More About the LA Terror Assailant Hadayat (US media, where are you?)

DEBKA ^ | July 7, 2002

[Fithal the Wise]

Hesham Mohamed Hadayat was no stranger to El Al’s Los Angeles airport office.

According to DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources, the man who murdered two Israelis on the El Al ticket line at Los Angeles airport on July 4th worked for the American Mercury ground service company from 1993 (one year after he arrived in the US) until 1998, when he left to set up his own limousine service for air passengers. Exactly what he did at Mercury is vague, but during his five years in their employ, this former bank clerk from Cairo was free to move around Los Angeles international airport. Our sources reveal that during that time, he aroused the suspicions of El Al security personnel who warned airport security. When no action was taken, they put him under surveillance. El Al asked Mercury to rearrange Hadayat’s shifts for periods when none of its planes were scheduled, which Mercury agreed to do After the 4th of July attack, in order not to clash directly with the US authorities which refused to identify it as a terrorist assault, El Al and Israeli security spokesmen said that even if the Egyptian gunman was not a proven member of a terrorist group, his crime ranked as an act of terror.

However, Sunday, July 7 the influential Arabic London-based Al Hayat followed the original DEBKAfile disclosure of July 5 - that Hadayat was a member of the Egyptian Jihad Islami - and took it a step further. According to the Arabic paper, the Egyptian gunman met Dr. Ayman Zuwahri, the Jihad Islami chief who is Osama bin Laden’s deputy, twice in California – once in 1995 and again in 1998.

According to DEBKAfile’s sources, it was at that second encounter that Hadayat was told to leave his job with Mercury and given capital to set up his small limousine firm, so as to take advantage of his access to airport facilities and airline personnel contacts, while at the same time shaking off any watchers.

The Al Hayat report places Dr. Zuwahri in California unobserved less than three years before the 9/11 hijacking attacks in America and a year and a half before the Egyptair disaster.

The Hadayat family lives in Cairo. His father, a retired Egyptian army general, and his uncle, a former minister of science, admit that Hesham was a fervent Muslim who did what he could to encourage everyone to read the Koran. They say he was happy in Irvine, California. His neighbors in that Los Angeles suburb tell a different story, that he hated Israelis and Jews and asked one of them to take down the American and US Marine flags put up after 9/11.

From all the foregoing, our counter-terror experts cite Hesham Hadayat as a classical a Qaeda plant. He was positioned at Los Angeles airport in the early 1990s to bide his time for the right moment to carry out a terrorist attack against an El Al flight. When Hayat’s handlers saw he was under observation, they made him lower profile. His assignment was revised to fit his role as a limousine driver familiar to the Tom Bradley terminal staff and free to move around - namely to shoot down a line of passengers waiting to board an El Al flight.

Although from 1994 or 1995 at the latest, Hadayat was brought to the notice of American security, was under the eye of El Al security, and the Egyptian authorities must have known about him, he was never investigated - even after 9/11. The FBI has admitted he figured on no watch list for terrorists. This left him perfectly free to carry out his mission on behalf of the extremist Islamic organization – all of which raises some hard questions about the way in which the war against terror is carried out in the United States.

[Cobra Scott]

I love to watch the wheels turn on FR!

Is there any way to investigate the claims of the shooter's wife that she is in Cairo due to a family illness?

Seems pretty convenient that a mole gets activated (if that is the case) at the same time as his family is safely tucked away in Egypt.

Also, was Peres' Grandaughter a central motivation of the plot or just a coincidence? In other words, did this family illness happen suddenly, or was it known far in advance?

I Love you guys!

[Fithal the Wise]

Could not find any American Mercury ground service. But did find Mercury Air Group at LAX and worldwide. A promising place for sleepers! For an overvew see

http://www.mercuryairgroup.com /newwebtrial/about.htm

and the following excerpts:


Cargo Handling

When it comes to handling air cargo at major North American gateways, no one does it better than Mercury Air Cargo. With eight air cargo warehouses on five major gateway airports in the United States and Canada, Mercury can help commercial air carriers and charter operators with their most demanding cargo handling and warehousing requirements. Mercury also services forwarders requiring on-airport distribution facilities.

