Posted on 01/21/2003 3:09:00 PM PST by ewing
Perp is a possible Arab Male, nothing further.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...
Investigators had previously searched the home in October (2002 I assume) because it was abandoned, and found something there very interesting to them. Combined with other information they've been gathering lately, it lead them back to the home a 2nd or 3rd time. They 'say' it was NOT anthrax, but then why the biohazard suits? I can't guess what else it would be.
Almasri was said to be an 'engineer'. It would be very helpful to know where he worked or consulted while in Florida, and what kind of engineer he was.
And reading between the lines, it sounds like the family didn't just return to Saudi Arabia. It sounds like they had been putting up some Saudi nationals (who were involved) and it sounds like this family went into hiding.
Everyone says their leaving was so uncharacteristic of them. And they left without arranging anyone to take care of their property. They basically just abandoned that property forever.
One story said the 22 yr old son had taken flying lessons at the same Hoffman Aviation school as the 9/11 terrorists. Maybe the son was tapped to be a last-minute 20th-hijacker, and the father knew how deadly those people would be.
~Kim4VRWC's~ - I haven't sensed any links between this guy and Muhammad/Malvo yet... the two FL towns are 3 hours apart. I am CERTAIN however, that M&M were working with terrorists, and the $10 Million was to go towards terrorism, plus the "Like A Duck In a Noose" mention was an annogram for Usama Bin LADIN.
One thing I can guess this is leading to is a Saddam Hussein soon to be dead or deposed, and the Iraqi people liberated. We need a LOT more dead terrorists ASAP to send them the only kind of message they understand. We also need to dry up their money sources every way possible.
GREENACRES CITY - More than a dozen FBI agents spent a second day scouring the home of a Saudi Arabian family who neighbors say left abruptly the weekend before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Agents again refused to say why they are searching the abandoned home, which Palm Beach County property records show is owned by Mohammed and Afaf Almasri. The search warrant authorizing the raid was sealed by a judge. FBI and Justice Department officials in Washington also declined comment Wednesday.
Agents could be seen digging holes in the backyard and scanning it with metal detectors. They also removed a silver Mitsubishi Mirage with a flat tire from the garage.
State records show that the car was registered to the Almasris' 22-year-old son, Turki, whom neighbors say had been taking flying lessons before the family left. At least 15 of the 19 hijackers involved in the 2001 attacks had ties to Florida, with some seeking flight training here.
Kristina Daddio said the family left hurriedly on Sept. 9, 2001, when a white minivan pulled into the driveway. The family quickly loaded their suitcases and drove off, she said.
''We were wondering why they were rushing. It was so not in keeping with their normal behavior,'' Daddio said. ``These people are very pristine and proper.''
Daddio said the family typically spent six months a year in the suburban neighborhood eight miles southwest of West Palm Beach and the other half the year in Saudi Arabia. Daddio said the family typically told them when they were leaving and when they were returning home.
Daddio and another neighbor, Rodney Lamarca, said they became suspicious after the terrorist attacks and called an FBI hot line to report their concern.
''I'm a little disappointed that it took so long. But I really want them to resolve this. Is this something or is this nothing?'' Lamarca said.
Neighbors said that after the family left, no one kept the home and the grass grew as high as bushes. Daddio said her husband would mow the lawn when it got out of control.
''There is much ado about something over there,'' Daddio said.
Another feature of the sniper letter is the left margin indents. That's a charcteristic of youth in today's age and perhaps some old fashioned folks.
In the sniper note: He indents after each command or statement when the command or statement goes takes up more space than a single line. In the anthrax leters, the commands or statements are so brief that they do not go into a second line but his left margin appears to go further to the right than most of us would as if to indent.
The Anthrax letters are definitely more deliberate as if he is being instructed and this is his first time at doing something as devious as this.
Correct me if I'm wrong and/or give me your thoughts.
Malvo began school in Fort Myers on Aug 13, 2001. His last day was Oct. 5, 2001, the very day that Stevens (AMI) died. He told no one that he was leaving. He did not arrive at the shelter in Washington State until Oct 20, 2001, 11 days after the second anthrax letter was postmarked (Oct 9th).
The shelter administrator said Mohammed was away between Oct 10-14th 2001 but he may be guessing as to the dates. Regardless, why was he away?? Where was Malvo between Oct 5th and 20th??
Malvo was never reported missing by his mother but she took off also, going to Louisianna first and winding up in Washinton State.
The best guess for Stevens being contaminated was the day before he left on his vacation.
For the last few months, I've saved any articles that had unique details about persons of interest, that I thought might be useful later for connecting dots.
There is a way to bookmark any thread here that you want FR to NOT delete, so that helps keep info around. Elsewhere, articles disappear, or get un-indexed by the major search engines so you can no longer find them easily. If you remember certain specific keywords sometimes you get lucky. Alltheweb.com is one of the best for finding that elusive obscure article from the back of your memory.
Sacajaweau - you had some specific new details about M&M I hadn't heard before that's not in our timelines. I will have to save that too and see if we can expand on it someday... Nice catch about the coincidence of Malvo leaving school suddenly on the same day as the first Anthrax death in a ~nearby town.
You said Muhammad was 'missing' and not in Bellinham October 10-14th 2001. Muhammad was in divorce court in Tacoma on October 12th. He signed his name John Williams on that date, even though it was legally changed to Muhammad five months earlier. One evening before that, on Oct 11th, there was a high profile assassination in Seattle of a Federal prosecutor. Seattle is directly between Bellingham and Tacoma.
Muhammad seems to have done his greatest amount of globe-hopping during September and early October 2001. After Malvo arrived and started school in Bellingham, it seems that Muhammad stayed close to Bellingham for about a month.
Greenacres - The FBI notified a congressional committee investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks before searching a house this week that was vacated within days of the collapse of the Twin Towers, according to a source on Capitol Hill.
FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said the bureau advised the "appropriate" members of Congress about this week's search in the Fairway Isles house.
More than a dozen agents examined the gray single-family house on Doral Drive on Tuesday, scanning with metal detectors and digging in the yard. They finished Wednesday after towing a car.
Orihuela said the agents were serving a sealed federal search warrant at the house, which, according to property records, belongs to Mohammed al-Masri. The warrant will remain sealed unless there is an arrest, she said.
"The public is not in danger," she said. "It's not a safety hazard issue."
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Embassy in Washington is aware of the investigation but has not been contacted by the FBI, a spokeswoman said.
As the FBI agents worked, neighbors said it was about time investigators showed up. Lisa Dickerson, 43, whose mother lives next door, said she called the bureau about the family just days after Sept. 11, 2001.
The Capitol Hill source said the FBI conducted the search based on neighbors' reports.
Neighborhood association President Dave Remsen said he learned a few months ago FBI officials were looking at the house al-Masri bought in June 2000. Neighbor Kristina Daddio said she saw a locksmith at the house last week.
Some neighbors say they suspect that the al-Masris could be connected to terrorism. The al-Masri family -- Mohammed, his wife and four children -- was from Saudi Arabia, neighbors said. Mohammed and his wife were proud that their oldest son, Turki, was training at Lantana Airport to be a private pilot, said Martha Ruth, 70, Dickerson's mother.
On Sept. 9, 2001, Mohammed al-Masri and his eldest son quickly put the rest of the family into a car and sent them away, Dickerson said.
When hijackers crashed jets into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon two days later, neighbors called the FBI and suggested they visit the Doral Drive house, she said.
For about a week after the terrorist attacks, Turki al-Masri kept going to his flight school classes at Kemper Aviation, said an employee at the school. He was a diligent student, she said.
Then Turki al-Masri and his father left Greenacres, neighbors say. The family had their tax bill sent to an address in Jaddah, Saudi Arabia, tax records at the Palm Beach County Assessor's Office show.
On Dec. 5, 2001, the office received $2,264.93 for taxes on the Doral Drive house, according to tax records. The next payment is due in April.
Before they left, the al-Masris paid their homeowners association dues for a year, Remsen said. But they've fallen behind in recent months.
The electricity was still on, but the water had been shut off when the FBI arrived at the house last week, Orihuela said.
