Posted on 11/20/2002 10:36:02 AM PST by honway
Sources close to the Pentagon study say Timothy McVeigh did play a role in the bombing but peripherally, as a "useful idiot." The multiple bombings have a Middle Eastern "signature," pointing to either Iraqi or Syrian involvement." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The quote is from an article in the 3-20-1996 Strategic Investment Newsletter. At the time, William Colby, former CIA Director, was an editor for the publication. I believe his status as editor contributes to the credibility of the article.
It looks like the evidence supports the Pentagon report conclusion.
I nominate McVeigh for "useful idiot" and Khalid Mohammed for "mastermind" in the OKC bombing.
PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS OF PETITIONER-DEFENDANT, TIMOTHY JAMES McVEIGH AND BRIEF IN SUPPORT MARCH 25, 1997
19. May 6, 1996 Letter to Joseph H. Hartzler concerning an article in Strategic Investment magazine which referenced a classified Pentagon study concerning the bombing of the Murrah Building. This letter requested information concerning this classified study. See D.E. 1923 (Vol. III Exhibit "P").
The case involved the Port Authority's liability claim against the manufacturers of the ammonium nitrate and urea prill fertilizers that were the principal ingredients of the bomb used at the World Trade Center several years ago
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On a different matter , the link above makes an excellent point.
In its design defect claim, the Port Authority asserted that the addition of a small quantity of an inexpensive agent (diamonium phosphate, another fertilizer) to the ammonium nitrate would have stabilized it sufficiently and made it useless as a bomb component. Many European and other countries prohibit the sale of the unstabilized fertilizer, and require detonation tests, and the EEC by directive sets strict limits on its manufacture, as had other countries, all well before the Trade Center bombing.
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Prohibit the sale of unstabilized fertilizer now!
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Since Ramzi Yousef worked closely with Khalid Mohammed and was reportedly his nephew, I think this statement supports the case that Khalid Mohammed was the mastermind behind the WTC bombing.He failed on his first attempt to bring down the towers, but succeeded on his second attack.
Good luck and I do appreciate your correction on the WTC bomb. Looking identified how easy it would be for manufacturers to produced stabilized fertilizer.
If you find out where in the U.S. Khalid was educated, you should be nominated for a Pulitzer, IMO.
Kuwait dismisses reports Sept 11 suspect is Kuwaiti citizen
KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait reiterated on Thursday that a man identified by US investigators as the possible mastermind of the September 11 attacks was not a Kuwaiti, dismissing reports that the suspect or his father had Kuwaiti citizenship. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed "is not Kuwaiti," Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Khalid al-Jarallah told AFP. "Maybe he was in Kuwait for a while, but even so, this would not give him the right to be a Kuwaiti," Jarallah said. Information Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah last December denied that Mohammed, named at the time on a terrorist list issued by the European Union, was Kuwaiti, describing him as a Pakistani born in the emirate.
Local newspapers Thursday variously described Mohammed as a Kuwaiti or Pakistani passport-holder. Al-Anba, quoting security sources, said Mohammed had Kuwaiti citizenship but was of either Pakistani, Yemeni or Iranian origin and had left Kuwait a long time ago. Al-Qabas said Mohammed began studying mechanical engineering in the autumn of 1984 in Chowan College, North Carolina. He left the college after one semester, moving to a North Carolina university from where he graduated, it added, identifying him by his full name, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed al-Balushi.
Mohammed's father, the first imam (preacher) of the emirate's al-Ahmadi mosque, had Kuwaiti nationality but was stripped of his citizenship after a dispute with a leading Kuwaiti family, the daily said. "I don't think this information is correct," Jarallah said, referring to the report on Mohammed's father being a Kuwaiti. According to Al-Qabas, Mohammed never returned to Kuwait after graduating from university, but traveled to Afghanistan and worked as a secretary for a professor identified as Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf.
The newspaper also said Mohammed is sharp, jolly and likes acting. It described him as being relatively short. Al-Rai al-Aam, meanwhile, said Mohammed was a Pakistani passport-holder and that he was born in Kuwait on April 24, 1965 and spent part of his life in Fahaheel, south of the city. It also said his passport was issued at the Pakistani embassy in Kuwait on December 6, 1982. Mohammed is the link between the Al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden and the September 11 attacks in the United States, law enforcement and government officials told US newspapers.
"It looks like he's the man, quite honestly," a Bush administration official told Wednesday's Los Angeles Times. The Federal Bureau of Investigation told AFP it had no comment on the reports on Mohammed, who gives his age either as 37 or 38. Mohammed was indicted for his participation in a plot to bomb a dozen airliners in 1995. The mastermind of the so-called "Manila plot" was Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who is apparently a relative of Mohammed, officials told the New York Times.
Mohammed is on the FBI's list of 22 people suspected of having connections to the "Manila plot," according to the newspapers. A fire in the plotters' hotel room led Filipino police to explosives, chemicals and timers used in making bombs, foiling the plot. Officials said much of the information had been obtained from Al Qaeda members under arrest, including the man said to be closest to bin Laden currently in custody. The man, Abu Zubaydah, helped confirm Mohammed's key role in the September 11 attacks, according to the New York Times.
