Face to Face With a Terrorist - Worker Recalls Atta Seeking Funds Before 9/11 (Cropduster!)

ABC News ^ | June 6, 2002

[Nogbad]

Johnelle Bryant has had her one minute of fame.

[Bob J]

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[RaceBannon]

bump

[Amerigomag]

I have strong suspicions about this story, including adding of info for self-importance reasons

Exactly! This babe is obviously on a short track. I was and wasn't surprised that she was featured on a mainstream news program segment.

Surprised because she's obviously a quacking duck and not surprised because the media is still throwing anything against the wall to see if it will stick to 43.

[spetznaz]

Has the credence of this lady been verified? The reason i ask is due to the fact her assertations seem a little too 'fantastical.' I really doubt Atta would go to get a federal loan, and then tell the loan officer that he was going to 'blow up American monuments' or that he could 'slit her throat and make with the cash!' That just does not fit the profile of someone who is trying to blend in as much as possible and hide from any potential discovery until his time for performing his 'duties to aLLAH' arrive!

Hence i find her story a little too 'outrageous.' Especially when you consider the number of kooks who would do anything for a spot of fame.

For example in Oklahoma they are looking for a guy who masqueraded as an 'army colonel' and went to the site of the bridge collapse, and he was actually talking to people and was captured on telly. There are a lot of people who would use national disasters for their own little nefarious plots, or maybe for simply greed, or probably just to get some attention and media spotlight.

Think of it: Why would Atta risk exposing himself through such actions? It just does not add up!

Actually after thinking it true i am prone to believe she lied! From the reports being given out on Atta one can assume he was intelligent, definitely intelligent enough not to go and apply for a federal loan that would require checks, threaten a federal officer with bodily harm, state his intentions and what group he belongs to, and even assert that certain monuments would be destroyed.

The probability of Atta being that aloof about secrecy, and of this lady being so plain dumb, is just not probable. The two occuring at the same time must have a probability approaching zero!

[mikegi]

Yep, time to break out the shovels!

Why doesn't she have any documentation to back up her meeting? She must not since she can't give a specific date ("sometime between the end of April and the middle of May 2000").

Then there's the "he told me, 'No, A-T-T-A, as in Atta boy!'". Getting really stinky!

[Shermy]

I was thinking he may have gone for the loan, but perhaps the story was spiced up a bit from things in the news.

[denydenydeny]

This one is a little hard to believe.

According to this woman, Atta essentially told her his entire plot not in so many words, including his relationship with Osama and Al-Qaeda.

I believe in the nastiness, but not the blabby mouth. Atta is not known to shoot his mouth off to anyone, let alone a woman. No way this happened the way she tells it.

[okie01]

What interests me most about this conversation is exactly how it came to take place.

She contacted ABC? They called her, based on a tip? From whom? And why? She is doing this "against the wishes of her employer". Why?

This may be the key sentence -- the message and the disregard for "instructions".

"I think it's very vital that the Americans realize that when these people come to the United States, they don't have a big 'T' on their forehead," she said, telling her story for the first time to ABCNEWS, against the wishes of her employer.

Why is she doing this? For her 15 minutes of fame? Why has she not spoken out before, then? Or is it because she was "allowed" to have this interview? Is she really who she says she is? And did it really happen the way she described it?

Most specifically, was it a way to introduce the cropduster-as-bomb theory?

You all get my point. On its surface, the story seems a little too pat, a little too structured. Maybe it's true. Maybe it's not. And, if it's not, what is its purpose?

[NautiNurse]

Incredible story! After reading it all, the only part I believe is that Atta did not want to conduct business with her. I could also be convinced that he called her stupid to her face. Oops--she omitted that in her fairy tale.

[My Identity]

they don't have a big 'T' on their forehead

No?
He mentioned al Qaeda
He mentioned Osama bin Laden
He boasted about the role that they would one day play
He refused to speak with Bryant, called her "but a female" in disgust.
He asked what would prevent him from cutting Bryant's throat.
He asked what would prevent him from stealing money from her safe.
He asked 'How would America like it if another country destroyed Washington, DC'
He asked about security specifically for the World Trade Center

"I didn't know who Osama bin Laden was - He could have been a character on Star Wars for all I knew."

I guess ignorance is no barrier to getting a job with the US govt.

"I felt that he was trying to make the cultural leap from the country that he came from"

Multicultural PC groupthink!

The terrorists may not have a "T" on their forehead,
but bureaucrats sure should have a "B" on theirs.

[VOA]

Has the credence of this lady been verified? The reason i ask is due to the fact her
assertations seem a little too 'fantastical.'

This report is being covered as "for real" on ABC's AM radio station in Los Angeles,
KABC.

I agree that it does sound more like a Saturday Night Live sketch.

And maybe we'll find out it's a hoax in a couple of days.

BUT...I think it could be true. And here's my amateur reasoning.

I think that to some degree The Talented Mr. Atta and his Butt Boys must have gauged something
about the American approach to terrorists: if you walk in from off the street acting like one,
we presume that you aren't.

IIRC (in all the flood of 9-11 aftermath reports) Atta and a colleague flew into a small airport
in rural Tennessee near a large, but mostly inactive, chemical plant.
Atta supposedly quizzed a pilot (or airport employee) at the small airport about the plant.
I think the guy said he told Atta the plant was basically just a shell...and then
Atta got p-ssed and accused the guy of not telling the truth, then Atta and his friend left
in a huff.
Now...what terrorist would have done that?

