Posted on 09/14/2001 7:19:48 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Edited on 04/29/2004 1:58:46 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
The Xinhua General Overseas News Service
MAY 21, 1987, THURSDAY
Syria Accuses U.S. of Deteriorating Bilateral Relations
Damascus -- Syria today criticized the U.S. decision not to send back its ambassador to Damascus and said Washington was responsible for deteriorating bilateral relations, according to radio Damascus. The radio indicated in a commentary that American accusations of Syrian support for terrorism were baseless and that Syria had never asked the U.S. to send back its ambassador. U.S. announced a few days ago not to send back its ambassador to Damascus, unless Syrian President Hafez Assad took some steps to prove that his government was no longer supporting acts of terrorism by closing down the office of Abu Nidal in Damascus or securing the release of some American hostages in Lebanon.
Abu Nidal, head of the Fatah revolutionary committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, had threatened to sabotage American interests all over the world if Washington decided to hand over MOHAMED ATTA, a Palestinian arrested in New York, to the Israeli authorities on trial for murdering a bus driver in Israel. Syria will not submit to the American conditions, the commentary said, and the U.S. should quit its state terrorism and the provocative measures directed against Syria.
Mohamed Atta, on American Airlines Flight 11, which left Boston at 7:45 a.m. and crashed into the World Trade Center at 8:45 a.m.Atta, 33, was born in the United Arab Emirates and is believed to be the cousin of suspected United Airlines Flight 175 hijacker Marwan Al-Shehhi.
Investigators say the two followed parallel paths. Atta received pilot training at Huffman Aviation in Venice Fla., and took two three-hour courses at SimCenter Inc. in Opa-locka, Fla., where he trained on a Boeing 727 full-motion flight simulator.
Atta lived in Venice, Coral Springs and Hollywood, Fla., and Hamburg, Germany, investigators say. He held an Egyptian driver's license.
Atta studied electrical engineering for eight years at the Technical University in Hamburg and had ties to an Islamic fundamentalist group that planned attacks on American targets, German investigators say. He and Al-Shehhi left for the United States in May.
Both went to a sports bar in Hollywood last Friday night. Atta played video games while Al-Shehhi drank with another man.
The names of these people are not the easiest to remember.
I am more a visual person. I NEVER forget a face.
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