Investigations into Al Qaeda finances also showed Mohammed had a pivotal role and the US reward for his capture rose to 25 million dollars in December, the paper reported. - AFP
Suspect Said Went to School in U.S.
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
Associated Press Writer
June 7, 2002, 2:19 AM EDT
WASHINGTON –
The man suspected of masterminding the Sept. 11 terror attacks was well-traveled: Born in Kuwait, he went to college in North Carolina, fought Soviets in Afghanistan, plotted attacks against Americans from the Philippines.
He also repeatedly visited the German city where chief hijacker Mohammed Atta lived, U.S. officials said Thursday.
Officials suspect Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a top lieutenant of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, met with Atta or members of his cell in Hamburg, Germany, but they have not received direct evidence of any contacts between them, one U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Since Sept. 11, evidence has mounted that Mohammed was chief among the bin Laden lieutenants organizing the attacks, counterterrorism officials said. Abu Zubaydah -- another of the alleged organizers and now in U.S. custody -- has identified Mohammed as the organizer, and investigators have learned he transferred money used in the attacks.
Investigators also have uncovered more of his history. They believe Mohammed attended Chowan College in northeastern North Carolina before transferring to another American university, where he obtained an engineering degree, a second U.S. official said Thursday, declining to provide further details.
A spokeswoman at Chowan said a Khaled Al-Shaikh Mohammad attended the school in the spring of 1984, when it was a two-year institution.
Mohammed, who is 37, according to Interpol, would have been of college age in the mid-1980s.
Chowan spokeswoman Melanie Edwards declined to provide further information about the student, including whether he transferred to another school in the state.
Chowan College, which became a four-year college in 1992, is in Murfreesboro, N.C., near the Virginia border and about 100 miles northeast of Raleigh.
Officials at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro and UNC-Charlotte said they had no records of a student by that name -- or any of the aliases listed for Mohammed on the FBI's Web site -- attending in the 1980s.
Officials at North Carolina State University in Raleigh were unable to say immediately Thursday whether they had had a student by any of those names.
U.S. counterterrorism officials believe Mohammed went to Afghanistan to join the mujahedeen fighters opposing the Soviet occupation in the late 1980s. He now has Pakistani citizenship, according to Kuwaiti officials and Interpol.
The independent Al-Qabas newspaper in Kuwait reported that Mohammed worked for Abdul-Rab Rasool Sayyaf, an anti-American Afghan warlord who goes by the name "Professor." During the war against the Soviets and the Najibullah government, Sayyaf was chief of the Ittehad-e-Islami group, which had the largest number of Arab fighters in its ranks.
Interpol describes Mohammed as 5-foot-5, weighing 160 pounds, sometimes wearing beard and glasses.
Mohammed surfaced again the mid-1990s, as an associate -- and possibly a relative -- of Ramzi Yousef, working with him on the 1993 World Trade Center bombing plot and a 1995 plan to bomb or hijack trans-Pacific airliners heading for the United States, according to U.S. officials.
Mohammed has been charged for his role in the 1995 airline plot, and remains one of the FBI's most-wanted terrorists. The U.S. government is offering a reward of up to $25 million for information leading to his capture -- the same reward offered for bin Laden.
He has not been charged in the Sept. 11 attacks.
He is believed to be in Afghanistan or nearby. Officials say he remains in bin Laden's inner circle and continues to plot terrorist attacks.
Bin Laden lieutenants Tawfiq Attash Khallad and finance chief Shaikh Saiid al-Sharif also have been linked to the hijackers.
Associated Press writer William L. Holmes in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this story.
FBI most wanted:
http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/terrorists/terkmohammed.htm
Interpol most wanted:
http://www.interpol.int/public/wanted/notices/data/1999/80/1999_380.asp
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Officials at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro and UNC-Charlotte said they had no records of a student by that name -- or any of the aliases listed for Mohammed on the FBI's Web site -- attending in the 1980s.
I guess there is some more digging to do here, but at least we have narrowed down the years of attendance.
A spokeswoman at Chowan said a Khaled Al-Shaikh Mohammad attended the school in the spring of 1984, when it was a two-year institution.
Why is Chowan evasive about the University he transfered to? We are talking about the mastermind of 9-11.Any leads would be helpful.
Maybe someone could appeal to the patriotism of the folks in Murfreesboro. I just don't see it as a hotbed for terrorist sympathizers.
According to the article he received an engineering degree. If so that narrows down the dates of attendance and limits the options to Universities with engineering programs.
John, thanks for these leads, how's that acceptance speech coming? It appears the AP struck out on identifying the University Khalid received his engineering degree from.
The Plot
How terrorists hatched a simple plan to use planes as bombs.
In July 2002, Yemeni student Hussein al-Attas pleaded guilty to lying to authorities about his connection to Zacarias Moussaoui, with whom he shared an apartment in Oklahoma.
