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Could Alleged Sept. 11 Hijacker have been that Green?!
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Mohamed Atta |
By Khaled Mamdouh, IOL Cairo
Bureau
WASHINGTON, 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.
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,” a former U.S. writer told IslamOnline
Friday.
“What I say can easily be verified
by contacting any bank anywhere,” the now Cairo-based, Vada Hart
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?!
Or simply, Atta must have been a mad
man? Yet again, why refer a mad man to other banks or agencies?
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, not just due to the heavy loss of civilians
there, too, but also lack of thorough investigation to determine the
real criminals of Sept. 11.
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