The Atta-Omar Ties

posted by ewing2001 on Sunday October 26, @12:20PM

GFP-correspondent Flori06 combined more pieces of the Atta-Pakistan connection -with long time ignored details

The Atta-Omar Ties -Notes on Kupferberg Article

A Few Observations of Curious Sept. 11-related Events

By Flori06 -October 22, 2003

Atta and Omar Saeed Sheikh were on board in Kandahar by January 1, 2000

There is a likely Mohamed Atta and Omar Saeed Sheikh connection that I detected that goes back to Kandahar on Jan. 1, 2000 plus. On Jan. 1, 2000, 159 hostages from an India Airlines flight that had been detoured by Al Qaeda hijackers were freed when Omar Saeed Sheikh was turned over to Al Qaeda.

Several weeks later, Omar Saeed Sheikh was spotted in Kashmir, then back in Pakistan, etc.

I had to work with various spellings of the name to piece it together (Sayed, Sa'id, Saeed, Saed for example; Sheik, Sheikh, Shaik) as press coverage and spelling ran the gamut from Pakistan, India and England, with virtually no mention in U.S. press at the time of the 1999 hijacking.

I researched everything I could through the above combinations of spellings. And here is something critical that I discovered. Sheikh sat languishing in a prison in India. Then Al Qaeda hijacked an Indian Airlines flight Dec. 24, 1999 and demanded Sheikh's release. Mohamed Atta was known to have arrived in Pakistan en route to Kandahar Dec. 3, 1999, with Binalshibh and Alshehhi having arrived in Pakistan Nov. 29, 1999.

Advertisement

There is no specific information in any news article, however, about when Atta went to Kandahar and how long he stayed, which could have been from December 3, 1999 through the end of January 2000 to as late as sometime in February 2000 (though keep in mind Atta was also reported as "sighted in Newport News, VA in the "winter" of 2000 checking out sensitive facilities there). Both Atta and Kalid Shaikh Mohammed were also reported enjoying some days of hedonistic pleasure at their favorite resort in the Philippines both in July and again in Dec. 1999.

At the same time that Atta was in Afghanistan also meeting with Osama bin Laden per Binalshibh disclosures, with the exception of a respite to the Philippine resort, the hijacking plan to free Omar Saeed Sheikh was underway. Was Atta perhaps BEHIND this request to free Omar Saeed Sheikh? Or Khalid Shaikh Mohammed? Or both? It seems that his release because of is ISI connection was somehow vital to the 9-11 plot.

Who then saw Omar Saeed Sheikh, a paymaster with top Pakistan ISI connections, but Osama bin Laden, as reported in press, following his Jan. 1, 2000 delivery to Kandahar.

And who else was likely in Kandahar at that time? It is possible that a meeting took place at a time that included Osama and Omar Saeed Sheikh and even Khalid Shaik Mohammed and Atta. And we also know that in January, 2000 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was at the meeting in Malaysia that was monitored where the Flight #77 hijackers who spun off to San Diego were present ... and with full knowledge that Omar Saeed Sheikh was back in play.

Several articles I located on Omar Saeed Sheikh (who was born in England and is a British citizen who dropped out of the London School of Economics), despite his having engaged in kidnapping, indicated the British Home Office was doing everything possible to try to get Omar Saeed Sheikh released from the India prison, with no success.

Why would the British want so much to see Sheikh freed? The kidnapping case against him was for all purposes not even disputed by him and involved an American and multi-million dollar extortion. Is it because Sheikh was a British agent or a double agent?

Is that perhaps WHY the FBI never moved to try to obtain his person, despite the fact that he had kidnapped a U.S. citizen? Or is it possible that Omar Saeed Sheikh was an agent for U.S.? The U.S. didn't seem interested in obtaining jurisdiction of Sheikh's person until after 9/11.

Why would Osama want Omar Saeed Sheikh freed? Likely because he was a paymaster, and he knew the ISI money channels and had his contacts through whom he could pass the money. It has been widely reported that the ISI passed $100,000 to Atta weeks before the attack. Could this have been the handiwork of the then-free Sheikh? After all, he was sighed in Pakistan at that time.

