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| Terror Networks |
| Phone calls link Moussaoui to 9-11 thugs |
| 2001-10-17 |
An Islamic radical who took flying lessons in Oklahoma and Minnesota exchanged several phone calls this year with some of the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, federal sources say. FBI investigators recently learned of the phone calls, which represent the strongest link yet between Zacarias Moussaoui and the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, was arrested on immigration charges in Minnesota nearly a month before the hijackings. Moussaoui attracted attention in Minnesota this summer by offering a flight school more than $8,000 in cash for lessons in how to handle a plane in mid-flight. He was not interested in learning how to take off or land. The new information about Moussaoui comes as the FBI-led worldwide probe into the attacks has focused on fewer than 100 people now in federal custody and another 133 wanted for questioning. Since Sept. 19, the FBI has dropped 284 names from a list of people wanted for questioning in the case. The New York Times reported Thursday that German authorities believe Moussaoui received $15,000 in money transfers from Germany in August, shortly before beginning an $8,300 flying course at a school in Eagan, Minn. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |