|
Writer:
Could Alleged Sept. 11 Hijacker have been that Green?!
 |
|
Mohamed Atta |
By
Khaled Mamdouh, IOL Cairo Bureau
CAIRO,
June 7 (IslamOnline) – A U.S. civil servant revealed Thursday that
Mohammad Atta, alleged suspected leader of the September 11 hijackers,
tried to borrow money from the U.S. Government to buy a plane. The
statement left behind dozens of loose ends and unanswered question
marks, to put it mildly.
Johnelle
Bryant, a loan officer at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in
Homestead
,
Florida
, told ABC News that Egyptian-born Atta wanted $650,000 to buy and
modify a crop-dusting plane in May 2000.
She
said she rejected his application because it did not make sense, but
was not suspicious enough to report the contact to federal
authorities.
"He
wanted to finance a twin-engine, six-passenger aircraft and remove the
seats. And he said he was an engineer, and he wanted to build a
chemical tank that would fit inside the aircraft and take up every
available square inch of the aircraft except for where the pilot would
be sitting," Bryant told ABC.
Bryant
said that she and Atta discussed al-Qaeda and Bin Laden during his
visit to her office, and he asked her about security at the
World
Trade
Center
and what she knew of
Chicago
,
Seattle
and
Los Angeles
.
She
said she thought she was just helping a new immigrant learn about her
country.
Atta
spent more than an hour with Bryant, though he did not wish to deal
with her at first, saying she was "but a woman".
She
said he asked about
U.S.
landmarks and asked to buy an aerial photograph of
Washington
on her office wall.
"He
pulled out a wad of cash... and started throwing money on my desk. He
wanted that picture really bad," Bryant told ABC.
"He
asked about the Pentagon and the White House and I pointed them
out."
Atta
also talked of Bin Laden. "He said this man would someday be
known as the world's greatest leader," Bryant said.
"I
did not know who Osama Bin Laden was... he could have been a character
on Star Wars for all I knew."
She
contacted authorities after recognizing Atta in news reports after he
– supposedly - piloted the first plane into the
World
Trade
Center
.
Commenting
on Bryant story, a former
U.S.
writer told IslamOnline Friday; “The first question mark is;
someone, who, refused to talk to Bryant as she was but a woman,
suddenly goes to plan B and decides to confide in her and reveal his
plans about leading the biggest ever terrorist attacks on the
U.S.
!
“For
the most part, is not it a bit confusing, for someone planning such
“big attacks” to resort to
U.S.
government to finance his “evil plans”?
“No
one goes to any bank, any place in the world, to ask for any loan
unless he/she has collateral to back his security for the loan,”
Vada Hart said.
“What
I say can easily be verified by contacting any bank anywhere,” the
now Cairo-based writer added.
“One
more point is Bryant not being suspicious enough to report her
encounter with Atta to the Feds. Then, she waited for almost nine
months to grab the “spotlight”, could this be the whole
point?!,” Ms Hart wondered.
“Or
simply, Atta must have been a mad man? Yet again, why refer a mad man
to other banks or agencies?,” she said.
Several
other question marks remain unanswered, however, this has always been
the case since the tragic events of September 11. Majority of, if not
all, Muslims have condemned the attacks and regretted the death of
innocent civilians, as that goes against the principles of Islam.
However,
the
U.S.
war on
Afghanistan
has also been questioned, due to the heavy loss of civilians there,
too.
|
