Exclusive: Hijacker in City Sept. 10 Used navigation tool to pinpoint WTC site

New York Daily News ^ | 5/22/02 | GREG B. SMITH

[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.

[slimer]

This is old news. Why are stories like this resurfacing now as "Exclusive" news stories? It was reported shortly after the Sept 11th attacks that they had handheld GPS equipment.

[rohry]

Well, I doubt that this is true.

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.

[ironman]

My initial thoughts were same as yours, 12 minutes? Seems improbable but possible if the hotel was right there at the airport.

[ravingnutter]

I believe the hotel has been named, a search reveals...

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.

Source

[ALASKA]

Those were the good ol days.

[Eva]

The week before Christmas, I spotted a Arab looking man, sitting on a bench by the space needle in Seattle, just staring at it and the people. It spooked me a little at the time, but then I forgot about it, until a few days ago when I heard a man who is in charge of security for the city, say that they found information targetting the space needle in a cave in Tora Bora in March.

[My Favorite Headache]

Anyone else remember the middle eastern student who was arrested after 9/11. He was a staying at a hotel near WTC and a GPS was found in his room. The story became more bizarre and finally the charges were dismissed.>>>

That was the first thing that came to mind.....

[justshutupandtakeit]

Those killed by Moslemaniacs over the last 50 yrs. are in the millions. Everyday there are killings in Africa, Asia the Middle East.

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.

[My Favorite Headache]

This is old news. Why are stories like this resurfacing now as "Exclusive" news stories? It was reported shortly after the Sept 11th attacks that they had handheld GPS equipment.>>>

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.

[CJ Wolf]

just this past weekend, I spotted an arab looking man at my Yardsale. He paid cash for some old dishes and didn't bargin at all. He looked at an old camera with interest and bought that too, full price. Should I report it to the FBI? My wife said he looked odd.

[Mitchell]

Here's the information as it's been published before:

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.

[eno_]

Good reply. Just because the number of Europeans and Americans killed is relatively low does not mean that Islam is not red in tooth and claw in Africa and Asia. Gee, just because many of the victims are blacks, jews, other-people-not-like-us we'll give them a pass? That never worked in the past.

[texasbluebell]

That was the son of some ambassador that someone mentioned earlier. I remember they eventually let him go when they determined the item in the safe belonged to a previous occupant of the room, at least if I'm remembering correctly.

[DooDahhhh]

Sorry... Hijacker was sick b not you :)

[OldFriend]

Nope, this was a student living at the hotel, being paid for by the college. After he got away with whatever he was up to at the hotel he was threatening to sue. He had some kind of device that tracked planes.

[OldFriend]

I believe it was a device that allowed him to track planes. The poor hotel worker changed his story........pressured by whom!

This man was part of the plot...........'allegedly' in my opinion.

[OldFriend]

Most of us on FR have the brains g-d gave us when we were born and don't believe the bullcrap being disseminated by the FBI or the CIA........and that goes for the State Department too, if you want to know.

You can believe what you want.......

[TankerKC]

Lighten up. I said that I doubt it is true. I have no "proof", and I have doubted many things that turned out to be true. I'm just curious. Have you seen it on the MS website? Do you have a link?

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.

Microsoft debunks flight simulator link to terror attacks

How video games influenced the attack on America

[ctdonath2]

Can we equip planes with a GPS jamming device that can be intitiated remotely ?

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.

[ScreamingFist]

"At very least, some will want "Selective Ability" turned back on to "reduce" the accuracy of civilian GPS units"

This feature already exists, it was built into the system.