[abner]

Very interesting read.

[onyx]

I'll say! Very interesting indeed!

This is the first I've heard about the plane to plane telephone call! (hurray for roving wiretaps)

[FITZ]

beneath them, 12 soldiers, or "muscle," whose sole responsibility seems to have been restraining the flight attendants and passengers while the leaders took over the jets' controls.

Sounds like the so-called zealous Muslims didn't have common decency to inform these stooges of their fate and their real mission. I wonder if you get the 72 virgins if you committed suicide for allah but weren't told you were doing that.

[woollyone]

"The plot was first pieced together, they say, at least two years ago, in Hamburg, Germany..."

I'll ask what I've asked before about this Gremany connection. Does anyone know what Andreas Strassmeir has been up to for the past few years?

baa

[aristeides]

Bump. Here's the NY Times piece trying to explain the hijackers' frequent trips to Vegas. But it seems to know nothing about the frequent trips of Commerce Department Abdullah Noman that this AP piece reports.

[aristeides]

There's an article entitled "Top secret" in the print edition of this week's Der Spiegel confirming, from intercepted conversations among the al Qaeda terrorists, that there M.O. is to use the telephone only when absolutely necessary and not to say anything sensitive over it. I can't find the article using searches on www.spiegel.de, so they may not have put the article on line.

[Fred Mertz]

The Saudi government, stung by American reports that most of the hijackers received visas from their country, initially said that the hijackers used fake identities stolen from innocent citizens. But the F.B.I. says that it has confirmed the identities of all 19 of the hijackers, and that 15 were Saudis.

Why would the Saudi government essentially lie to 'protect' their citizens' involvement in the Sep 11 hijackings? Did they think the lie would stick?

Very interesting article.

[mombonn]

Absolutely chilling reading.

Three other suspected members of that cell fled in early September and are being sought as accomplices.

Are they, even now, planning their next attack?

I wonder if you get the 72 virgins if you committed suicide for allah but weren't told you were doing that.

Fitz, I'd call what happened to the "muscle" MURDER if they weren't told everything.

Either way, I'll bet the entry into "paradise" was a bit of a shock to all these animals.