And it is documented that Atta and a friend ABANDONED the small plane they had
moved into line for take-off at the major Miami airport when it stalled.
They just walked off, leaving the plane to sit there, blocking take-off traffice.
The airport towed it off so traffic could resume.
Did Atta and friend get a rectal exam from the INS, local police and the FBI?
Heck no! The incident was just chalked up to those stupid foreigners in flight school.

And this sort of stupidity that should have been fatal to Atta's enterprise also went on with
Moussaui, the 20th hijacker.
The Los Angeles Times had a full-page article about his odyssey about two months ago.
Reprints of his e-mails revealed a guy whose English is so poor that an honest
flight school probably should have insisted on cram school in English before taking him.


I hope Dubya's planned reorganization will stop another 9-11 from happening.

But seeing all the cock-ups that Atta and his buddies made...maybe the next group will
put on the same sort of "these guys are too stupid to be terrorists" front.

But one thing does really sound like this is a true report. The lady didn't have a
clue who Osama bin Laden was. This sounds about the level of world knowledge I'd
expect from a lower-level Federal employee.
(Although if this is all real, I do appreciate this report that she has made.)

[BlackVeil]

was it a way to introduce the cropduster-as-bomb theory? That might be it. Very inept though. Not like the more subltle "spinning" of stories on anthrax, which TGS commented on preivously.

[AZLiberty]

they don't have a big 'T' on their forehead

If this story is right, he did have a big 'T" on his forehead, but the woman telling the story obviously didn't get that far in the alphabet. Another product of government schools.

[caa26]

I think this story is a load of crap. Remeber everyone, with Al Qaeda's finances they could have bought a plane if they wanted one. Why would Atta attempt to get a federal loan and act like a lunatic in front of her? Al Qaeda operatives were attempting to blend in this country.

[VOA]

Al Qaeda operatives were attempting to blend in this country.

Yes, but I don't think they totally succeeded. (see my post 32 above, especially the
abandoned airplane story)

I really do wonder if Atta and Co. were told to not be totally "slick", that way
they'd appear to be too incompetent and bumbling to be disciplined terrorists.

It will be interesting to see if this lady's story is exposed as B.S.
Associated Press says that ABC reports that the lady passed a lie detector...
maybe she's just a head case who truly believes in a delusion...

[tank_sherman]

Rem[em]eber everyone, with Al Qaeda's finances they could have bought a plane if they wanted one. Why would Atta attempt to get a federal loan and act like a lunatic in front of her?

Isn't it more amusing to have your enemy foot the cost of their own destruction than to pay for it yourself? Don't you recall the SEC investigation into the short sales on airline stocks in the weeks leading up to 9/11? (Still haven't heard the results of that one.)

Al Qaeda doesn't want to invest its own money in operations when it can finance its operations by using US tax dollars or investment dollars (you and I both have probably contributed, albeit unknowingly and involuntarily).

[Mitchell]

Why has she not spoken out before, then? Or is it because she was "allowed" to have this interview? Is she really who she says she is? And did it really happen the way she described it?

I saw this story months ago. I know because I specifically remember the unusual name Johnell. A search yields very little, but look at this excerpt from an AP story that appeared in the Sept. 25, 2001, Stockton (CA) Record:

Epling [Robert Epling, president of the Community Bank of Florida] said Monday that his bank, headquartered in Homestead, received a call from the FBI seven to 10 days ago saying that Atta had gone into a USDA office that until recently was in the bank's building. The agents asked if Atta had applied for such a loan from Community Bank, since USDA employees had apparently suggested to Atta that he try Epling's bank. Several USDA employees had recently identified Atta to the FBI, and recalled that he wore Tommy Hilfiger clothes and a lot of cologne, according to the FBI version of events provided to the bank.

Epling said one employee had a vague memory of an encounter. ''All he remembers is an inquiry about a loan for buying crop-dusters,'' Epling said of his employee. The employee thought the inquiry was in 2000 and did not remember the customer well enough to identify him as Atta, Epling said. The FBI said Atta may have gone to the USDA offices in April 2000, Epling said.

Employees in the USDA's Farm Service Agency, whose local office has since moved to neighboring Florida City, referred questions to a supervisor in the state headquarters. At a reporter's request, Kevin Kelley, state executive director for the USDA's Florida Farm Service Agency, contacted Johnell Bryant, a USDA loan manager in Florida City, to ask what had happened.

Kelley said Bryant declined to comment. ''She said she was told by authorities not to speak about it,'' Kelley said. FBI officials said they could not confirm the account.

This story has Bryant refusing to comment, but I think there may have been another story at the time with more details. Does anybody recall this, or have a link?

[Nogbad]

Why would Atta attempt to get a federal loan

It now is almost certain that Al Qaeda members in Toronto were
(and possibly still are)
receiving welfare payments from the Ontario government.
I even heard a story the other night
that Atta himself was collecting welfare cheques
during his stay in Toronto.

[Mitchell]

Johnelle Bryant has had her one minute of fame.

I think her one minute of fame is real (see my other post with a link to a 9/25/2001 article mentioning her story). However she seems to be embellishing her story considerably; she wants her full 15 minutes! Perhaps she's thinking of selling her story to the tabloids?