1994 : (ATTA, SYRIA) Atta visited Syria several times from 1994 to 1999. He spent several weeks in Aleppo during August 1994 conducting research for what would eventually be his thesis about the renewal of part of the old quarter of Aleppo in Syria. Atta returned again in December, making contact with members in the committee of the project to revive old Aleppo.default.htm
DECEMBER 1994: (ATTA, YARKAS, DAHDAH) Atta visited Syria several times from 1994 to 1999. Atta returned again in December, making contact with members in the committee of the project to revive old Aleppo.default.htm Sept. 11 suspect Imad Yarkas (alias Abu Dahdah) , comes from Mamoun Darkazanli's home town of Aleppo, Syria. Atta also spent time in Aleppo during the mid-1990s while researching his dissertation on trade development there.
DECEMBER 1994: (PHILLIPPINES AIRLINER PLOT, BOJINKA, HAMBALI, SHAH) Indonesian cleric Riduan Isamuddin, 37 - better known as Hambali - along with his partner in the firm "Konsojaya trading company" in Kuala Lumpur, Wali Khan Amin Shah, helped to bomb a Philippine Airlines jumbo jet. A Japanese man was killed and the jet forced to land in Okinawa. US prosecutors said the bombing was a test for a much more ambitious plot to plant explosives in rapid succession on United, Northwest and Delta airlines jets bound for America's West Coast from cities throughout Asia. A freak accident and fire in January 1995 in the Manila apartment that served as the group's bomb factory foiled that plan. Prosecutors say the mid-air explosions could have killed as many as 4,000 Americans in a 48-hour period. Malaysian officials and a former Philippine investigator now say the Konsojaya company was central to the bombing plot and was code-named "Bojinka".
DECEMBER 1994: (PHILLIPPINES AIRLINER PLOT, BOJINKA) PLOT TO BOMB AIRCRAFT IN THE FAR EAST (MANILA AIR) In December, 1994, the conspirators, including Kuwaiti-born Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, had engaged in a test on a Phillippines airliner using only about 10 percent of the explosives that were to be used in each of the bombs to be planted on United States airliners. The test resulted in the death of a Japanese national on board a flight from the Phillippines to Japan. The following defendant is included in the Indictment returned in the Southern District of New York: -Whitehouse.gov news release 20011010-1.html
DECEMBER 24 , 1994 : (ALGERIA, HIJACKING) Air France Airbus seized by Algerian Islamic terrorists and forced to fly to Marseilles airport, France. All the terrorists were killed when French CIGN counter-terrorist troops stormed the aircraft and rescued the 170 passengers and crew, 16 of whom suffered minor injuries.
DECEMBER 24, 1994 : (HIJACKING OF FRENCH PLANE) Four Muslim militants from the Algerian Armed Islamic Group kidnapped a French Airbus flight en route to Paris on December 24, 1994 killing three and injuring many others - "A Short History of World War IIIA Lesson of the Future.," by Sal Rosken, The Partial Observer , 2 March 2003
1994-95 : (USF PROFESSOR SAMI AL-ARIAN, SHALLAH) USF Professor Sami Al-Arian's brother in law, Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, teaches Arabic during the spring semesters at USF.
Hmmm. Look who arrived in the US in 1994:
1994 late - 1995 mid : (CHINA SELLS RING MAGNETS TO PAKISTAN) U.S. intelligence agencies conclude that from late 1994 to mid-1995, China sold some 5,000 ring magnets (used in gas centrifuges for enrichment of uranium for nuclear weapons) to Pakistan. CIA chief John Deutch informs the Senate Intelligence Committee. Clinton administration requests Export-Import Bank to postpone for 30 days new commitments to China of approximately US$10 billion in loan guarantees, pending review of Chinese nuclear technology transfers to Pakistan. - "U.S.-China Techonology Transfer: Annotated Timeline 1980-January 1998," by Bates Gill, GlobalBeat, NYU.edu, June 22, 1998
MAY 1994 : (OHIO TRUCKER/BROOKLYN BRIDGE CASE : FARIS ARRIVES IN THE US) Faris emigrated to the United States in May 1994 - "U.S. citizen secretly pleads guilty to scouting hit sites for al Qaeda ," by Frank J. Murray, Washington Times , 6/20/03
Other 1994 goings-on:
MAY 4 1994 : (EGYPT : ISRAEL & PLO AGREE ON INITIAL IMPLEMENTATION OF OSLO ACCORDS) Israel and the PLO reach agreement in Cairo on the initial implementation of the Oslo Accords, including a Israeli military withdrawal from about 60% of the Gaza Strip (Jewish settlements and their environs are excluded) and the West Bank town of Jericho. The Cairo agreement envisages further withdrawals from yet to be agreed areas of the occupied territories. A five year period begins in which a permanent resolution is to be negotiated on Jerusalem, settlements, Palestinian refugees and sovereignty. - "History of Middle East conflict," BBC News, Feb 7, 2001
JUNE 1994 : (SUDAN : BIN LADEN MEETS HIJAZI, DIRECTOR OF IRAQI INTELLIGENCE) bin Laden met with Faruq al-Hijazi, then the director of the Iraqi Intelligence Department, while in Khartoum. Iraqi concern over bin Laden’s militant Islamist zeal restrained their dealings with bin Laden and limited their willingness to provide practical support and cooperation. - Youssef Bodansky, “Bin Laden; The Man Who Declared War on America,” Prima Publishing, Roseville, CA, 2001, page 323
JULY 1, 1994 : (EGYPTIAN PLO LEADER ARAFAT RETURNS TO ISRAEL TO RUN PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY) Arafat makes a triumphal return to Gaza to take up his new position as head of the new Palestinian self-rule authority, after nearly 12 years of running the PLO from Tunis. - "History of Middle East conflict," BBC News, Feb 7, 2001
AUGUST 1994: (SUDAN, CARLOS) Sudan turned over the elusive international terrorist who called himself Carlos; the State Department called that "a significant development."