Whether they all met together or one after another with Osama during this period isn't important -- it is the fact this occurred in 1999 to very early 2000 when suddenly German intelligence and the CIA seemed to lose track of Atta and didn't seem to pick up the scent (though one article stated the CIA had Atta under complete surveillance Jan. 2000 - April 2000 which is also questionable since another CIA statement said they couldn't get Darkanzali to roll for them and had dropped all attempts to survey him and the Hamburg group by Dec. 1999).

Of course it was vital for Osama or planner Khalid Shaik Mohammed to get his "paymaster" who was the ISI connector freed from prison to move money for Al Qaeda operations around -- to see that Omar Saeed Sheikh was free. It has been equally important for Pakistan to keep him in prison. Notice that "though convicted" for the murder of Daniel Perle, Pakistani authorities never bother with hanging him! Those authorities are pretty smart in Pakistan. They have likely known that Khalid Shaik Mohammed who is absolutely ruthless was Daniel Pearl's murderer.

I doubt that Pakistan as a country wants to be "hung out to dry" by the U.S. in the Sept. 11 plot, therefore has made great strides to maintain jurisdiction over Omar Saeed Sheikh.

The Big Gap - The FBI says it doesn't know where Atta was from December 2000 through April 2001.

In addition to field research, mainstream articles pieced together show Atta's presence in the Venice, FL area during the period December 2000 through April 2001.

While Atta and Alshehhi made short junkets to Miami where they stalled a plane Dec. 24 - 27 and left it on the tarmac, and to Opa Locha next door the end of Dec. for two days of flight simulator time, they were back after Atta's week-long trip to Spain Jan. 4 - Jan. 11, 2001. In fact, Dekkers of Huffman Aviation in Congressional testimony had Atta back in his office January 3, 2001 making his final payment.

Between February 1 and 21, Atta and Alshehhi spent a couple of days weekly in Atlanta over a three week period. They rented planes, and made themselves visible on those couple of days per week by joining Gold's gym as well. Meanwhile, during this period Atta lived with more than a half dozen other Middle Easterners in North Port (next to Venice) in a luxurious homes, but by February 21 as his relationship with Amanda zoomed, he rented a private room at the home of Tony LaConca in North Port for a week. Following a wild trip to Key West with his gal, Amanda Keller, Atta decided to move into an apartment with her across from Huffman Aviation. Amanda rented the apartment at the Sandpiper and moved in by the first week of March.

But what did people read in Die ZEIT, and again in Der Spiegel on October 1, 2002? That Atta and Alshehhi rented an apartment in Hollywood, FL that was under 24/7 surveillance December 2000 through April 2001 ... by Israeli art students who subsequently are deported. The address given as "roughly between 7th Street and 21st Avenue" is indeed proximate to 1818 Jackson Street, Hollywood, FL. where they did live, but even the FBI and several witnesses at that location state that Atta & Alshehhi rented the apartment for only a month and that was May 13 - June 13, 2001 (not Dec. - Apr.).

Keep in mind that FBI Director Mueller testified to the Jt. House-Senate intelligence committees in Sept. 2002 that they "didn't know where Atta was between Dec. 2000 an April 2001." How convenient for the "Israeli art students" to fill in a false explanation -- "oh, we know where they were, they were in Hollywood, FL during that time" for an article that is printed OCT. 1, 2002. Or did an over-apologetic Der Spiegel get the dates wrong? This is significant because it completely blows smoke and dispenses with what Atta was really doing.

This period is so important because Atta met with a wealthy Saudi businessman the end of Dec. 2000 in a Venice walk-up apartment ... and again early March 2001 as the Saudi was leaving the country. Atta was there with MOUSSAOUI whom Kruithof had also seen with Ziad Jarrah who also trained at the Venice Airport and was present there during some of this time. And Amanda's knowledge of Atta's drug habits fully destroy the image of the "Islamic fundamentalist" painted by the government. Atta's witnesses to his connections to German nationals from Munich are also ignored if this period is brushed away. And any mention of his cocaine use absolutely disappears.

