The FBI is investigating whether as many as a dozen al-Qaeda operatives tried to enter the USA to join the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, two top federal law enforcement sources said Monday. Based in part on an examination of immigration records, some FBI officials are examining whether al-Qaeda deployed more operatives than it needed to carry out the 9/11 attacks because it expected some of them would be turned away at U.S. borders. Meanwhile, the FBI continues to investigate a theory that al-Qaeda wanted to hijack more than the four jets that were crashed in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
One of those identified by the FBI as a potential hijacker is a Saudi Arabian in his mid-20s who was turned away from the USA after arriving at Orlando’s airport in late August 2001, the sources said. The FBI is focusing on the man, identified only as al-Qahtani, because security cameras captured 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta on a phone in that airport about the same time al-Qahtani was to arrive. Atta called a number in the Middle East.
FBI agents do not know whether there is a link between Atta’s appearance at the airport and al-Qahtani’s arrival. "We can’t prove it at this point," one of the law enforcement sources said. "But, certainly, it’s suspicious."
| Depends on how many other Arabs — especially Soddies and Egyptians — were in the airport at the same time, and what al-Qahtani does for a living... |
One of the most intriguing questions about the 9/11 plot has been why United Flight 93, the jet that crashed in Pennsylvania during a revolt by passengers, carried four hijackers while the three other hijacked jets each had five. Many FBI officials have doubted that accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, 35, a French citizen arrested while taking flight lessons in Minnesota in August 2001, was meant to be the "20th hijacker."
| Everybody else was Soddy or Egyptian. And Moussaoui isn't very bright... |
Moussaoui, who acknowledges being a member of al-Qaeda but denies being part of the 9/11 plot, is in a Virginia jail awaiting trial on terrorism conspiracy charges. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. In November, USA TODAY reported that some FBI officials believed that a man who tried to enter the USA in late August 2001 was meant to be the 20th hijacker. A third law enforcement source said that the man had made it to the USA but "had to leave." In its editions Monday, Newsweek said the FBI thinks that al-Qahtani was to have been the 20th hijacker.
| It could also be that they only intended to have 19, which is a mystical number, as we all know... |
The two law enforcement sources interviewed by USA TODAY said al-Qahtani is among the dozen operatives being investigated as potential hijackers. Al-Qahtani raised suspicion at Orlando’s airport and was turned out of the country by a U.S. immigration official. Al-Qahtani later was captured in Afghanistan and sent to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he is being interrogated.
"More giggle juice, Qahtani?"
"Yersssh, shank yew!" |
The sources said that none of the suspected operatives, including al-Qahtani, has been linked to the 9/11 plot. In some cases, their names were flagged after being checked against the hijackers’ backgrounds and travel patterns. The locations of the suspected operatives besides al-Qahtani are unclear. A U.S. panel investigating 9/11 will hear testimony next week from Jose Melendez-Perez, the immigration agent who stopped al-Qahtani in Orlando.
| I'd think that if there were more Bad Guys trying to come in, they were more likely to be additional hijack crews, so we should be looking at groups of four or five. Either that, or that they were supposed to form the second wave, which would have actually wreaked havoc on the country at the time. If I'd planned 9-11, I'd have had the twin towers strike, followed by a week's worth of car booms and random assassinations, probably using no more than a half dozen people. Then I'd have had a second, nearly as impressive incident, perhaps booming the Mall of the Americas or the Space Needle, which would have involved no more than four people. Instead, these guys staged one strike, then sat back and waited for a counterstrike. Military genius in its finest flower. |
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