FBI Sez "Duhhh.. Maybe the Names Ain't Right" Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Another Embarrassing Federal Flub: After Saudi Sources Cast Doubt on US Reports, FBI Admits They Aren't Sure of Hijackers' IDs, After All, Shelly in NY City writes: Very funny report on the white-hat hacker who altered Yahoo's news. I love it. And speak of self-importance, this from Prof. Dorothy Denning of Georgetown University takes the cake: "You can imagine someone changing lists of people who were on the planes, or reported missing, or all kinds of things that could cause a lot of grief," says Denning. "Or posting stories attributing attacks to certain people." Denning assumes that the information being put out, straight from the F.B.I., is correct. I think the case of the pilot who is alive and well and living in Saudi Arabia has to put the entire cockamamie F.B.I. list in question. Can anyone doubt that the bureau in its profound wisdom chose the Arab names from the passenger lists for its perps? And where the bureau actually pinpointed one of the hijackers, it was because he used someone else's name. Now the way to verify the list of hijackers would be to cross off anyone who used his own name and consider genuine all those who used someone else's name. With the brain power available at the bureau, that could take until the year 2020. * source - arabicnews.com Saudi Sources Doubt American Report on Identity Saudi Arabia-USA, Politics, 9/19/2001 --Information relating the identity of the executors of the attacks targeted last week key positions in Washington and New York started to raise doubts after it was found out the names of persons supposed to be killed in the explosions were for persons who have not visited the US since many years. Well-informed Saudi sources said that the information stated in regard to the executors of the attacks are not precise especially concerning three Saudi pilots as it was found out that so far three of them were not in the US when the attacks took place while a fourth pilot died two years ago. The sources continued that the Saudi authorities are now studying the files of persons supposed to be involved in this case. One Saudi pilot whose name was mentioned among the high-jackers of one of the four planes said he is now in Tunisia where he has been in a training course since 9 months for the Saudi airlines. The saudi pilot Saeed Hussein al-Ghamidi told the London-based "The Middle East" (al-Sharq al-Awsat) that he was surprised to see his picture at the US CNN TV. He explained he visited the US twice, once in October 1998 when he studied for one year there, and the second visit was in August 2000 when he stayed for 40 days and finished a training course. Al-Sharq al-Awsat also interviewed another Saudi whose name was mentioned among the suspected, in which he stressed that he was at his office in al-Riyadh when the explosion took place. He added he studied electrical engineering in Colorado and his flat was robbed in 1995, when he had lost official documents including his passport. He indicated he graduated from the university in April 2000 and returned back to work in the Saudi telecommunications company in al-Riyadh. The list of the suspected persons also included two Saudi brothers. One of them is Muhammad Bukhara who is still working for the Saudi airlines. He was questioned recently in the Philippines during a flight for his Saudi company to Manila. His brother, also on the list, died two years ago, according to the Saudi airline. Meanwhile, the Egyptian lawyer Muhammad al-Ameer al-Sayed Attallah, father of Muhammad Attallah, who is accused of being involved in the attacks, said that American intelligence has to find out the reasons behind terrorism in the world and to reveal who really has an interest in creating a feud between the Arab Muslims and America. In an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, Attallah stressed that his son has no connection to what happened in the US "because of his humanitarian commitment in refusing to kill innocents," adding that his son is an engineer and has nothing to do with aviation. http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010919/2001091909.html * Thursday September 20 11:43 PM ET (via Yahoo) FBI: Some Hijackers' IDs in Question By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writers WASHINGTON (AP) - FBI Director Robert Mueller said Thursday the identities of several of the suicide hijackers are in doubt as investigators arrested a man in Illinois wanted for questioning in last week's terror attacks. As investigators followed the money trail, a bank in Florida said it found accounts connected to people involved in the attacks. In Chicago, the FBI arrested a man with the same name as a man with ties to a jailed associate of suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. The FBI said it was trying to determine if the man in custody is the same person. In Pennsylvania, at the site of the Sept. 11 crash of United Airlines Flight 93, Mueller said the FBI is confident it has "several hijackers whose identities were those of the names on the manifest. We have several others who are still in question." Doubts emerged in the Middle East over the identities of several of the 19 hijackers identified by the FBI last week. Saudi newspapers have reported that some of the men are alive; some were pilots. A list of the 19 hijackers and two other people wanted in connection the investigation was sent to banking officials Wednesday by the FBI also suggested that one of those identified as a hijacker - Khalid Al-Midhar - may still be alive. The FBI has told banking regulators that large and small banks around the country found accounts held by several of the 21 individuals identified by the bureau, a banking source said. SunTrust Banks Inc. is providing the FBI with information about the summer activity on nine checking accounts connected to people involved in last week's terrorist attack, bank spokesman Barry Koling said Thursday. Law enforcement officials said a man detained over the weekend in San Diego was flown to New York and being questioned about Al-Midhar and hijacker Nawaq Alhamzi. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, identified the man as Omer Bakarbashat and said authorities were interested in questioning him about time he may have spent with the two men. USA Today, meanwhile, said the FBI believes the men who carried out the attacks practiced for months by repeatedly riding the flights they later hijacked, learning jet crews' patterns, counting passenger loads and testing airline security. The 19 hijackers are believed to have begun scouting for flights to hijack and making dry runs as early as April, the newspaper quoted unidentified law enforcement sources as saying. The FBI on Thursday asked the nation's water companies to increase security at their facilities. U.S. officials have said they are taking every precaution to ensure terrorists can't strike again. Authorities continued to issue warnings and precautions to guard against future attacks. The Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice Thursday prohibiting until further notice flights in the immediate vicinity of any major professional or collegiate sporting event. Adrienne Vaughan, spokeswoman for water company BHC Co. in Bridgeport, Conn., said her company received a "terrorist threat advisory for infrastructures" from the American Water Works Association, an industry group. A Muslim cleric, Moataz Al-Hallak, had a voluntary, informal three-hour meeting with prosecutors in Washington and denied knowing anything about bin Laden, according to the cleric's attorney, Stanley Cohen. In 1999, prosecutors alleged Al-Hallak was a contact between members of the terrorist network, but he was never charged. "My client got tired of disinformation by the FBI," Cohen said. In the Illinois case, the FBI said Nabil Al-Marabh, 34, was arrested Wednesday night at a convenience store in Burbank, Ill., near Chicago and was being questioned Thursday. Agents had been looking for him since failing to find him Monday at a Detroit residence where he had lived. He is among almost 200 people the FBI wants to question, either because they are possible associates of the hijackers or because they are believed to have information about the hijackers or the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Officials would not specify why Al-Marabh was wanted. Kathleen McChesney, special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office, said agents believe Al-Marabh is the man wanted on a Massachusetts warrant and are still trying to determine whether he is the same person whose name appears on the FBI's list. "We have been working on that since last night, and we still have a lot of work to do," McChesney said. The FBI previously said Al-Marabh was on the FBI's list. She said Al-Marabh is being held on an Immigration and Naturalization Service request and a warrant issued in Boston for assault with a knife. Al-Marabh was living in suburban Hickory Hills, Ill., not far from the 7-Days Food & Liquor store in Burbank where he had worked for the last several days, officials said. Walid Beitouni, the store owner, said Al-Marabh had told him he was living with an uncle nearby and had shown him a Canadian driver's license. Only minutes before the FBI arrived on the scene with guns drawn to arrest him, Al-Marabh had said that agents might be looking for him, Beitouni said. State records show Al-Marabh had worked for Boston Cab Co., where an associate of bin Laden once worked. Al-Marabh has ties to the bin Laden associate, Raed Hijazi, a former Boston cab driver who is now jailed in Jordan on charges that he planned to blow up a hotel filled with Americans and Israelis on New Year's Day 2000. On his application for a license to drive a cab in Boston, Hijazi listed Al-Marabh as his emergency contact. Jordanian officials say Hijazi has confessed that he planned terrorist attacks and received bomb-making training in Afghan guerrilla camps run by bin Laden. In December, Al-Marabh pleaded guilty to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon - a knife - in Boston. He stabbed his roommate in the knee during an argument in May 2000. He received a suspended sentence of six months but failed to comply with the terms of his probation when he did not show up for a meeting. On March 15, a warrant was issued for his arrest. At Al-Marabh's former residence in Detroit on Monday, federal agents found a cache of documents and arrested Karim Koubriti, 23, Ahmed Hannan, 33, and Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 21, on charges of having false immigration papers. The men were identified as resident aliens from Morocco and Algeria. (c) 2001 Associated Press ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytrc-09.21.01-03:32:58-28498