With a professional staff of experienced cargo handlers, Mercury provides an efficient and cost effective solution for airlines, customs house brokers and air freight forwarders with their cargo handling and warehousing requirements. No job is too small or too large. From handling perishables such as flowers and hatching eggs to electrical generators and construction equipment, Mercury Air Cargo has the manpower, equipment and facilities to the get the job done right


Los Angeles Facilities

Mercury Air Cargo Facility LAX
6040 Avion Drive, Los Angeles, CA

Closest Cargo Facility to LAX Passenger Terminals.

110,000 sq. ft. modern warehouse facilities

Newest and Largest Air Cargo Facility at LAX

4-Position ULD By-Pass System

13 Double Dock Doors

High-Tech Security Systems

Over 35,000 Square Feet of Office Space

World-Class Interior Office Designs

High Visibility On and Off the Airport

2,000 Square Feet of Drive-In Refrigeration · Hours of Operation: 7:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Midnight, seven days per week

Customers: Alitalia Air Cargo; Cathay Pacific; Lan Chile; MAS Air; Air Pacific; Air Jamaica; Corsair; China Southern; Evergreen International Airlines; Pacific Air

For more information on the Avion facility, please contact:

Ray Antonino
Vice President, Cargo Operations
Mercury Air Cargo, Inc.
6040 Avion Dr.
Los Angeles, CA 90045
Tel: (310) 258-6102

---

Mercury Air Cargo Facility LAX
6851 West Imperial Highway, Los Angeles, CA

55,000 sq. ft. warehouse facility

5,300 sq. ft. office space

15 dock doors

Drive-up ramp

1,000 sq. ft. drive-in cooler

7 weight scales

Racking system for import and export shipment storage

2 Scissor-Lift Scales to accommodate unit loaded shipments

Located on airfield

Friendly and courteous customer service

Hours of operation:
Customer Service: 8:00am - 11:00pm x 7 days/week
Warehouse: 24 hours x 7days/week

Easy access off 105 Freeway

Customer: EVA Airways

Facility in operation since 1984

For more information on the West Imperial Highway facility, please contact:

William Rader
General Manager
Mercury Air Cargo, Inc.
6851 West Imperial Hwy.
Los Angeles, CA 90045
Tel: (310) 215-5705
Fax: (310) 215-5708

[AmericanInTokyo]

The FBI (including probably the White House who was notified, but certainly Homeland Security) plainly felt this way:

Yes, the attack was terrorist and inspired by a sleeper cell with ties to the Middle East, or a 'quasi independent' who self activated.

But, July 4th was not even 1/2 finished on the US East Coast yet, with major celebrations scheduled and all preparations on in place throughout the land.

They, or through the domestic US media, LIED to the American People on Thursday for witholding a judgment publicly that it was terrorist.

To say it was Terrorist would have destroyed the whole Fourth of July celebrations and preparations nationwide.

Combat air patrols (CAP) were still in place around DC, NYC, Atlanta and LA. They were increased and additional strategic alerts were most likely issued. But NOTHING was left to chance to worry the Americans and rain on their Independence Day parade.

Their procedures automatically kicked in to downplay and push off to a later time.

They knew they could afford to either release these details we are now discussing several days later, or have it released through the internet and media; for the US public, four or five days out from Fourth of July is a lifetime.

I think it will finally be reflected as such. Their immediate internal 'walking papers' to agents is to deny anything is terrorist if it can be managed and particularly if it has the potential for compounding into panic on certain US 'Holy' Days like 4th of July, etc.

It's really a case of 'situational ethics' where they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. They probably come to the conclusion on a lot of occasions that it is for our own good that we don't know everything and too soon at that. The internet (FR is a good example) will probably erode this modus operandi over the years. We now basically have the smoking guns, issued not by our own leaders or media, but by reputable FOREIGN sources, and in a very quick time frame.

[johnb838]

I just don't understand this line of thinking. We need the people to be angry enough to prosecute a war. We may very well need to go to war with Saddam. Keeping the sheeple doped up and in the dark is not going to help anything.

I simply can't get my mind around the government covering up and making excuses for the people that are attacking and killing us on our own soil.

[Betty Jo]

Thanks Fithal the Wise for your link to Mercury in your reply # 82!

Go back and look at it's "Maytag Aircraft".

It has contracts with the US government!

Sooo, we have Islamic Jihadisits working on US government bases for Mercury!

I'm going back now to get some goodies, like exactly where and what.

Also, who owns this puppy and who is on its board of directors!

[Fred Mertz]

Slow down a bit, I'm not so sure that Hadayet is connected with Mercury Air Group at LAX. I'm thinking that the limo company he worked for had Mercury in the name.

[Fred Mertz]

According to DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources, the man who murdered two Israelis on the El Al ticket line at Los Angeles airport on July 4th worked for the American Mercury ground service company from 1993 (one year after he arrived in the US) until 1998, when he left to set up his own limousine service for air passengers.

From www.debkca.com

[Fred Mertz]

Correction: http://www.debka.com/

[cmsgop]

Thank You Dog!

[Betty Jo]

Well, one of the directors is Sergei V. Kouzmine,who earned a Ph.D. in nuclear physics from The Institute of Nuclear Physics in Moscow.

[bert]

Please let know your source for this piece of the puzzle.

[Fithal the Wise]

I'd be very surprised if a large company such as Mercury Air (if indeed this is the correct company) knew anything about this single guy until alerted by the Israelis. The real issue is our government's response, pre and pst 9/11 and the lack of media focus on getting our internal security in shape with even the most elementary steps,

[Betty Jo]

Nope, it is one and the same!

Absolutely we have the Islamic terrorist who murdered civilians at the El-Al ticket counter having been employed at the parent company of Maytag Aircraft which refuels American DOD planes at American DOD bases!

Dont tell me that the US governemnt did not know in a mattter of minutes this connection!

Once again this administration is covering up!

It will do no good to "keep the economy " going if we are all freepin DEAD!

Please, all, go read "Maytag Aircraft" at the above link,and think of all the other terrorists who are probably still in place there!

[jackliberty]

A source close to Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Peres' granddaughter was in a different part of the terminal at the time of the attack.

Haven't heard this. Thanks.

Do you know if Peres's granddaughter looked anything like the young Israeli woman that was killed?

[bert]

.....I would suggest that a far better way to "manage public fears" is not to bury the facts....

I don't disagree with this statement but would interject that there are multiple lawless acts involved. I am not a lawman, and don't play one on TV, but given the fact that one dead man was the perpetrator, in initial discussions of the crimes it is best to characterize them as ordinary criminal actions...murder,assult with a deadly weapon etc etc. That is, no difference from the ordinary day to day La La land crimes.

Later, when cooler heads can reason out the truth and support with verifiable facts, charges of terrorist crimes can be made. Although it seems on the surface to be terrorist activity, jumping to conclusions is not correct procedure.

[Fithal the Wise]

"I'm not so sure that Hadayet is connected with Mercury Air Group at LAX. I'm thinking that the limo company he worked for had Mercury in the name."

I'm not sure either but it's not improbable if the Debka report is correct.

(1) Mercury has international operations (subsidiaries?) so it would make sense for Israeli sources to refer to it as American Mercury.

(2) The El Al complaint to Mercury makes more sense in context of an employee having substantial internal airport access rather than just a limo operator ferrying people to and from the airport.

[Fred Mertz]

Good points, but he stopped working for them in 1998 and launched his own limo company.

[aristeides]

I found the following in a front-page article from the Chicago Tribune of Dec. 11, 2001, "Terrorists evolved in U.S.; 2 Egyptians set stage for attacks":

From the time he left the army in November 1989 and returned to California, Ali Mohamed maintained close ties to bin Laden and al- Zawahiri.

Along with Abul-Dahab, he served as a host for al- Zawahiri during two fundraising trips to America, the first in the early 1990s and the second in late 1994, court records show.

They escorted al- Zawahiri to at least three California mosques, where he was introduced as Abdel Muez, a doctor for the Red Crescent charity who was raising money for refugees in Afghanistan, according to court records and interviews. The real purpose of the visits, which included other unnamed mosques across the country, was to raise money for the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

So the visit that other sources put in 1995 may in fact have taken place in late 1994. Interesting timing for the OKC bombing.

[Fithal the Wise]

"Good points, but he stopped working for them in 1998 and launched his own limo company."

After El Al identified him as a threat. So ...?

[Betty Jo]

Hadayet worked for five years for Mercury.

Mercury owns "Maytag Aircraft" that does things like REFUEL US DOD airplanes on American DOD Bases!

Do you not see the immense possibilities?

Dont you think if this company hired and employed for 5 years a sleeper, that it has others in it's employ?

Imagine the stealing of uniforms, ID's, passes, maps, codes etc that these Mercury/Maytag sleeper Islamic terrorists have done!

Then revisit why this administration keeps covering up!