Posted on 05/22/2002 2:35:36 AM PDT by kattracks
The leader of the Sept. 11 hijackers visited the World Trade Center days before the attack to obtain coordinates for a navigation device, law enforcement officials now believe.Mohamed Atta, who led the 19 hijackers that morning, was in New York on Sept. 10 and perhaps Sept. 9, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation.The FBI found transactions that show Atta used a credit card in Manhattan the day before the planes crashed into the World Trade Center. Until recently, law enforcement officials could not figure out why he was here.
New evidence has emerged that leads investigators to believe Atta made a last-minute visit to double-check coordinates of the twin towers and plug them into a sophisticated Global Positioning System device bought by the hijackers, the source said.
Investigators suspect Atta's trip to the Trade Center was necessary because they believe the hijackers were too inexperienced to handle the jumbo jets without help. They know the hijackers bought GPS devices in the months leading up to the attack.
The FBI's New York office declined to comment on what the bureau knows about Atta's final hours.
The unusual flight paths of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 which traveled from Boston and into the twin towers indicates the hijackers used the devices to guide them as they flew across the country toward what was about to become known as Ground Zero, the source said.
Federal prosecutors say that on Aug. 25 three weeks before the attack one of Atta's co-conspirators, hijacker Ziad Jarrah, bought GPS components.
Flying Equipment Bought
Atta himself bought flight deck videos for jumbo jets and several unnamed items from Sporty's Pilot Shop in Ohio in November 2000. Sporty's owners said FBI agents investigating the Sept. 11 attacks asked about a Garmin GPS III Pilot, a hand-held device that simplifies aeronautical navigation.
And Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker now indicted on terrorism charges in the Sept. 11 plot, also tried to buy a GPS receiver, prosecutors have said.
With the coordinates of the twin towers entered as the desired destination, the devices would tell the hijackers when they were off course as they flew thousands of feet above the ground.
Experts noted that the hijackers could have obtained coordinates of the towers from available maps, but visiting the site with the device would ensure that the specific data were pinpoint accurate.
It's not clear how long Atta was in Manhattan before the attack. The source would not discuss the credit card transactions here except to say they took place in Manhattan.
Sometime on Sept. 10, the FBI believes, Atta traveled to Boston and rented a blue Nissan sedan. He and Abdulaziz Alomari then drove to Portland, Maine.
Seen on Video
They checked into a Comfort Inn in South Portland at 5:43 p.m., then visited two bank ATMs and a Wal-Mart, where they were captured on video.
The morning of Sept. 11, they checked out of the motel at 5:33 a.m., arriving at Portland International Jetport in time for a last-minute boarding of a 5:45 a.m. flight to Boston.
They arrived at Boston's Logan Airport just in time to board American Airlines Flight 11, departing at 7:55 a.m., fully fueled, with a scheduled destination of Los Angeles.
Sometime during the flight as the plane headed west over upstate New York the FBI believes Atta, Alomari and three others hijacked the jet and turned it south toward the towers of New York.
And your proof is?
The point is not that they got simple long/lat numbers from the game. The point is that they could do the actual run from Boston to New York using the game and make notes of the several changes in altitude and long/lat needed to plow into the WTC. My flight school got this info from the FBI when they were going through their records. Check with Microsoft and you will see that there was a recall in September.
At the Airport Marriott Hotel, visible from Terminal A...Somewhere upstairs at the Marriott, other passengers were gathered.
Ziad Jarrah had come to the hotel a day earlier and paid cash for seven rooms. He and his companions ate the night before at Priscilla's, the hotel's upscale restaurant, where prime steak sells for $34, baby New Zealand lamb goes for $30, and cream of watercress soup starts at $10. "They paid cash for everything," said one hotel waiter.
That was the first thing that came to mind.....
Attempting to minimize the carnage is a disservice. Islame is in the service of death.
In case you didn't notice in the World vs Nazi match the World won. So will it in the World vs Islame.
The press is running dry on sources and stories. They are pissed and foaming at the mouth that the "bash bush and what did he know?" stories have died already and they thought they had a goldmine. Since 9-11 they have wanted to blame anyone they possibly could that is alive. But the reality is they can't...because the people to blame all died that day flying and hi-jacking planes.
5:33 a.m.: Atta and Alomari checked out of the Comfort Inn.
5:40 a.m.: The 2001 blue Nissan Altima rental car, bearing Massachusetts license 3335VI, entered Portland International Jetport Airport parking lot. It was parked on the first floor directly across from the airport entrance.
5:43 a.m.: Atta bought a one-way ticket from Portland, ME, to Los Angeles, with a stopover in Boston. Atta and Alomari checked in at US Airways counter.
5:44 or 5:45 a.m.: Atta and Alomari went through airport security, Portland, ME.
6:00 a.m.: Colgan Air plane took off for Boston. The two men sat behind one another on the plane.
This man was part of the plot...........'allegedly' in my opinion.
You can believe what you want.......
All that I have read about Flight Simulator is that MS delayed the release of 2002 because of sensitivities related to the attack. They also issued a patch for 2000 that removed the towers from the NYC skyline. I have read nothing that indicates that MS changed the lat/long in any of the sims or recalled games.
We _could_ do that, yes. BUT... The pilots navagate using GPS (do you really want to confuse a pilot unless you're ABSOLUTELY sure?) By the time you know for sure what's going on, it's likely too late. I've heard the 9/11 air traffic control recordings: the time between hijack confirmation and crash was seconds. And on a clear day with proper maps, jamming GPS won't do any good - the hijacker/pilot of the 4th 9/11 plane was following freeways.
[general rant] Stop this BS of clever "might work" cures - let the pilots carry guns so they can stop the b@$t@rds DRT.
This feature already exists, it was built into the system.
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