Satam Al Suqami's passport and Florida ID

[KJF]

As is well known, the passport of Satam Al Suqami, one of the alleged hijackers on American 11, which hit the WTC's North Tower, supposedly survived the attack and was found soon after. The 9/11 Commission tells it like this:
"a passerby picked it up from the World Trade Center and handed to a New York Police Department detective shortly before the towers collapsed."
(Terrorist Travel, p. 21)

When interviewed two days after the attacks by the FBI, American Airlines ticket agent Candice C. claimed that Al Suqami really did check in with his Saudi passport. (Terrorist Travel, p. 44).

This is all well and good, but the 9/11 Commission takes it a step further, and claims that Al Suqami had to use his passport because, in contrast to all the other hijackers, he had no US ID:
"Fourteen of the 15 operatives and all of the pilots acquired multiple forms of US state-issued identification. Only Satam Al Suqami did not,"
(Terrorist Travel, p. 8).

However, a man called Satam Al Suqami did have US ID, issued in Florida on July 3, 2001. Between June 29 and July 10 alleged hijackers Ahmed Al Nami, Hamza Al Ghamdi, Mohand Al Shehri, Wail Al Shehri, Ahmed Al Haznawi, Saeed Al Ghamdi and Fayez Ahmed Banihammad all obtained Florida ID. Presumably, they used the Lauderdale Lakes office from which Atta and Jarrah obtained Florida driving licences. Al Suqami's Florida ID listed an address in Palm Beach county, where several hijackers lived during their time in the US. In addition, the local press reported that the Satam Al Suqami who got the Florida ID had the same middle initials as the alleged hijacker - "MA" - and had previously had a driving licence from Saudi Arabia, from which Satam Al Suqami allegedly came.
Links:
http://www.sptimes.com/News/091601/State/Hijackers_got_state_I.shtml
Terrorist Travel, Chapter 2

What does this tell us about the standard of the 9/11 Commission's work? They claim to have conducted "exacting investigative work", but couldn't even be bothered to Google "Satam Al Suqami Florida identification", which would have given them this:
http://www.google.com/search?hs=nXw&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=Satam+al+Suqami+Florida+identification%3F&btnG=Search
Click on the fourth link ("Worldandnation: Names of Hijackers") to find when he got his ID.

Wikipedia gets this right, does that mean we should trust Wikipedia before we trust the 9/11 Commission?

[reprehensor]

1. The Omission Commission.

THE 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT ONE YEAR LATER... A CITIZENS’ RESPONSE – DID THE COMMISSION GET IT RIGHT?

[KJF]

3. Thanks for the link

There's some good stuff there.

[KJF]

2. How many driving licences did Ahmed Al Haznawi have?

Ahmed Al Haznawi is one of the hijackers accused of being aboard United 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania. According to the 9/11 Commission, he had two US identification documents, both of them Florida driver's licences:
"July 10. Haznawi obtained a Florida driver's license with a learner's permit."
(Terrorist Travel, p. 28)

"September 7: ... Haznawi obtained a duplicate Florida driver's license."
(Terrorist Travel, p. 33)
By the way, he also flew Spirit Airlines from Fort Lauderdale to Newark on September 7 with the other United 93 hijackers. The time on the application seems to be 13:48, although it's hard to tell. However, I see no reason why he couldn't be in Fort Lauderdale in the early afternoon and New Jersey in the evening.

The list on page 32 of Terrorist Travel also says he has two Florida driver's licences, obtained on July 10 and September 7.

However, the organisation which actually issued his driver's licences, the Division of Driver Licenses at the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, actually said he had three licenses. In addition to the two mentioned by the Commission, he also had a replacement issued on 24 July 2001.
Link:
http://www.sptimes.com/News/121401/State/Requests_for_Florida_.shtml

Luckily, the St. Petersburg Times has published photos of his applications of 24 July and 7 September. Here they are:

The address is a rental apartment he shared with Jarrah. The photo is from his US visa application and must have been superimposed by the paper.

Whilst there may be an ulterior motive behind some of the omissions and distortions contained in the 9/11 Commission Report, I don't see any reason for them leaving out his replacement driver's licence issued on 24 July. In my opinion, it's just a result of their general sloppiness.

[KJF]

4. Wail Al Shehri checked in with a driving licence he didn't have

Wail Al Shehri is one of the hijackers accused of being aboard American 11, which hit the North Tower of the World Trade Centre. The 9/11 Commission claims he checked in with a driver's licence, although it appears he did not actually have a US-issued driver's licence.

American Airlines ticket agent Elvia C. was interviewed by the FBI on 13 September and recalled that the Al Shehri brothers presented drivers' licences at check-in. Waleed Al Shehri did have a Florida driver's licence, which was issued on 4 May, a duplicate being issued the next day. There is some dispute over whether Wail Al Shehri also had a Florida driver's licence; the 9/11 Commission states that he only had a single US ID document, but it claims that this is both a Florida identification card and a Florida driver's licence . According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which issued the document, it is an identification card. Link: http://www.sptimes.com/News/091601/State/Hijackers_got_state_I.shtml
Terrorist Travel: http://www.9-11commission.gov/staff_statements/911_TerrTrav_Monograph.pdf

Setting aside the possibilities that it may have been a forgery and that he may have used his international driver's licence, if you ask me what happened here is that the check-in agent confused an ID card issued by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles with a driver's licence - hardly a difficult mistake to make. However, when a staffer proofread Terrorist Travel, he noticed Wail Al Shehri is supposed to have checked in with a driver's licence, but didn't have one, so he altered his entry on the list of hijackers' documents on page 32 from "FL ID" to "FL DL", but neglected to alter the entry on page 27 of the body of the text that said he had a Florida ID card, not a driver's licence. This shows that the 9/11 Commission fiddled the facts to fit the story at least once, even though, in this case, I don't think it was with particularly malign intent.

[KJF]

5. Did Atta have a USAID card?

According to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, 7 hijackers, including Atta, did:
“In July 2001, Mohamed Atta, Abdul Aziz al Omari, Nawaf al-Hazmi, Salem al-Hazmi, Khalid al-Mihdhar, Ahmed Alghamdi, and Majed Moqed purchased personal identification cards at Apollo Travel in Paterson, New Jersey. Atta purchased a Florida identification card, while the others purchased New Jersey identification cards.”
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_hr/092602mueller.html
Paterson is the third largest city in New Jersey and has a large Middle-Eastern population. Apollo International Travel specialises in the Middle East and both Atta and Nawaf Al Hazmi bought plane tickets from there. The owner, Munther Ammar, claimed Atta spoke both English and Arabic.

However, according to the 9/11 Commission, Atta didn't have a USAID card. In the list on pages 31 and 32 of Terrorist Travel, the 9/11 Commission claims that the following hijackers obtained USAID cards:
Khalid Al Mihdar (issued 10 July 01)
Nawaf Al Hazmi (issued 10 July 01)
Ahmed Al Ghamdi (issued July 01, although on p. 29 it claims it was issued in August)
Majed Moqed (issued July 01, although on p. 29 it claims it was issued in August)
Salem Al Hazmi (issued 1 July 01)
Abdulaziz Alomari (issued 10 July 01)
They claim the only US document Atta had was a Florida driver's licence, issued at the Lauderdale Lakes office on 2 May.

What happened here? Why would the FBI think he had a USAID card if he didn't. He apparently visited Apollo Travel in early July to buy a plane ticket (one-way to Madrid, via Zurich on Swiss Air, it cost USD 550 and he flew in coach), so they just figured he was in a travel agency, so he must have bought an ID card? And they knew he lived in Florida so they just assumed it must be a Florida ID? Alternatively, he really did have the ID, and the 9/11 Commission failed to mention it, like they failed to mention Satam Al Suqami's Florida ID card - http://journals.democraticunderground.com/KJF/2 - and one of Ahmed Al Haznawi's driving licences - http://journals.democraticunderground.com/KJF/3. I don't know which is worse.

In addition, it appears that Khalid Al Mihdhar and Salem Al Hazmi's ID cards were issued on 30 December 2000, when neither of them was officially in the country, not 1 July and 10 July 2001. See here: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/KJF/1

Links:
Interviews with the owner of Apollo International Travel after the attacks:
http://adcnj.us/newsday.htm
He only mentions the plane ticket purchased by Atta.

http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/10/29/inv.hijackers/
He also mentions the plane ticket purchased by Al Hazmi.

[Andre II]

6. Very good work again! n/t