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Title: "Where's the f------ sprinkler system?"
Source: USA Today,Memphis Commercial Appeal
URL Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation ... attacks-transcript-cover_x.htm
Published: Aug 8, 2003
Author: USA staff,Bill Dries, and others
Post Date: 2007-02-16 20:11:40 by honway
Ping List: *9-11*     Subscribe to *9-11*
Keywords: None
Views: 264
Comments: 24

USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-08-28-attacks-transcript-cover_x.htm

Excerpts:

The transcript of nearly 2,000 pages includes the words of dozens of victims. Some identified themselves by name. The release comes two weeks before the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

As maintenance and electrical workers talked to each other on their dedicated radio channel, one man trapped in a stairwell on the 103rd floor of the north tower called repeatedly for help.

"Open the stairway door," he called. The radio picked up his labored breathing, and he reported smoke rising. "People stuck in the stairway, open up the goddamn doors." Later he burst out, "Where's the f------ sprinkler system?"

My comments:

For over 18 months many have been asking that same question, "Where was the sprinkler system?"

The question has considerably more impact coming from someone in the Tower as compared to coming from someone at a keyboard.

Maybe this man deserves an answer to his question.

I first considered the question when I read about the five Middle Eastern men arrested in Memphis on Feb.5,2002 for buying fraudulent Tennessee drivers licences.

One of those arrested, Sakher A. Hammad , "had a visitor's pass for one of the towers dated Sept. 5. He has allegedly told investigators that his Brooklyn plumbing company worked on the building's sprinkler system."

Sakher reported that his cousin, also arrested with him was working on the sprinkler system..

A letter presented in court from Hammad's alleged employer,explaining his work in the World Trade Center, is signed with an alias,Sergei Denko, and is from a non-existent company named Denko Mechanical.

Katherine Smith was a State of Tennessee employee that was also arrested for providing the fradulant drivers licences to Hammad and friends. Katherine Smith was associated with a Memphis man named Khaled Odtllah, who was the ring leader of the scam. According to press reports, on September 11,2001, the Memphis resident Khaled Odtllah was driving his car from New York City to Memphis.

"Katherine Smith, out of jail on her own recognizance, died in a fiery car crash the night before she was scheduled to appear at a detention hearing." She was found alone in a car owned by Odtllah, burned alive with gasoline. The last time developments into the Katherine Smith death were reported in the press was when in June 2002, the Medical Examiner for Shelby County was found in a stairwell in his work building tied up with barbed wire with a bomb attached to his chest. In those press reports it was stated that four months after Katherine Smith was burned alive with gasoline, the Medical Examiner had still not determined if it was homicide or suicide.

A lot of folks contributed to the effort to make the details of this story available to those interested, since the mainstream media never covered this story.

I will provide the links for those interested. All I ask is, if someone has a reasonable explanation why the national media never covered this story, please share it with me.

The five Middle Eastern men were all free by August 2002, released with time served. Sakher A. Hammad served 51 days, Katherine Smith got death, and the Medical Examiner got the scare of a life time.

Suspect in ID fraud goes free on bond (Tennessee) Memphis Commercial Appeal ^ | March 29, 2002 | Bill Dries http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/655625/posts Subscribe to *9-11*

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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 22.

#9. To: honway (#0)

As maintenance and electrical workers talked to each other on their dedicated radio channel, one man trapped in a stairwell on the 103rd floor of the north tower called repeatedly for help.

"Open the stairway door," he called. The radio picked up his labored breathing, and he reported smoke rising. "People stuck in the stairway, open up the goddamn doors." Later he burst out, "Where's the f------ sprinkler system?"

Ask Lucky Larry.

robin  posted on  2007-02-16   20:30:45 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#10. To: robin (#9)

Ask Lucky Larry.

