Tapes Exposed

Action News has obtained three tapes of what appears to have been a much larger collection. They may reveal what law enforcement agencies have long believed, that there are al-Qaida sleeper cells out there casing large metropolitan areas like Philadelphia. The tapes were found in a North Philadelphia rooming house after 9/11. The man who found them only recently looked at them. He was alarmed by what he saw and brought the tapes to Action News. We turned them over to the FBI.

Linda Vizi/FBI: "It is obviously something we would have loved to take a look at early on." The FBI would only confirm that his first name is Hany. We've learned that his full name is Hany Hassanin, and he's originally from Egypt. If it knows, the FBI isn't saying what Hany was up to. We showed the tapes to a terrorism expert. He says Hany was up to no good.

Ed Turzanski/terrorism expert: "This is sort of straight out of the terrorist handbook if you will." At the time of the September 11th attacks, Hany lived with a group of Middle Eastern men. Neighbors say they were frequently on the roof with video cameras, taping nearby buildings on the campus of Temple University, and the towers of Center City on September 11th. But Hany was here long before September 11. A year and a half before the attack on the twin towers, Hany appears to embark on a mission to make a road map of the Delaware Valley.

He has a friend tape the occasion when he started living in his car with a camera mounted on the dashboard.

With no visible means of support, Hany spends countless hours driving around the Delaware Valley. The tape is rolling as he drives through the Main Line, through rural parts of Bucks County, through North Philadelphia, just about everywhere, providing a running narration.

Hany then turned his camera on specific targets. He goes to shopping centers like Quakertown Plaza, and, for hours at a time, takes pictures of people coming and going.

In the tapes, he goes to a parking lot at night and focuses on the license plates of two vehicles parked outside a building.

Hany hides the camera when he's stopped by the police for an expired inspection sticker. But, since it's before 9/11, when Hany tells him he's homeless, the officer lets him go with a warning.

At first Hany's video odyssey may seem random, until a disturbing pattern emerges. He turns his camera on a public water supply, 30th Street Station, and this power plant.

Ed Turzanski/terrorism expert: "These are what you would consider high profile, or high value targets. Where you could either kill a large number of people or cause a great deal of panic or disruption." Hany drives right through the security gate of PECO's Cromby power plant outside Phoenixville. He circles the lot and then parks. He then videotapes various parts of the plant. What was Hany up to at that power plant?

We now know more about him and where he's been, living in at least five Delaware Valley communities.

The surprising answers to those questions, and a look at Hany's curious behavior on 9/11 in our next report tonight at 11, only on Action News

Here is Part 2 of the Tapes .. if you want to see the video of the reporting, just click below

VIDEO: David Henry reports from 30th Street Station - Part 2

There is new information on Hani Hassanin and his video tapes of the Delaware Valley.

On this report, a woman who new him and an eerie connection between his tapes and the recent shut down of a local water tank. Tonight, part two of our exclusive reports on a man who may have been scooping out terror targets in the Delaware Valley. He came to this country eight years before the 9-11 terror attacks and, as we'll see, he over stayed his welcome. He also alarmed people with his views on Ossama bin Laden.

The man who made the tapes is Hany Hassanin, originally from Egypt. He entered the country through New York on a visitor visa in August of 1992, just six months before the first World Trade Center bombing.

He managed to get a social security card. During the three years before 9-11 he lived at various addresses in the Delaware Valley.

In Philadelphia, Langhorne, Bensalem, Perkasie, Levittown, and again in Philadelphia, in this rooming house along with several other Middle Eastern men.

For a while he lived with a woman. She says before 9-11 they watched a television report about Ossama bin Laden and Hany made it clear he was a firm supporter of the terror leader and his anti-American hatred.

"You know, if you hate our government, if you hate it so much, what are you doing? What are you here for?
Another women tells us after 9-11 Hany was fired from his job at a diner for arguing with coworkers about bin Laden. In the months leading up to 9-11 he made a video road map of the Delaware Valley, taping specific public facilities.

Ed Turzanski/CENTER FOR TERRORISM & COUNTERTERRORISM:

"It's chilling because, certainly, this is not benign. There's a purpose behind this, and the purpose is not a good one." Hany turns his camera on, what Turzanski calls, high profile targets of opportunity; shopping malls, a power plant and transportation hubs. In this case, Lake Nockamixon in Bucks County.

It is a direct water source for a nearby community and feeds into the Delaware river ... which supplies water to Trenton, Philadelphia and other municipalities.

Coincidentally, the Lake Nockamixon Park was shut down last week when a ranger discovered the locks on this water tower had been broken open in four places, including the locks on the hatch on top.

Investigators, so far, have no evidence to connect this incident to Hany's activities, but the FBI has been contacted.

Testing shows the water was not contaminated. Just before 9-11 Hany launches a physical transformation. He turns the camera on himself, hours of exercising, eventually showing off his new physique.

And there's Hany on 9-11, the day of the terror attacks. He spends a restless night. He's up at just before 2 AM taping police activity on the street below.

The camera is rolling again around three in the morning. Then at 12:30 in the afternoon, hours after the first planes hit the World Trade Center, Hany seems to want evidence that he's in Philadelphia.

He has a friend take his picture and check on the date stamp.

They then take the camera outside to shoot Philadelphia landmarks, including the towers of Center City. We turned the tapes over to the FBI.

"Once we were able to do some investigation and identify the individual, it turned out we were already familiar with him." One month after 9-11 Hany was arrested here at 30th Street Station. He had been videotaping interiors of the building. The authorities investigated and found he had overstayed his visitor's visa by eight years. Hany was turned over to the INS and deported. Unfortunately, that was before the FBI knew about these videotapes.

Ed Turzanski/CENTER FOR TERRORISM & COUNTERTERRORISM:

"It's tragic that they did not have these tapes when INS picked him up, because this man ought to be in custody." By the time the authorities paid a visit to Hany's rooming house, his associates were gone. Neighbors say they bolted out the back door. Turzanski believes they may have been an Al-Qaida sleeper cell, possibly planning a second wave of attacks. If the FBI knows who they are and what they were up to, they're not saying.

They say they have no evidence that Hany and his associates were members of a terror cell. But that may be because they knew too little too late without these videotapes.

We don't know where Hany is now. But, the FBI is concerned enough to have placed him on an international watch list. Authorities are on the lookout for him in 40 countries. And he's been red flagged if he tries to reenter this country.

David Henry, Channel 6 Action News.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.