terrorist connection," FBI spokesman Matt McLaughlin told reporters, who said evidence so far unearthed suggested the attack could be characterized as "a hate crime" under U.S. law. - So, if you say the N word, then that is a hate crime. And if you kill 3 Jews, or less than 5 Americans, and you kill them because you a doing Allah's work and you like Osama bin Laden, then you are same as the guy who said the N word - it's a hate crime. But not terrorism. You have to kill like more than 250 people, or smash a truck into an embassy. Then it's "terrorism". And, you can only be profiled if you kill more than 250 people. But only if we know, specifically, your name and possess your ID. Otherwise, you will be issued a identity card from the State or Federal government so that you can collect "benefits", and while you're here "resident" in the United States, you can join the military, and if you do, Bush will make you a citizen immediately. Then, if you kill 3 Jewish people who are in the US military, or less than 5 American soldiers, than it's a "hate crime", but sort of a legal one since now you became legit, US citizen, and it's a legit US citizen hate crime and not an illegal alien hate crime. But if you crash you military truck into a military building and blow it up killing your fellow military personnel, than it maybe isn't even a hate crime anymore, now that your legit - it's probably an isolated incident. America soon will be one big isolated incident under the leadership of our politicians and those who are suppose to provide us with diversity training and security.
"FBI agent Ron Iden told a news conference earlier that the assailant was carrying .45 caliber and 9mm handguns and a knife when he opened fire." - So more than one gun, a knife. Where's the other stuff? The other guns? The other people? You know, in the 1940's, the people involved in the assassination of Gandhi, they tried it more than once. Sometimes with a gun, sometimes with a bomb. There were usually 3 guys involved. One guy would set off the bomb, he would be in one area. Another had a gun in another area, the third looking down from a roof top. The bomb would go off, the other guys would hear it. They would figure, "done", they would throw their guns away, in a trash bin or something, and figure "will come back again another day, another time, just in case it isn't done right, so why wait around but instead cover my ass" … and, then they would come back again. Finally, one of them shot Gandhi. Maybe there is another guy in the airport right now. Maybe he looks Egyptian or something. He's camping out in the men's room. But, we don't want to profile anybody. Anyway, everything in the United States today is an isolated incident. So, don't even thing about it. Just be calm. You know, LIKE THE GUNMAN - "One eyewitness said the gunman, who appeared calm, seemed to deliberately target Israelis when he opened fire in an area where passengers were waiting to check in for El Al flight 106"
All I can say is, if Bill Clinton had forced such widespread disinformation out, he would be condemned, and people on this forum would be boiling.
As far as I am concerned, Bush not only lacks the integrity, courage, and leadership to defend the nation (his primary task), but he is so arrogant that he believes we will accept the lie that this Egyptian muslim walked into an El Al terminal and opened fire, NOT as a terrorist.
W, you insult me and all Americans by your condescension and your lies.
If you lack the spine to defend the country, AT LEAST have the integrity to LET THE AMERICAN PEOPLE KNOW about details of our vulnerability to terrorist attack.
Don't be a coward and try to hide the truth from us.
George: It's not about your popularity polls or your reelection, it's about doing your JOB as CINC and defending the American nation from enemies, foreign and domestic.
Gren Card.
This is a terrible article.
It leaves out the papers tacked up at his home saying, "read the Koran" and that that they were also looking at possibility of chemicals being at his home.
Obviuosly, at least one fake. If only one of them stated his DOB as 4th of july...
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