1994 : ( HIJACKING PLOT ON EIFFEL TOWER) The French thwart an attempt by hijackers to crash an airliner into the Eiffel Tower.
1994 : (BIN LADEN DISOWNED) Bin Laden's family and relatives publicly "disowned" him due to his crimes.
1994 : (IRAQ, SMALLPOX FREEZE-DRYER FOUND BY WEAPONS INSPECTORS) In 1994, U.N. inspectors at an Iraqi medical complex found a freeze-dryer labeled "smallpox" in Arabic, said former inspector Jonathan Tucker. The Iraqis claimed the equipment was used to make smallpox vaccine, Tucker said. A freeze-dryer could be used to make a weaponized form of the smallpox virus. "It's not conclusive proof but suggestive of Iraqi interest," said Tucker, author of a recent book on smallpox. Iraq also admitted to U.N. inspectors that its biological weapons scientists worked with camelpox, a close relative of the smallpox virus that doesn't usually infect people. Working with camelpox would give Iraq a way to perfect techniques for making smallpox weapons without endangering the researchers. "The only explanation is they used it to see how to grow smallpox, how to concentrate it, how to deploy it. It's a perfectly good and safe model for this," said Alibek, now director of the George Mason University Center for Biodefense in Manassas, Va. "It's hard to believe Saddam would do this work to protect his camels."
MARCH 1994 : (NY, ATTACK ON HASIDICS ON BROOKLYN BRIDGE) Rashad Baz, an immigrant from Lebanon, and two others shoot up a van full of Hasidic students, wounding four, on the Brooklyn Bridge. Baz entered on a student visa in 1984. He attended courses parttime at a community college in 1984-85. He married a U.S. citizen in 1989 and applied for legal residence in 1991. Baz was accompanied by Bassam Mousa Reyati, a Jordanian, who entered as a student in 1989 and received residency in 1992 on the basis of marriage to a U.S. citizen. Hlal Mohammed, a Jordanian, was the third terrorist.
APRIL 1994 : ("HUA MAI" OPERATION; CHINA OBTAINS ENCRYPTION TECHNOLOGY BECAUSE OF CLINTON LICENSE POLICY CHANGE) The Clinton administration announced a new license policy for telecommunications exports. High Tech sales for commercial applications would, according to a Commerce Department document, "use a General License, GLX which does not require prior US Government approval for export." Thus began project "Hua Mei" and the transfer of US encryption technology to China.
APRIL 13, 1994 : (IRAQI DIPLOMATS ASSASSINATE DISSIDENT IN LEBANON) Five individuals, including two Iraqi diplomats, were arrested for assassinating Iraqi opposition figure Shaykh Talib Ali al-Suhayl in his house near West Beirut.
SEPTEMBER 1994 : (PAKISTAN ADMITS IT HAS RECEIVED MISSILES FROM CHINA) Political counselor of the Pakistan embassy in Washington, Zamir Akram, states that Pakistan has received M-11 missiles from China, but that their capabilities fall below the 300 kilometer range parameter set out by the Missile Technology Control Regime.- "U.S.-China Techonology Transfer: Annotated Timeline 1980-January 1998," by Bates Gill, GlobalBeat, NYU.edu, June 22, 1998
SEPTEMBER 1994 : (FBI DIR. FREEH'S ANTITERRORISM PACKAGE) FBI Dir. Freeh sends Dep. Att. Gen Gorelick a package of antiterrorism recommendations from the Executive Advisory Board of DoJ's Office of Investigative Policies. Recommendations are: 1. Develop a uniform database of State Dept. visa refusals; 2.Rethink the visa waiver pilot program; 3.Expand INS preinspection; 4.Allow classified information to be used by the court in deportation proceedings; 5.Tighten the asylum screening provisions and detain and expeditiously deport anyone suspected of terrorist intent; 6.Tighten controls against NIV overstayers and persons involved in sham marriages; 7. Share INS alien files with FBI terrorism investigators. (* so, did any of this get done by the admin?)
OCTOBER 1994 : (IRAQ SENDS TROOPS TOWARDS BORDER WITH KUWAIT) Iraq sent troops toward Kuwait but backed down after stern US warnings and troop buildups.
NOVEMBER 1994 : (USF PROFESSOR SAMI AL-ARIAN, ISLAMIC JIHAD) A PBS documentary, "Jihad in America" alleges USF Professor Sami Al-Arian is the head of the Islamic Jihad terrorist group's domestic support network. The documentary was created by Steve Emerson.