Atta, having finished his flight school studies and obtained his license Dec. 21 was able to go wild ... he hit the clubs and bars hard during this period; he met Amanda and the last weekend of February they were on their wild drug and alcohol fueled weekend fling in Key West with two of Atta's close friends from Munich (sons of wealthy industrialists). They were locking down dufflebags of cocaine in a specially rented motel room that none of them occupied.

An undisclosed Venice area resident told wire service, picked up by the Toronto Star, that Atta said during this period he was "flying for the rich man" which is a reference likely to Huffman Aviation's Wally Hilliard who appeared to have limitless financial resources. Atta was working for Hilliard and Dekkers according to Amanda Keller.

Amanda, who sat before a video camera without prompt or questions, just telling her story, explained how she met Wally Hilliard over at Huffman Aviation who wanted to know what such a pretty girl like her was doing with someone like Mohamed. Atta told his second North Port landlord that he was a "student" at Huffman Aviation, but this was already two months after he earned his wings there.

As we know, when the Jt. House-Senate report was released this past July, again in the brief Atta chronology, FBI Mueller is quoted as saying "we have no idea where Atta was between Dec. 2000 and April 2001." It is nice that we have been rounding up the names of FBI agents who met with these witnesses quoted in mainstream, as obviously people watching Director Mueller have found it extremely helpful.

In February, investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker will release "Welcome to Terrorland: The 9/11 Coverup in Florida." Look for it then at http://www.madcowmorningnews.com. Daniel's is the only investigation of the flight schools in Venice where 3 of 4 terrorist pilots "learned to fly."

"Why America Slept" and Posner's revelations of the Zubaydah Confession.

Zubaydah made his revelations after his capture in March 2002 in Karachi, and after surgeries and healing from gunshot wounds, according to Gerald Posner's sources as reported in "Why America Slept."

Let's say those admissions came in May to early June 2002. The information provided by Zubaydah was sent to both Saudi and Pakistani intelligence per Posner's sources. Recall that Zubaydah implicated 3 young Saudi princes and the seasoned Prince Turki (head of Saudi intelligence 1977 to August 31, 2001), and Pakistan's Chief of Air Force Mushaf Ali Mir who had connections with the ISI.

Here's a timeline of Zubaydah and Venice Flight School events. Just a coincidence?

March, 2002, Zubaydah is captured in Karachi and detained by the CIA.

May early June 2002, Zubaydah's information is received by the CIA, and forwarded to Pakistani and Saudi intelligence.

May early June 2002, Prince Ahmed bin Salman, among those listed by Zubaydah, owner of Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem, decides without explanation not to attend subsequent Triple Crown race.

June 25, 2002 Florida Flight Training Center front Dutchman Arne Kruithof (Ziah Jarrah - Binalshibh - Moussaoui connector) who "trained" Jarrah is involved in a fiery crash of a single engine plane at the Venice Municipal Airport, but escapes unharmed.

One month later ....

July 22, 2002 Prince Ahmed bin Salman has a heart attack at age 43; his cousin dies the next day in single car auto accident, and the third of four Saudis named dies of thirst in the desert within a week of the other two deaths. Two of the three were sons of the powerful Prince Salman, Governor of Riyadh, one of the Sudeiri Seven, a younger brother of King Fahd's. Of the Saudis named by Zubaydah, only Prince Turki remains.

Roll forward 7 months ....

January 24, 2003, 7 months after Arne Kruithof's brush with death in Venice, Rudi Dekkers is flying his helicopter (about which he had no maintenance complaints) from Naples to Venice and as he leaves he asks a news helicopter to fly with him up to Venice. While en route Dekers suddenly goes down in a local river when his engine quit, but because the news helicopter is right there, it was able to drop immediately to rescue Dekkers who by that time was holding onto a skid of his ditched helicopter and was able to grab the skid of the news helicopter which lifted him to shoreline. As he did so, Dekkers' helicopter sank. Dekkers was dropped into the back yard of a home on the banks of the river.

