Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

NOW US ADMITS HUNTING HIJACKERS 3 WEEKS BEFORE ATTACK; TERROR CELLS ESCAPE THE BIG FBI DRAGNET
The Express | September 17, 2001 | GABRIEL MILLAND AND GEORGE GORDON

Posted on 09/17/2001 2:44:35 PM PDT by Wallaby

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

NOW US ADMITS HUNTING HIJACKERS 3 WEEKS BEFORE ATTACK; TERROR CELLS ESCAPE THE BIG FBI DRAGNET
BY GABRIEL MILLAND IN LONDON AND GEORGE GORDON IN NEW YORK
The Express NEWS; Pg. 15
September 17, 2001


EVIDENCE emerged last night that many of the terror plotters have now slipped out of America, evading the country's huge spying network.


Another lead among the 1,000 being pursued in Florida was that some of the hijackers could have been trained at the US navy airbase at Pensacola.
And FBI sources revealed that the bureau had been searching for two of the hijackers on board the flight that crashed into the Pentagon for three weeks before the terror attack.

Khalid Al Midhar and Salem Alhamzi were placed on a watch list in late August after the CIA told the FBI that the pair were associated with "prime suspect" Osama Bin Laden.

Al Midhar had been caught on surveillance tape in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, meeting a man suspected of involvement in the last year's attack on the warship USS Cole in Aden. Bin Laden is believed to have masterminded the attack, killing 17 US sailors. An unnamed official said: "We had only three weeks and one small piece of information about where Al Midhar and Alhamzi were supposed to be."

FBI headquarters failed to pass on the names of the men to its office in San Diego - where, it turns out, the men had been living.

The FBI is also probing a British connection.

Habib Zacarias Moussaoui - who lived in London before moving to the United States - has been under arrest in Minnesota for the last three weeks.

He was initially taken into custody under suspicion when he asked "too many questions" about flying Boeing aircraft during flying lessons in the US.

While being held on immigration charges, he was found to be on a list of Bin Laden sympathisers provided by the French security services.

But for three weeks, Moussaoui, 33, sat in jail in Minnesota with "no-one coming near him", according to the administrator of the jail, Pat Carr.

French agents are convinced he was involved in planning the World Trade Center attack and are now said to be concerned that the FBI did not aggressively interview him. A list of over 100 suspects has now been passed to the 18,000 police and FBI officers involved in America's biggest ever manhunt.

Over 100 members of the suicidal bombers' back-up team scattered across the US before and after the crashes and headed for the borders.

At least eight managed to escape the huge FBI dragnet and slipped into Mexico, 25 are in custody and the rest are thought have gone to ground - slipping back into their "sleeper" roles.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said the probe was "developing a kind of clarity. We are beginning to understand the ways in which this terrible crime was committed".

The probe's two crucial questions are: What was the next target and how more cells exist across the country?

A man picked up at John F Kennedy airport in New York with a fake pilot's licence has links to Bin Laden's brother. He is now being held as a material witness and can be detained as long as necessary. Also, Germany is playing a key role in the investigation. Police have searched an apartment in the university city of Bochum belonging to the girlfriend of Ziad Jarrah, one of the 19 hijackers.

The FBI said Jarrah was aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed near Pittsburgh. Jarrah had been registered at Hamburg's technical university, as were fellow hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi.

Atta and Al-Shehhi, who seized the planes that smashed into the Twin Towers, bought pocket knives and cardboard cutters in Switzerland during the summer and stayed in a Zurich hotel, it emerged yesterday.

The weapons were used to hijack the four passenger jets.

German police last week searched the Hamburg apartment where Jarrah, Atta and Al-Shehhi lived as they studied engineering and aircraft construction for four years. In Beirut, Lebanese-born Jarrah's family told how they had sent their son money to train as a pilot.

"He called just two days before the plane crashed to tell me he'd received the GBP 1,400 I'd sent him, " his father, Samir Jarrah said."Ziad said it was for his aeronautical course."

Jarrah's uncle, Jamal Jarrah, said: "He was a normal person. He drank alcohol, he had girlfriends."

Another lead among the 1,000 being pursued in Florida was that some of the hijackers could have been trained at the US navy airbase at Pensacola.

People in Florida are aghast that the suicide attackers prepared in their midst. Delray Beach librarian Kathleen Hensman said: "I could not believe my eyes when I saw the names." She recalled how the men seemed edgy as they used computers.

"They kept staring at the computers and then staring at me, " she said.



TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-40 next last

1 posted on 09/17/2001 2:44:35 PM PDT by Wallaby
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Wallaby

'FreeRepublic Needs Your Help' Fundraiser


2 posted on 09/17/2001 2:55:21 PM PDT by d14truth
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Wallaby
Mueller has got to go through that outfit like a dose of salts.
3 posted on 09/17/2001 2:58:43 PM PDT by Clive
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: d14truth
This smells of Clinton, Clinton/ Gore &Reno!!!
4 posted on 09/17/2001 2:59:18 PM PDT by Tigen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Tigen
In other words clean out the traitors that are on the job as of NOW from the klinton and klinton gore and klinton/gore/ reno abalmination!!!
5 posted on 09/17/2001 3:03:17 PM PDT by Tigen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: all
Today’s news on suspects:
6 posted on 09/17/2001 3:05:02 PM PDT by Wallaby
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Wallaby
As time goes on, I expect more and more Americans to start asking why Clinton was asleep at the switch for eight years regarding terrorism.

He literally did NOTHING.

7 posted on 09/17/2001 3:09:06 PM PDT by sinkspur
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BlueDogDemo,golitely,Uncle Bill,Judge Parker,Nita Nupress,Secret Squid
HUGE BUMP
8 posted on 09/17/2001 3:28:20 PM PDT by OKCSubmariner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sinkspur, OKCSubmariner
More failures?
9 posted on 09/17/2001 3:30:02 PM PDT by Wallaby
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: sinkspur
As time goes on, I expect more and more Americans to start asking why Clinton blabla

What? You're underestimating the US sheeple big time.

10 posted on 09/17/2001 3:34:45 PM PDT by CommiesOut
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Wallaby
According to newyorkpost.com we had three of them in jail back in June in NY but turned them loose.
11 posted on 09/17/2001 3:35:20 PM PDT by fightu4it
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rwz,bub
HUGE BUMP
12 posted on 09/17/2001 3:39:03 PM PDT by OKCSubmariner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: sinkspur
As time goes on, I expect more and more Americans to start asking why Clinton was asleep at the switch for eight years regarding terrorism.

I certainly hope so. Of course we know that a) Clinton didn't care about terrorism anyway (except unleashing his own brand of terrorism in our country). b) That by selling our defense secrets to China he only encouraged our enemies around the world to take the chance of planning acts of war against America. c) Even if Clinton wanted to do something about terrorism he was too pre-occupied with managing his scandals and avoiding impeachment to have time for it. d) Clinton of course never had the character or backbone to begin with to take on a tough challenge if it didn't involve a political campaign and e) The idea of putting America's interest before his own is a foreign concept to Clinton.

This is the price we are paying for keeping this Creep in office for 8 years while he, his wife and fellow communists virtually debased every single scared institution in this great country.

13 posted on 09/17/2001 3:46:16 PM PDT by WRhine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Wallaby
This just reinforces how easy it is to slip into and out of the United States. And notice that no one is even touching the subject of our sacrosanct, sieve-like, Nafta-loving, drug-running Mexican border. (Slip in over the border for some terrorism--Slip back out after completion of the attack.)
14 posted on 09/17/2001 3:47:58 PM PDT by Tom Flocco
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: WRhine
Clinton is teflon. Even if they ask him direct questions like Brian whats-his-name did on Fox he'll just pull that hillbilly drawl out of his pocket and perform a few "I'm the victim here" aw-shucks. If you know what I mean.
15 posted on 09/17/2001 3:54:45 PM PDT by Registered
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: sinkspur
... I expect more and more Americans to start asking why Clinton
was asleep at the switch for eight years regarding terrorism.

But it's Bush's problem now. Clinton is a washed up blowhard.

16 posted on 09/17/2001 4:00:25 PM PDT by dbbeebs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Registered
Clinton is teflon.

Clinton is only teflon because our media has protected and openly supported him. In the one time the media did not protect Clinton (his first year in office) he melted under the siege of bad press. Of course the media soon realized that the Clinton administration was going down the toilet, as one journalist put it, and backed him up like never before. Now Reagan was a true teflon president. The media had nothing but contempt for him yet most people loved Reagan no matter how hard the media tried to cut him down. Now that is Telfon!

17 posted on 09/17/2001 4:08:30 PM PDT by WRhine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

Comment #18 Removed by Moderator

To: dbbeebs
But it's Bush's problem now.... It's media's fault, blablabla

Wrong. It's the American people's problem: education, their strange voting habit, and unbelivable goodness and patience.

"Who cares..."--say my son and couple of neighbors.

19 posted on 09/17/2001 4:16:43 PM PDT by CommiesOut
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: sinkspur
Actually, sink, clinton did do something ... he bombed empty tents with $2,000,000 missles and destroyed an aspirine factory in the Sudan, for which we are paying reparations. He aided and abetted terrorism by declaring war on it then defunding the intel efforts to fight it and emasculating the military capabilities to wage a best methodology war on it. Clinton actually did quite a lot, sinkspur, all complicit with empowering the terrorists of course.

Can we have the smiling bastard strapped to the first cruise missle launched into Afghani territory? I would like that.

20 posted on 09/17/2001 4:19:23 PM PDT by MHGinTN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-40 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson