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| Who helped hijackers still a mystery |
| 2003-09-11 |
| Two years after al-Qaeda terrorists slammed planes into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, investigators remain deeply divided over whether the 19 hijackers had help from other al-Qaeda operatives in the US, and still are unable to answer some of the central questions in the case. The uncertainties persist despite the largest FBI investigation - which included 180,000 interviews and 7000 agents - and raise the possibility that Americans will never know precisely how the conspirators were able to pull off the attacks. 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 planes in 2001. But perhaps the biggest riddle - one that has only become murkier in recent months - centres on the support given to the hijackers while they prepared for the attacks, and what that suggests about an existing network of operatives in the US. A recent congressional inquiry raises the possibility that al-Qaeda supporters, in place in the US to help the hijackers, were aware of at least some aspects of the plot and might have been supported by elements of another government, Saudi Arabia. If true, that could mean that domestic accomplices to the attacks are still at large. FBI investigators - who initially believed that such a support network was likely - concluded by early 2002 that no evidence could be found of any organised domestic effort to aid the hijackers. Since then, FBI, Justice Department and intelligence officials have consistently portrayed the hijacking teams as disciplined operatives who kept to themselves and did not draw upon existing terrorist cells for help. Investigators believe the hijackers relied on unwitting fellow immigrants in obtaining flats, identification papers and other help after they had entered the US. But in a scathing report released this northern summer, the joint inquiry reached a much different conclusion: that intelligence sources and the FBI’s own investigation had revealed contacts between the leading hijackers and at least 14 suspected terrorist associates in San Diego and elsewhere in the US - including several whom the FBI was monitoring at the time of the contacts. The congressional inquiry also alleged that two of the associates might have had ties to the Saudi Government, a charge which has strained US relations with Riyadh. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #4 Mustang Ranch? |
| Posted by: raptor 2003-9-11 6:40:28 PM |
| #3 Let's see why did they go to Vegas? Why were they in a strip club before??? Well, duh. I also wouldn't doubt planning was going on, too. I understand the casino in Jericho is very popular. Hypocrites. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-9-11 10:35:27 AM |
| #2 When American bombs are flattening Mecca and Medina, then we'll know the war is almost over. I think, I hope, the Saudis are getting a pass for now because they are the last ones on the list. |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2003-9-11 9:11:56 AM |
| #1 We already know how they did it! Boxcutters, money, forged passports, research, lax security, and lack of intelligence sharing. Not to mention we had the entire plan on ( Insert that guy who's being trailed as a 9/11 conspirator here )laptop, but weren't aloud to look inside it. Why weren't we allowed to look inside? Because we had no 'just cause'. The Patriot act took care of that little problem though. |
| Posted by: Charles 2003-9-11 2:47:08 AM |