At that home Dekkers didn't seek help or assistance from the owners. He jumped into their swimming pool to wash off the fuel and warm up from the cold river. He then left the home and the owners placed a call to the police about the intruder, but Dekkers was gone before authorities arrived. Dekkers walked along a boulevard and hailed an ambulance that was actually in route to his crash scene and the ambulance took him to a hospital. He was treated, released and later that afternoon signed all the papers necessary to transfer his Huffman Aviation interests (that didn't exist) to Triple Diamond Jet Center. Wally Hillard was present for the signing as well.

Roll forward 7 months from the Ahmed bin Salman heart attack, and a month after the Dekkers incident:

February 22, 2003 Mushaf Ali Mir, his wife, and his closest associate Air Marshals of Pakistan's Air Force die in the crash of their Fokker which went down on a clear day. One report states the pilot was substituted out at the last minute ....

More interesting coincidences. The lucky Dutchmen fronting the two flights schools connected to 9-11 survive, but the young Saudis and Mir are gone, leaving only Prince Turki among those fingered by Zubaydah -- and he has been "uncooperative".

International terrorrism — The Saudi-Pakistani nexus

Thehindubusinessline.com -Thursday, Sep 25, 2003

By G. Parthasarathy

Even as evidence is emerging about how Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have worked hand in hand to support international terrorism by the Al Qaeda, the Bush Administration continues to chase shadows and blame Iran for allegedly supporting terrorism, as it did with Iraq, says G. Parthasarathy.

FOR OVER four decades, the United States and Saudi Arabia used the promotion of Wahhabi fundamentalism as a tool to undermine secular regimes in the Islamic world. But what struck me most during a recent visit to the US was the extent of American anger at the manner in which its erstwhile ally Saudi Arabia continues to support and fund radical and fundamentalist groups, including elements linked to the Al Qaeda, across the world.

Evidence is also emerging about how Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have worked hand in hand to support international terrorism by the Al Qaeda.

Rather than acknowledging this reality, the Bush Administration continues to chase shadows and blame Iran for allegedly supporting terrorism, as it had done earlier with the Saddam Hussein dispensation in Iraq. Jordan's young and enlightened ruler King Abdullah recently remarked: "Wahhabi-Salafism is as much a threat to Iran as it is to the rest of us Muslims and the international community. And here's common ground that they (Iranians) want to work with all of us on".

King Abdullah's should know better than most others, the dangers that the Saudi-Pakistan nexus poses to moderate Islamic regimes and secular, pluralistic societies such as India.

Osama bin Laden had, after all, designated the Al Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah, who is a Saudi national, to blow up the Radisson Hotel in Amman on January 1, 2000 — a plot foiled by Jordanian intelligence. Zubaydah, who is now under American custody, has reportedly made some astonishing disclosures to the Americans.

He provided the Americans with the names of three members of the Saudi Royal family who regularly funded the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

He is also reported to have revealed that after Osama bin Laden established the "International Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews (Israel) and Crusaders" in 1998, the head of Saudi Arabia's intelligence Prince Turki Al Faysal struck a deal with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden assuring them that Saudi Arabia would give more economic assistance to the Taliban and not seek the extradition of bin Laden, as long as Al Qaeda kept its promise of directing terrorism away from Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia extensively funded both Pakistan and the Taliban and supplied them 1,50,000 barrels of oil daily at an annual cost of $1.5 billion, virtually free of charge. It continues to provide Pakistan oil virtually free of cost.

In return, the Saudi Defence Minister Prince Sultan was granted unprecedented access to Pakistan's nuclear facilities in Kahuta — access that has thus far been not been given to even the Pakistani Prime Minister, Mr ... Jamali. Abu Zubaydah is also reported to have revealed to American interrogators that in 1996 Osama bin Laden reached agreement with Air Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir, a Pakistan Air Force Officer with strong Islamist leanings.

Pakistan then agreed to provide the Al Qaeda with weapons, protection and supplies. Both Air Marshal Mir and the Saudis had been told by Osama bin Laden in advance of an impending terrorist strike against the US on September 11, 2001.