After Sept. 11, information about the hijackers began to trickle out that fed neighbors' suspicions about the al-Masris: Most of the hijackers had lived in South Florida, some trained at local flight schools, several were Saudi Arabian.
Someone called the Greenacres Police Department last Aug. 15 to ask an officer to check out the al-Masri house.
According to the report, the caller contacted police because, "Arabs paid cash for this house and vacated it." Court records show al-Masri didn't take out a mortgage on the $119,000 home.
When the property began looking shoddy, neighbors complained, Remsen said. He said he paid to have the grass cut.
Eventually, Remsen got legal permission and went inside the house. It looked as though the family had left in a hurry, and dishes full of food still sat on the table, he said....
FBI scours empty Greenacres home for terrorism clues
By C. Ron Allen, Mike Clary and Sam Tranum - Staff Writers - January 22 2003
Greenacres - FBI agents on Tuesday scoured the suburban home of a family that neighbors say moved away within days of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela would say only that agents were serving a sealed federal search warrant.
More than a dozen agents arrived about noon Tuesday, put on coveralls and green rubber gloves and started scanning the ground with metal detectors and digging through flower beds. They ended their search about 8 p.m., leaving a few agents behind to guard the house.
"[The FBI] said it's not a health or safety issue at all," Greenacres City Councilman Richard Radcliffe said.
The single-family house on Doral Drive is in the gated Fairway Isles neighborhood near the intersection of Forest Hill Boulevard and Jog Road.
Property records show Mohammed al-Masri bought the house June 30, 2000. He was an engineer who lived there for two summers with his wife and children, neighbors say.
Martha Ruth, 70, the al-Masris next-door neighbor, said she had visited for tea.
"They told me how proud they were their son was going to flight school," Ruth said.
If the al-Masris raised any suspicions or rubbed their neighbors the wrong way, it was only by being too friendly, neighbors say.
Until Sept. 9, 2001.
That Sunday, Mohammed al-Masri and his eldest son, Turki, packed the rest of the family into a car and sent them away, according to Ruth's daughter, Lisa Dickerson, 43.
"The people were waving and saying they're going back to Saudi [Arabia]. The way he put those people in the car so fast -- I thought it was bizarre," she said.
Two days later, Middle Eastern terrorists used passenger jets to bring down the Twin Towers and carve a gash out of the Pentagon.
Dickerson said she called the FBI to tell them about her neighbors -- the student-pilot license Turki al-Masri earned June 23, 2001, and the sudden departure of the women and children suddenly seemed very suspicious.
And there was what neighbors said was the al-Masris' cash purchase of the $119,000 house. Court records show the al-Masris didn't take out a mortgage on the home.
"I wanted them to send a detective out here," Dickerson said.
Dickerson said she didn't see any evidence the FBI came to the neighborhood to visit the al-Masris in the week after Sept. 11. Then on Sept. 17, Mohammed al-Masri and his son, Turki, left town, she said.
The grass started growing, the bills piling up. There's been no sign of the al-Masris since, residents say.
... Neighborhood association President David Remsen, 53, said when it became apparent the house had been abandoned, he got the necessary legal OKs to enter the house in July. It looked as though the al-Masris left in a hurry, he said.
The furniture was still in place, there were sneakers on the floor and mail was piled behind the front door, Remsen said. On the dining room table, there were dishes still full of food, he said.
"It was as though they just left," he said.
Remsen said what really bothered neighbors, though, was that no one was cutting the grass. Residents worried about their property values kept calling him. Eventually, he cut the grass and cleaned up the yard himself, he said.
In recent months the FBI has visited the house periodically, changing locks and removing a computer from the property, said neighbor Rodney Lamarca, 58.
... The FBI backed a big trailer up to the house, took pictures of the roof and peered into an air duct. For a while they closed off the neighborhood...
I don't know how to add articles to the threads.
Can you add it, if you think it is worth adding??
I thought they searched this place before. Regardless, I'm glad they searched it.
The "we're very clean" statement doesn't make sense???
If the warrant is sealed, I think that means it's based on (presumably classified) information that the feds don't want to become public.
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