"Although he has never been charged with a crime and there is no evidence he is involved in terrorism, Mukkaram Ali, 26, has been imprisoned for more than a year and remains in jail today--thanks in no small part to the wishes of terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui."
For nine months Ali, a college student at the University of Oklahoma who overstayed his visa, was held due to prosecutors designating him a "material witness" in the Moussaoui case. They dropped their request but then Moussaoui named Ali as a defense witness in one of his uncounseled, handwritten pleadings. Apparently Ali allowed a friend of his and Moussaoui to stay at his apartment in Norman, OK for a few weeks in the summer of 2001 while Ali was out of town. Ali and Moussaui were only casual acquaintances
Sunday, we wrote about The Forgotten Prisoner: Mukkaram Ali. He is the student from Norman, Oklahoma who let his friend Hussein al-Attas and an acquaintance, Zacharias Moussaoui, stay in his apartment for several weeks during the summer of 2001 when Ali was elsewhere. Ali has been detained since September, first as a material witness for the Government, and now as a defense witness for Moussaoui. Our earlier post explains why his continued detention should be revisited.
The Government dropped its request to hold Ali months ago as their investigation concluded he was a mere acquaintance of Moussaoui and had no terrorist ties. He was friends with the second man, Hussein al-Attas. who Ali let stay in his apartment with Moussaoui.
We've written about al-Attas before as well, see Descent Into Federal Detention. Al-Attas has been detained as a material witness since September for having given Moussaoui a ride from Norman to Minnesota where Moussaoui was going to try again at flight school.
Moussaoui Roommate Pleads Guilty
NEW YORK, July 22, 2002
A man who briefly shared an apartment with Zacharias Moussaoui in Oklahoma pleaded guilty Monday to charges that he had lied to authorities about his knowledge of the man accused of conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks on America.
Hussein al-Attas, 24, pleaded guilty to seven counts of making false statements.
A French citizen of Moroccan descent, Moussaoui is the only person charged with conspiring to help 19 hijackers who plunged two passenger jets into the World Trade Center, a third into the Pentagon and a fourth into a field in Pennsylvania.
Moussaoui was arrested last summer after administrators at the Minnesota flight school became suspicious of his intense desire to fly jumbo jets even though he had poor flying skills.
Al-Attas, born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Yemeni parents, was Moussaoui's friend and, briefly, his roommate in Norman, Oklahoma, where Moussaoui had come to enroll at the nearby Airman Flight School.
Al-Attas, told U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey that he lied to investigators in Minnesota on Aug. 18 and in Oklahoma on Sept. 11, especially about Moussaoui, whom he knew by an alias.
"When the agents asked if I (also) knew his real name, I lied and said I did not," he said.
Al-Attas admitted he also lied about their plans to go to New York City in late August, 2001; knowledge of Moussaoui's desire to participate in jihad; a planned trip to Pakistan to speak to religious scholars and "others who believe that our religion favors participation in jihad."
He said he also tried to prevent law enforcement authorities from learning about some of Moussaoui's classmates at an Oklahoma flight school.
"I did not want to say anything that would cause problems for anyone else," he said.
He also admitted lying about plans to attend classes at the University of Oklahoma and his visit to a range to practice firing a handgun at a target.
Federal agents arrested Moussaoui and al-Attas in Eagan, Minn. on Aug. 16. Moussaoui had completed less than two days of classes.
Al-Attas, who is not charged with participating in or having advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks, has consented to be held as a material witness in the government's conspiracy case against Moussaoui in Alexandria, Virginia. Al-Attas' lawyer said he would testify if requested.
"He is a fairly naive man who was trying to help the wrong person at the wrong time," said defense lawyer Alexander Eisemann.
Moussaoui attempted to plead guilty last Thursday to conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks but a federal judge gave him a week to reconsider.
Eisemann told reporters that Moussaoui's attempt to plead guilty had no impact on his client's admissions. He said that plea negotiations had been under way for several months.
U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey set Sept. 4 sentencing hearing for al-Attas. Prosecutors said in plea agreement papers that the federal sentencing guidelines recommend zero to six months prison time. Al-Attas has been in custody since September 11.
Eisemann told reporters his client had met Moussaoui at a mosque in Norman, Oklahoma, where Moussaoui was attending flight school. He said al-Attas, who was an engineering student at the University of Oklahoma, had shared an apartment with Moussaoui and at least one other person for several weeks.
The lawyer said that Moussaoui had told al-Attas he was going to flight school because his uncle was in the aviation industry.
He said that Moussaoui asked al-Attas to go with him to visit New York, Colorado and possibly Los Angeles. Eisemann said the two decided just to visit New York and return to Oklahoma.
Eisemann was asked what his client thought the purpose of the trip was. "Mr. Moussaoui wanted to see sights in America and Mr. al-Attas was going along for the ride," he said.
He said al-Attas, who was an engineering student at the University of Oklahoma, had shared an apartment with Moussaoui and at least one other person for several weeks.
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