There is now no shortage of Americans who are furious with both the Saudis and Pakistanis over these developments. But the Bush Administration finds it expedient to remain silent or obfuscate, when issues of continuing Pakistani and Saudi Arabian links with the Al Qaeda and the Taliban emerge. It is, after all, difficult to chastise or disown errant sons- in-law!! Within weeks of Abu Zubaydah revealing the links of three Saudi Arabian Princes and Mushaf Ali Mir with the Al Qaeda early in 2002, all three Princes died in mysterious circumstances. The relatively young Prince Ahmed bin Salman was reported to have died of a "heart attack", and Prince Sultan bin Faisal was said to have died in a "car accident" the next day.

One week later it was claimed that the 25-year-old Prince Fahd died of "thirst" when driving from Riyadh to Jeddah. Gen Pervez Musharraf superseded five senior Air Force officers to appoint Mushaf Ali Mir as Pakistan's Air Force Chief. Mir perished in equally mysterious circumstances last year while flying in a VIP Squadron Pakistan Air Force aircraft that had recently passed a fitness and maintenance inspection.

One should not be surprised if Omar Syed Sheikh, who has been found guilty of killing American journalist Daniel Pearl, also "disappears" in similar circumstances. Like Mushaf Mir, Omar Syed Sheikh knows too much of the links of the ISI and Gen Musharraf with jehadi terrorism worldwide.

It is now widely acknowledged that there are divisions within the Saudi Royal family on the issue of using so-called "charities" to globally fund Wahhabi fundamentalist causes that inevitably attain terrorist dimensions. While Crown Prince Abdallah is regarded as a voice of moderation, others like Interior Minister Naif and the Governor of Riyadh, Prince Salman, are reportedly reluctant to give up their old ways. Americans allege that hundreds of jehadis have crossed the Saudi Arabia-Iraq border to wage war against their forces in Iraq. The strains in the US-Saudi Arabia relationship are now visible and the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, has stepped in to take advantage of the situation.

For over a decade now, the Saudi Arabians and the Pakistanis have supported the so-called jehad in Chechnya, financially, politically and militarily. But things now seem to be changing, with Prince Abdallah undertaking the first ever high-level visit by a Saudi Arabian ruler to Moscow.

There are indications that the Saudi Arabian support for the Chechen rebels is likely to become a thing of the past and as two of the most important oil producers in the world, Russia and Saudi Arabia, would work together to sustain oil prices at levels they consider opportune.

Pakistan is likely follow the Saudi Arabian lead on curbing support to jehadis in Chechnya. Saudi Arabia may also support Moscow's ambitions to join the OIC — a move Pakistan will not welcome, as it could set a precedent for Indian membership of that Islamic body. These developments are inevitably having an impact on American thinking on its policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are voices in the US that advocate stronger action to make Saudi Arabia end its support for extremist and separatist Islamic causes.

Given the political uncertainties in Saudi Arabia, the US would evidently like to see Iraq emerge as a major exporter of oil, with oil production levels akin to that of Saudi Arabia. A strong lobby within the Pentagon appears to favour granting more powers to representative bodies that would effectively empower the Shia majority in Iraq.

This would cause concern in Saudi Arabia where the Shia population has long been dispossessed and suppressed, like in Pakistan. Shia doctors, for example, have been systematically targeted and killed in Karachi by fundamentalist groups that have links in Saudi Arabia.

There is also emerging evidence that persons involved in bomb blasts in Mumbai and elsewhere have links in Saudi Arabia with supporters of groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

It is also inconceivable that a pro-Pakistani Islamist leader like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who was forced out of the Hurriyat Conference, can receive an invitation from the OIC without Saudi Arabian backing. New Delhi would have to bear these factors in mind in dealing with emerging developments in its western neighbourhood.

(The author is former High Commissioner to Pakistan.)

<  Report: Capitol Was 9/11 Attackers Fourth Goal | Actor Peter Ustinov compares Bush with Nero  >