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Submitted for your perusal. From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51669-2003Sep9.htmlTWO YEARS LATER: Unanswered Questions
Who Aided Hijackers Is Still Mystery
FBI Disputes Findings Of Congressional Inquiry
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Some of the doubts surround intriguing details: Investigators still have no firm grasp on why the hijacker pilots booked layovers in Las Vegas during apparent practice runs on commercial airliners in 2001.From the 9/11 Congressional Report: http://news.findlaw.com/usatoday/docs/911rpt/part2.pdfBeginning in May 2001, each of the four pilot hijackers flew across the United States. FBI Director Mueller described these trips: “With their training complete, it appears that the pilots began conducting possible surveillance flights as passengers aboard cross-country flights transiting between the Northeast United States and California.”
On May 24, al-Shehhi flew from New York to San Francisco on a Boeing 767 (seated in first class), leaving immediately on a Boeing 757 (seated in first class) to Las Vegas.
On May 27, al-Shehhi left Las Vegas to San Francisco, continuing to New York on a Boeing 767 (seated in first class).
On June 7, Jarrah flew from Baltimore via Los Angeles to Las Vegas, returning to Baltimore on June 10.
On June 28, Atta flew from Boston to San Francisco, continuing to Las Vegas, departing there on July 1 through Denver to Boston.
On August 13, Atta flew a second time across country from Washington to Las Vegas on a Boeing 757 (seated in first class), returning on August 14 to Ft. Lauderdale.
On August 13, Hanjour and al-Hazmi (seated in first class) flew from Dulles to Las Vegas via Los Angeles. They left Las Vegas on August 14 on a flight to Minneapolis (close to Eagan, Minnesots, where Moussaoui had started flight lessons the day before), connecting an hour and a half later to a flight to Baltimore.
Director Mueller noted the Las Vegas layovers:
"Each of the return flights for these hijackers had layovers in Las Vegas. To date, the purpose of these one-to-two day layovers is not known. However, with respect to travel to Las Vegas, we know that at least one hijacker on each of the four hijacked airplanes traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada sometime between May and August of 2001. This travel consisted of an initial transcontinental trip from an east-coast city to a west-coast city, and a connection in that west-coast city to a Las Vegas-bound flight."******************************************************************* Now then, from Jayna Davis' Oklahoma City Bombing investigation: http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/index.jsp?section=static&page=jaynadavisMiddle Eastern terrorist cell operating in the heart of Oklahoma City
On April 20, KFOR-TV's news director assigned me to track local leads regarding possible suspects. The assignment amounted to nothing more than monitoring satellite feeds of FBI press conferences - that is until one telephone call to the newsroom led me directly to the doorstep of what several esteemed intelligence experts later determined to be a Middle Eastern terrorist cell operating in the heart of Oklahoma City. Several American employees at a local property management company that we were investigating claimed they saw a brown Chevy truck, which matched the getaway vehicle aggressively pursued by law enforcement, parked outside the business office in the days before the bombing.
The PLO/Iraqi connection
The company owner was a Palestinian immigrant from Tel Aviv who had pleaded guilty to federal insurance fraud in the early 1990's and served time in the penitentiary. Court records revealed that the FBI suspected the Palestinian businessman, who operated under eight known aliases, of having connections with the Palestinian Liberation Organization. This man, a psychologist from the Oklahoma State Department of Human Services, funded his vast, four million dollar rental housing empire through money he received from siblings living in Baghdad, Jerusalem, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and Amman, Jordan.
The Las Vegas crossroads
Staff members related details about the Palestinian property owner's travel habits, including his frequent trips to Las Vegas where prime suspects McVeigh and Nichols were known to spend one weekend a month. Had the three men crossed paths? Terry Nichols' son Josh identified the Palestinian ex-felon from a photo lineup as a man he had seen in Las Vegas. When asked if the Middle Eastern subject met with his father, Josh refused to answer. Lana Padilla said her ex-husband Terry Nichols and Tim McVeigh would visit Josh in her home city of Las Vegas monthly and were often accompanied by unidentified men of Middle Eastern origin. She recalled the two Oklahoma City bombers frequented a bar known as Glitter Gulch, a strip club/casino located adjacent to Binion's Horseshoe, a casino/hotel where the security staff described the Palestinian ex-patriate from Oklahoma City as a "VIP" customer and "high roller at the poker tables." According to the man's secretary, he routinely traveled to Las Vegas and returned with large amounts of cash.
On April 20, 1995, less than 24 hours after the bombing, the Palestinian businessman boarded a plane in Oklahoma City bound for Las Vegas. The next day, Terry Nichols surrendered to federal authorities at the Herington, Kansas police department. News of the interrogation of the "material witness" flooded the television airwaves. Phone records reveal that just hours later, an unknown party called Nichols' Kansas home twice from a payphone at the Las Vegas casino Circus Circus. At the time, the Palestinian businessman was registered at Binion's Horseshoe and was within walking distance of the pay phones where the calls to Nichols' residence originated. |
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