[Cboldt]

No wiretap needed -- just a radio. The fact a call was made is easy to discern, call log/phone bill, whatever. The fact that they called each other "cousin" during the call; I wonder if that is literary license or known fact.

[onyx]

I KNOW that call was not monitored by wiretap. My hurray for roving wiretaps relates to the new law, which, had Atta been a suspect at the time of the hi-jacking, the roving wiretap would have given the authorities the wherewithall to stop the flight from taking off. Sheeesh.

[Wright is right!]

"The fact that they called each other 'cousin' during the call..."

Read the passage in the article again:

"The call rang aboard another sparsely occupied jetliner a bit farther back on the same tarmac, on a cellphone belonging to Marwan al- Shehhi, in seat 6C on United Airlines Flight 175. The conversation between the two men, so close that they called each other cousin, lasted less than one minute — just long enough, investigators say, to signal that the plot was on."

Now - MY question is - did UAL 175 take off that day? Or was it amongst The Grounded? And where was UAL 175 departing to?

Michael