"Another stroke of fortune for "Lucky Larry" was that he had regularly been taking breakfast at the

elegant Windows on the World restaurant at the top of the North Tower. On the morning of 9/11 by

an amazing coincidence, his wife had reminded him that he had a "doctor's appointment";

consequently, the tycoon eluded the tragic fate of more than 2,000 WTC workers and hundreds of

emergency responders."

honway  posted on  2007-02-16   21:24:00 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#11. To: honway (#10)

Hadn't heard about that before, I'm surprised he wasn't with Buffet's entourage.

http://killtown.911review.org/buffett.html

robin  posted on  2007-02-16   21:27:58 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#12. To: robin (#11)

That information originated from an in person interview Silverstein gave.Larry is the source.

honway  posted on  2007-02-16   21:48:04 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#14. To: All (#12)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/628435/posts

F.B.I. Says Arson Killed Woman Accused in License Scheme

New York Times ^ | Friday, February 15, 2002

Posted on 02/14/2002 9:07:25 PM PST by JohnHuang2

February 15, 2002 F.B.I. Says Arson Killed Woman Accused in License Scheme By REUTERS

MEMPHIS, Feb. 14 — A deliberately set fire caused the death of a driver's license examiner who had been accused of illegally selling licenses to five Middle Eastern men who were being investigated for possible ties to terrorism, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has said.

Gasoline was poured on the clothing of the examiner, Katherine Smith, before she burned to death on Sunday in an automobile accident, J. Suzanne Nash, an F.B.I. agent, said on Wednesday.

Ms. Smith died one day before she was to have appeared in court with her five co-defendants after being arrested last week on charges of conspiracy to obtain driver's licenses illegally.

In a federal court hearing here on Wednesday, Ms. Nash said an accelerant had been found in Ms. Smith's car, adding that her death was "not an accident."

Investigators have said the gasoline tank of the automobile did not explode. Ms. Nash also said witnesses had reported that the interior of Ms. Smith's car was on fire before the vehicle struck a utility pole, causing just minor damage to the car.

Ms. Nash told the court on Monday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking into whether the five men who were arrested had ties to terrorist groups, citing connections to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

The five men, one of whom said he was a plumber at the trade center and had a visitor's pass to the towers dated Sept. 5, are being held without bond.

A lawyer for one of the defendants has denied that they had any connection to terrorism and said they were seeking documentation to work in the United States.

honway  posted on  2007-02-16   21:55:33 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#15. To: All (#14)

http://www.blacknewsweekly.com/bin89.html

September 11 link to deadly Tennessee crash?

Court papers show Odtllah has a wife, a 2-year-old son, a mother and 10 siblings, all living in Jerusalem. Officials say he has "traveled extensively across the U.S. in the last few years."

A magistrate noted Sakher Hammad, "has no ties whatsoever to this community. He has substantial ties to Jordan or Gaza, where his mother lives. He has had less than stable employment ... and a cooperating witness has disappeared under suspicious circumstances."

honway  posted on  2007-02-16   21:57:48 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#16. To: All (#15)

From Port Authority Transcripts:(B-4 is in the basement)

http://www.firehouse.com/news/wtcscripts/wtc_channel8.pdf

MALE CALLER- B-4 LEVEL: Officer, help. We're down in the B-4 level. This is Turner's field office. There's been a big explosion. We've got water lines open. There seems to be steam and smoke in the area.

.................

MALE CALLER- B-4 LEVEL: It's...yeah, we got smoke. I don't know whether it's from fire, or just dust. We got broken water lines, water all over.

honway  posted on  2007-02-16   22:02:32 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#17. To: All (#16)

http://www.firehouse.com/news/wtcscripts/wtc_channel27.pdf

WTC Ch. 27-RADIO CHANNEL X-SECURITY

MALE: Building One is flooding! Building one is flooding! (PAUSE) There's a lot of water in the building, it's flooding.

honway  posted on  2007-02-16   22:03:48 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#18. To: All (#17)

New York Times
February 18, 2002, Monday
NATIONAL DESK

A NATION CHALLENGED: A SUSPICIOUS DEATH; Memphis Fraud Case Is Long on Clues but Short on Answers

By MICHAEL MOSS (NYT) 952 words
MEMPHIS, Feb. 17 -- Just past midnight, the car Katherine Smith was driving on a country highway north of the Mississippi border burst into flames, killing Ms. Smith, a 49-year-old state employee, and deepening the mystery in a federal fraud case. Ms. Smith had been accused of illegally providing driver's licenses to men with Middle Eastern ties, and law enforcement officials are investigating the Feb. 10 crash as a possible homicide. She was to appear in court the next day.

But a week later, her death and the licensing scheme remain a puzzle, and the clues are scattered from the charred remains of her Acura Legend to a World Trade Center pass held by one of the men, whose father pleads emotionally that his son is not a terrorist.

