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| Terror Networks |
| Atta's roommate wired money to hijackers |
| 2002-06-06 |
| The government kept hijacking ringleader Mohammed Atta's roommate from entering the United States on at least four occasions but didn't track his money transfers that led directly to the eventual hijackers, law enforcement officials say. Ramzi Bin al-Shibh - named in court papers as an unindicted hijacking co-conspirator and the focus of a worldwide manhunt - intended to join the hijackers on their mission but shifted to providing logistical support when he couldn't get into the country, the officials said. Officials said the Yemen citizen was refused a U.S. visa four times in 2000 because of suspicions he wouldn't leave America if he was let in. FBI money tracking experts have reconstructed wire transfers he made from Germany and Yemen, some under an alias, that went to the eventual hijackers and to one of the flight schools where they trained, the officials told The Associated Press. Two of those transfers went last summer to Zacarias Moussaoui, the man U.S. officials believe was chosen to replace Bin al-Shibh as a hijacker but who was foiled when he was arrested at a Minnesota flight school last August, officials said. These guys do everything under an alias. When they're born, they're given forged birth certificates. They can go to the grave not being sure who they are, or if they were anyone. What a sad and pointless way to live. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |