Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian Al-Qaida hijacker-suicide pilot who flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, is again in the news. FoxNews Megyn Kelly interviewed Army Reserve Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer of the Able Danger Al-Qaida tracking project and former CIA agent Mike Baker. The question was how Mohamed Atta was able to elude US military, CIA, and other intelligence agencies to pilot the Boeing 767 into the World Trade Center in 2001, after being known as an Al-Qaida agent linked to Osama bin-Laden since 1999.
The answer is likey to be part ideology, part strategy, part tactics. US intelligence may not have understood Mohamed Atta's commitment to Al-Qaida.
Atta graduated in architecture at Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt in 1990. Then he became a member of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Engineering Syndicate. His father, a civil and Sharia lawyer, sent him to Germany to continue his studies. Atta felt skyscrapers in Cairo were disrupting the fabric of the city, a "shabby symbol of Egypt's haphazard attempts to modernize and it's shameless embrace of the West".
Atta began a strict Islamic diet in 1992 and began going to the mosques, radicalizing into a militant Islamic. While attending school at the Technical University of Hamburg, Germany, he joined Al-Quds Mosque. Atta formed the Al-Qaida Hamburg Cell with Ramzi Binalshibh, Osama bin-Laden liaison and planner, Marwan al-Shehhi and Zaid Jarrah, members of his "plane bombing" project.
In 1996, angered by the Israeli "Grapes of Wrath" attack on Lebanon, Atta made a will. The will bound him to Al-Quds Mosque, "a harsh, uncompromising, fundamentalist militant version of Sunni Islam". In making the will, "he offered his life" to Al-Qaida, a Sunni, puritanical sect of Wahhabism Islam.
Atta traveled to Afghanistan and met Osama bin-Laden and other Al-Qaida operatives between 1997 and 1999. Atta returned to Germany in 1999. Abu Hofs of Al-Qaida said Atta was a suitable candidate for the "planes operation", since Atta was well-educated and had experience living in western society.
What US intelligence does not seem to really understand is the US Judeo-Christian--Islamic difference in "offering one's life". Making "the ultimate sacrifice" in the West is done to save one's troops. Al-Qaidas offer their lives and those of their "troops" in a suicide mission to harm their enemy. Atta's commitment was made 5years before 9/11/2001; it was unwavering.
Atta, the "planes operation" leader, spend 2 years preparing and planning to execute his Al-Qaida plot on September 11, 2001. The first step was to report his passport missing on his return to Germany from Afghanistan, to obscure his Al-Qaida link. In Berlin Germany, Atta applied for and received a US visa the next day, a 5-1/2 year B1/B2 visa for tourist and business purposes, by May 17, 2000.
2000, the first year, was devoted to the necessary flight training. Atta had emailed 50-60 flight school inquiries from Germany by the end of March, 2000. Atta chose Huffman Aviation of Lakeland, Florida.
Atta took a bus trip from Germany to Prague, Czechoslovakia on June 2, 2000. He flew to Newark, New Jersey the next day. Once in the US, Atta rented rooms, apartments, and cars frequently. He used diversionary paths, "zigzagging" from airports and planes to rental cars and driving, to arrive at his destinations.
Atta started flight school in July, 2000, took solo flights by the end of the month. He earned his "instrument ratings" by November, 2000. Atta obtained a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) commercial pilot's license by December, 2000.
In December, 2000, Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi ordered mail order jet flight manuals and took jet simulator sessions at other airports and airlines.
Mishaps included an abandoned Piper Cherokee at Miami International Airport 12/26/2000. Despite this, Sun Trust Bank accounts, a large amount wire transfer from a United Arab Emirate liaison of known terrorist Omari Sheikh Sayed (aka Mustafa Muhammed Admad), Atta flew under the radar throughout 2000.
Atta traveled back and forth from Tarragon, Spain to Florida and Georgia in 2001, for additional planning sessions with Binalshibh and others. Around April, 3, 2001, Atta greeted the 19 Al-Qaida "muscle hijackers", who most likely attacked the passengers on American Airlines Flight 11 and the other 3 jetliners during the coordinated attacks on "9/11".
Another "red flag" came on 4-16-2001 when Atta received a Florida (FL) citation for driving without a valid driver license. He applied and received one on 5-2-2001 at Lauderdale Lakes, FL.
From Lauderdale, Atta flew to Boston, MA, then to San Francisco, CA, then Las Vegas, NV to meet Al-Qaida associates. Atta flew back and forth from Europe, including Zurich, Switzerland, where he withdrew 1700 Swiss francs from an ATM at a stopover, to Madrid, Spain and back to Florida.
Another "red flag" came on August 13, 2001, when Atta's FL driver license was revoked "in absentia" for failure to show-up for the April "no valid DL" ticket.
Atta was a frequent flyer passenger on commercial airlines or drove long distances, over 3,000 miles, in rental cars almost weekly throughout 2001. His itinerary was hectic as he made "surveillance flights" to learn commercial jet routines on various airlines in various locations in the US. Foreign flights seem to be related to meeting Binalshibh, bin-Laden's liaison, and other Al-Qaida links for continued planning for the "planes" project.
Atta had flown as a passenger on commercial US domestic or international jetliners on a monthly basis in the 2 years prior to "9/11". He and Shehhi had attended flight school, had obtained a commercial pilot's license from the FAA, had taken simulated jetliner sessions, traveled to, rented in, or visited at least 8 states in the US. Atta had traveled back and forth from at least 4 foreign countries. Atta and his Al-Qaida links lived very public lives in the US from May, 2000 through September 11, 2001.
In the final days, Atta flew US Airways from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Baltimore, MD on 9/7/2001, sent $3,000 and $5,000 from Safeway and Giant groceries in Laurel, MD to Mustafa Muhammud Admad (Omari Syed) in Dubai on 9/8/2001.
On 9/9/2001 Atta drove to Boston, MA in a rented Nissan Maxima to pick up Al-Qaida associate Omari at the Milner Hotel. Then they drove to Portand, Maine where they stayed at the Comfort Inn. On 9/11/2001 Atta left the Nissan at the Portland International Jetport and flew Colgan Air on an early morning flight to Boston, MA.
At Boston's Logan International Airport, Atta was selected by "Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System" (CAPPS) for extra screening for baggage explosives. But there was no further passenger screening at the boarding security checkpoint.
Atta arrived at Terminal B South on US Airways and went to the American Airlines departing gate on Terminal B North. The 2 gates were not connected by security.
Atta received a 6:45AM call from Marwan al-Shehhi to confirm the "9/11" attacks. He went through passenger security twice.
American Airlines Flight 11 had 81 passengers aboard when it departed Logan International Airport at 7:59AM. Atta had Business class seat 8D.
The cockpit responded normally to Boston Air Traffic Control (ATC) at 8:13:47AM with a request to change course. Atta began the attack at 8:14AM, 15 minutes into the flight, at beverage service.
American Airlines Flight 11 pilots stopped responding to ATC requests for change in course as the plane began deviating from its flight path. At 8:18AM flight attendants Betty Ong and Madeline Amy Sweeney made cellphone calls to American Airlines to report no communication with the cockpit and passenger injuries.
At 8:23 ATC asked the airliner to reply: "Is that American 11?" Atta was heard on the airlines radio, saying "Buddy...Buddy...We have some planes. Just stay quiet and you will be OK. We are returning to the airport..." At 8:33AM, the air traffic controller asked "Who is trying to call me here? American 11, are you trying to call?" Atta's voice was heard saying: "Nobody move please. We are going back to the airport. Nobody make any stupid moves please." The transponder turned off at 8:28AM.
American Airlines Flight 11 had a flight duration of 1hr:47min before crashing into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46:40AM, the first of 2 jetliners to crash into the World Trade Center.
Atta's bags remained at Logan International Airport. They contained airline uniforms, Atta's will, instructions, and motivational statements. Atta wrote:
"You must make your knife sharp and you must not discomfort your animal during the slaughter". Atta's instructions had the cold-blooded intensity of a manual written for a Halal butcher.
The horror of the 9/11/2001 coordinated attacks must not be forgotten. Atta, too, most likely seemed to be a moderate Muslim, busily touring the US while training to be a commercial airline pilot for a job waiting for him at home.
On June 2, 2002 ABC News interviewed Johnelle Bryant, former loan officer at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in South Florida. Bryant recognized Muhamed Atta's newspaper photograph as that of a man who approached her to finance a "crop duster purchase, twin engine, 6-passenger aircraft & remove seats". Her records indicate Atta approached USDA between the 3rd week of April and the 3rd week of May, before his official visa arrival into the US.
Atta asked Bryant about the Pentagon, the White House, and about security at the World Trade Center, which he stated he wanted to visit. Atta also told Bryant about Osama bin-Laden, "this man would someday be known as the world's greatest leader". Atta told her Al-Qaida needed US memberships.
Bryant contacted authorities and passed a lie detector test.
Mohamed Atta's 2-year long, busy, public itinerary in the US and Europe, his passport, visa, and driver license irregularities, basic and advanced flight school and FAA commercial pilot's license, and his bold hints to another government agency were not heeded.
The unfamiliar, often duplicated and reversed, mulitple names used by Al-Qaida radical Islamists in the USA may help screen their activities. The enormous sums of money Al-Qaida agents spend help them go through airports, rental car companies, hotels, restaurants, and restaurant bars in the US quickly and easily.
Another source believes Mohamed Atta, a trim man of average height, with a distinctive face, an unchanging but quietly angry affect, possibly was in the US much earlier. In about 1991-1992, two men who looked like Mohamed Atta and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were introduced as Internal Medicine or Cardiology doctors in training programs at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio. Both visited MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, OH for Friday Cardiology lunch lectures. Mohamed Atta reportedly has an older sister who is a medical doctor, who may have been able to help arrange this.
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation recently expanded to Las Vegas, Nevada, city of gambling for quick money. Mohamed Atta and other al-Qaida agents traveled to meet in Las Vegas, possibly to finance Al-Qaida projects. Perhaps these links could reveal more information about past and future Al-Qaida plots against the US and the West.
Satellite video surveillance on US commercial airliners, in the cockpit and the passengers cabin, might not have saved American Airlines Flight 11 passengers and crew from horrible death by boxcutter or whatever Al-Qaida "muscle hijackers" did. But video surveillance would have made it possible to confirm the murder of the passengers and crew to allow the military to shoot American Airlines 11 out of the sky before impact over 1 hour later at the World Trade Center.
Graphic: Detour sign from Chase's Calendar of Events, 2010.
Other references: www.wikipedia.com, ABC News, FoxNews.com.
Email mkrause381@gmail.com or mkrause54@yahoo.com to comment or request copies of this or other blogs in the "Obama Accounting" series or other blogs posted by mary for monthlynotesstaff on http://monthlynotesfive.blogspot.com or http://monthlynotes.blogspot.com (two through six) on www.google.com.
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