Ms. Smith was an examiner with the State Department of Safety when, investigators say, she gave driver's licenses to three men who agreed to pay $1,000 or more to a middle man. The men, who have ties to Egypt and Lebanon, had driven to Memphis from New York City, where they live.

On Feb. 5 the men -- Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin, Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad and Mohammed Fares -- obtained Tennessee licenses in false names, which gave them ''untraceable'' identities, according to court affidavits and law enforcement officials.

Arrested that day at state offices by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, who had been tipped to the scheme, the men acknowledged using false information to obtain the licenses, and identified Khaled Odtllah, 31, as one of their contacts, the authorities said. Ms. Smith told the agents she had given Mr. Odtllah improper licenses on seven earlier occasions, an F.B.I. agent said in an affidavit.

Then the agents searched a fifth man, Sakhera Hammad of New York, whom the men identified as their second contact, and found an alarming piece of paper. Mr. Hammad had a worker's pass to the World Trade Center dated Sept. 5. Suddenly, the case became a possible terrorist plot.

In a telephone interview on Saturday, Mr. Hammad's father, Peter Hansen, said his son was a plumber, and he provided a letter he said he had obtained from his son's employer attesting to his work at the trade center. In the letter, dated Feb. 13, Sergei Denko, president of Denko Mechanical, said Mr. Hammad had been working for his company in the basement garage area of 1 World Trade Center.

''He was there for a couple of days,'' Mr. Denko said in an interview.

Mr. Hansen, 56, said he immigrated to the United States 15 years ago. He said he was not in frequent contact with his son, who was born in Jordan, but he said it was inconceivable that his son was involved in any terrorist activity.

''He was devastated by Sept. 11,'' Mr. Hansen said. ''We all were. I immigrated to this great country to secure a decent future for my kids. Thank God you have work, you have home, dignity, peace, food.''

Federal prosecutors indicated in court records that a second man in the scheme had ties to the World Trade Center, but did not elaborate.

F.B.I. officials said this weekend that they had begun to corroborate some of Mr. Hammad's statements regarding his work, but that they were continuing to investigate whether the men had any terrorist links. The five men, including Mr. Hammad, are being held in Memphis without bail.

In Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where Mr. Hammad lives and is known as Rocky, friends and neighbors said they were shocked by the reports of his arrest.

''He worked hard,'' said Elie Eid, manager of the Sunrise Farms delicatessen. ''I feel bad. Life is strange.''

Meanwhile, the mystery of Ms. Smith's death lies partly in the blackened remains of the champagne-colored Acura, which sits in an F.B.I. garage. Ms. Smith had said she was buying the car from Mr. Odtllah, according to court records.

Before the crash, witnesses said, the car headed down Highway 72 with its interior ablaze. Then it veered off the road and struck a pole.

Investigators have determined that Ms. Smith was killed by the fire, not the crash, and they found traces of an accelerant, possibly gasoline, on her clothing.

Standing by the car's wreckage on Saturday, an F.B.I. spokesman, George Bolds, said there was no visible evidence of an explosive device, raising the question of whether Ms. Smith had doused herself.

''We haven't decided yet whether it was suicide or foul play,'' he said. ''It's hard to put all the pieces together and come up with a theory that explains it all.''

Friends of Ms. Smith's, who was known as Kat, say she was devoted to her three adult children and juggled two jobs while helping to care for her mother. Neighbors said she unfailingly remembered their birthdays.

On Saturday, some 200 family members, friends and colleagues packed a funeral home in Memphis to celebrate her life with clapping, cries of joy and resounding song.

''There is so much mystery and speculation surrounding the death of our sister,'' said the Rev. L. F. Self of the Great Ebenezer Baptist Church. ''But there is no mystery about what she would want us to do now. Trust in the Lord.''

CAPTIONS: Photo: Katherine Smith, a 49-year-old Tennessee state employee, died in a car crash on Feb. 10, the day before she was due in court on charges that she had provided false driver's licenses to men with Middle Eastern ties. (Photographs by Associated Press)

honway  posted on  2007-02-16   22:09:12 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#20. To: christine (#18)

bumped for reference

Thanks christine for providing a site that permits me to archive articles like this one.

honway  posted on  2009-12-11   14:34:04 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#22. To: honway (#20)

hi honway, my pleasure for sure, and it's great to see you again. i hope all is well with you.

christine  posted on  2009-12-11   16:35:45 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


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