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9/11
See other 9/11 Articles

Title: Flight 93: Cell Call Exposed 9/11:"You did great"
Source: [None]
URL Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjNB ... com/ceecee-lyles-t17044p2.html
Published: Jul 26, 2008
Author: CanadianVandal
Post Date: 2008-07-26 17:48:52 by honway
Ping List: *9-11*     Subscribe to *9-11*
Keywords: None
Views: 1410
Comments: 113

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#74. To: All (#72)

www.post-gazette.com/head...0011230flight931230p3.asp

Around Thanksgiving, Jerry and Beatrice Guadagno of Ewing, N.J., received word that their son Richard's credentials and badge from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had been found by the FBI at the crash site.

"It was practically intact," Richard's sister, Lori, said of the credentials, which were returned in their wallet. "It just looked like it wasn't damaged or hadn't gone through much of anything at all, which is so bizarre and ironic.

honway  posted on  2008-07-28   19:21:23 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#75. To: RickyJ (#73)

It's also not normal to find the engines over a mile away.

That's true.

I am often surprised at how the "that's normal" crowd deal with facts like that, claims of engine's bouncing great distances.

honway  posted on  2008-07-28   19:26:17 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#76. To: honway (#71) (Edited)

When she says "there's three guys, they've hijacked the plane" her tone is almost sing-song, not believable at all. She seems to realize this immediately and so the next thing she says is she's "trying to be calm", or maybe it's the next thing on a list she has.

The impression I get is she was not completely prepared to leave the message but wrote a list of things to say, and she had a last minute discussion about the list with other people there before calling, which discussion ended up generating rough notes on the list or mental notes. One of the last-minute changes apparently was to emphasize that she's on the plane (said three times), which comes right after "listen to me carefully". I'm guessing the starting list is just a goodbye-type list with nothing about the plane or any "hijackers".

nobody  posted on  2008-07-28   19:39:03 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#77. To: honway (#71)

Sounds like another woman says "sorry" in a high-pitched voice at the very end, with a very strong NYC- type accent.

nobody  posted on  2008-07-28   20:22:59 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#78. To: nobody (#77)

Sounds like another woman says "sorry" in a high-pitched voice at the very end, with a very strong NYC- type accent.

I didn't notice that before. Yes, someone says sorry.

God is always good!

RickyJ  posted on  2008-07-28   20:32:35 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#79. To: RickyJ, all, *9-11* (#78)

Anybody familiar with getting a name changed on a driver's license? Do you get a new issue date with a new license or do you keep the original issue date?

Any newlyweds out there?

honway  posted on  2008-07-29   0:02:39 ET  (1 image) Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#80. To: honway (#71)

To me it doesn't sound like "you did great" as much as "you did stray".

nobody  posted on  2008-07-29   0:11:53 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#81. To: All (#79)

honway  posted on  2008-07-29   0:13:54 ET  (1 image) Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#82. To: All (#81)

The government maintains Tom Burnett made 3 GTE Airfone calls.

www.tomburnettfamilyfound...omburnett_transcript.html

The Tom Burnett Family Foundation maintains Tom made four cell phone calls.

Who are you going to believe?

Did the family make up the transcripts?

honway  posted on  2008-07-29   0:20:18 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#83. To: All (#82)

Transcript of Tom’s last calls to Deena

6:27 a.m.( pacific time) First cell phone call from Tom to Deena

* Deena: Hello
* Tom: Deena
* Deena: Tom, are you O.K.?
* Tom: No, I’m not. I’m on an airplane that has been hijacked.
* Deena: hijacked?
* Tom: Yes, They just knifed a guy.
* Deena: A passenger?
* Tom: Yes.
* Deena: Where are you? Are you in the air?
* Tom: Yes, yes, just listen. Our airplane has been hijacked. It’s United Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco. We are in the air. The hijackers have already knifed a guy, one of them has a gun, they are telling us there is a bomb on board, please call the authorities. He hung up.

6:31 Deena calls 911

6:34 The phone rang in on call waiting, Tom’s second cell phone call.

* Deena: Hello
* Tom: They’re in the cockpit. The guy they knifed is dead.
* Deena: He’s dead?
* Tom: Yes. I tried to help him, but I couldn’t get a pulse.
* Deena: Tom, they are hijacking planes all up and down the east coast. They are taking them and hitting designated targets. They’ve already hit both towers of the World Trade Center.
* Tom: They’re talking about crashing this plane. (a pause) Oh my God. It’s a suicide mission…(he then tells people sitting around him)
* Deena: Who are you talking to?
* Tom: My seatmate. Do you know which airline is involved?
* Deena: No, they don’t know if they’re commercial airlines or not. The newsreporters are speculating cargo planes, private planes and commercial. No one knows.
* Tom: How many planes are there?
* Deena: They’re not sure, at least three. Maybe more.
* Tom: O.K….O.K….Do you know who is involved?
* Deena: No.
* Tom: We’re turning back toward New York. We’re going back to the World Trade Center. No, wait, we’re turning back the other way. We’re going south. * Deena: What do you see?
* Tom: Just a minute, I’m looking. I don’t see anything, we’re over a rural area. It’s just fields. I’ve gotta go.
* He hung up.

6:45 a.m. Third cell phone call from Tom to Deena

* Tom: Deena
* Deena: Tom, you’re O.K. (I thought at this point he had just survived the Pentagon plane crash).
* Tom: No, I’m not.
* Deena: They just hit the Pentagon.
* Tom: (tells people sitting around him “They just hit the Pentagon.”)
* Tom: O.K….O.K. What else can you tell me?
* Deena: They think five airplanes have been hijacked. One is still on the ground. They believe all of them are commercial planes. I haven’t heard them say which airline, but all of them have originated on the east coast.
* Tom: Do you know who is involved?
* Deena: No
* Tom: What is the probability of their having a bomb on board? I don’t think they have one. I think they’re just telling us that for crowd control.
* Deena: A plane can survive a bomb if it’s in the right place.
* Tom: Did you call the authorities?
* Deena: Yes, they didn’t know anything about your plane.
* Tom: They’re talking about crashing this plane into the ground. We have to do something. I’m putting a plan together.
* Deena: Who’s helping you?
* Tom: Different people. Several people. There’s a group of us. Don’t worry. I’ll call you back.

6:54 a.m. Fourth cell phone call to Tom to Deena

* Deena: Tom?
* Tom: Hi. Anything new?
* Deena: No
* Tom: Where are the kids?
* Deena: They’re fine. They’re sitting at the table having breakfast.
They’re asking to talk to you.
* Tom: Tell them I’ll talk to them later
* Deena: I called your parents. They know your plane has been hijacked. * Tom: Oh…you shouldn’t have worried them. How are they doing?
* Deena: They’re O.K.. Mary and Martha are with them.
* Tom: Good. (a long quiet pause) We’re waiting until we’re over a rural area. We’re going to take back the airplane.
* Deena: No! Sit down, be still, be quiet, and don’t draw attention to yourself! (The exact words taught to me by Delta Airlines Flight Attendant Training).
* Tom: Deena! If they’re going to crash this plane into the ground, we’re going to have do something!
* Deena: What about the authorities?
* Tom: We can’t wait for the authorities. I don’t know what they could do anyway.
* It’s up to us. I think we can do it.
* Deena: What do you want me to do?
* Tom: Pray, Deena, just pray.
* Deena: (after a long pause) I love you.
* Tom: Don’t worry, we’re going to do something.
* He hung up

honway  posted on  2008-07-29   0:25:03 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#84. To: honway, *9-11* (#79)

I believe you just found another smoking gun in the 9/11 case!

Good work. I still think WTC7 is the ultimate smoking gun, but this now qualifies as one too IMO.

God is always good!

RickyJ  posted on  2008-07-29   2:46:53 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#85. To: honway (#79)

The only problem with this is you have to wonder why they made a new card up when they could have just used her old one. She would have had it on her I assume.

God is always good!

RickyJ  posted on  2008-07-29   2:50:02 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#86. To: Cynicom (#51)

I have witnessed large aircraft crashes, with fires and explosions. It was common to find all sorts of personal items scattered around, perfectly normal.

And also perfectly normal to find whole (or mostly whole) bodies still strapped into seats, fuselage, tail section, landing gear, etc, lying all over the crash scene.

I shall not vote for evil, lesser or otherwise.

Critter  posted on  2008-07-29   7:02:16 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#87. To: honway (#79)

This one has a "Duplicate" date of 06/25/01 on the right hand side.

I shall not vote for evil, lesser or otherwise.

Critter  posted on  2008-07-29   7:08:43 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#88. To: Critter (#87)

This one has a "Duplicate" date of 06/25/01 on the right hand side.

My hunch is there is a reasonable explanation for the issue date on the license.

From the State of Florida website:

# Replacement Licenses

* Florida law requires residents, within 10 days of changing their name or address, to obtain a replacement license. The fee is $10. The incorrect license must be surrendered to the Division.

----------------------------------------------------

The question is does the replacement license come with a new issue date in Florida? Maybe the duplicate date is used on a replacement license for a name change.

honway  posted on  2008-07-29   11:24:25 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#89. To: Critter (#87)

This one has a "Duplicate" date of 06/25/01 on the right hand side.

From the Florida Driver's Handbook

Name Change (US Citizens)

You must bring a court order, marriage certificate or divorce decree to a driver licenses office to prove your name change. Documents must be original or certified copies.

Duplicate License

If your driver license is lost, stolen or destroyed, apply for a duplicate immediately. At your driver license office you will need to:

* Show your identification.
* Sign under oath that your license has been lost or stolen.
* Pay the duplicate license fee ($10.00). You may also apply for a duplicate license by internet at http://www.gorenew.com.

honway  posted on  2008-07-29   11:33:07 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#90. To: RickyJ (#84) (Edited)

I believe you just found another smoking gun in the 9/11 case!

I think it's a bit subjective, I can't see anything conclusive in this, but here we are, back to talking about the "hijackers", which I've noted before can be a distraction.

Maybe the most interesting thing to me is he asks his wife twice, one time each in two different calls, "Do you know who is involved?" Strange question. "They" had no accents? "They" never spoke to the passengers? Yet he also said "They’re talking about crashing this plane into the ground." It suggests "they" had no accents. Why would "they" be goading the passengers into action with talk "about crashing this plane into the ground" anyway, if "they" already claimed "they" had a bomb? Talk about sending mixed messages with opposite effects.

nobody  posted on  2008-07-29   11:40:12 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#91. To: Critter, *9-11* (#89)

It appears to me if a woman lost her license and wanted a new license with her married name on it, she might receive a duplicate license with the original issue date and the new name.

This has been resolved to my satisfaction. Thanks for the reply.

honway  posted on  2008-07-29   11:41:23 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#92. To: honway (#63) (Edited)

Who would you believe? The wife of the man on the plane or the government that has a history of lies concerning events of mass murder like Waco and the OKC bombing?

There are an infinite number of possible untruths, and motivations for the untruths, within these official reports. I don't trust the official 9/11 stories, but I'm apt to also distrust people who use hysteria to gain attention, to secure agreement, and to fan fires of discord.

There's a reason for the hysteria, and at its root it is unhelpful.

I remember a huge amount of propaganda being distributed around the Internet that seemed to link the OKC bombings to Iraq, right around the end of the UN sanctions. We still don't know what really happened there, not for sure. But people were persuaded both to support the 'crack down' on militias and the Iraq war, and the escalated 'war on Islamic terrorism' because of it.

buckeye  posted on  2008-07-29   19:55:27 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#93. To: honway (#83)

* Tom: We’re turning back toward New York. We’re going back to the World Trade Center. No, wait, we’re turning back the other way. We’re going south.

That's the money quote to me.

He was a passenger, right?

Fred Mertz  posted on  2008-07-29   22:30:49 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#94. To: nobody (#90)

Why would "they" be goading the passengers into action with talk "about crashing this plane into the ground" anyway, if "they" already claimed "they" had a bomb? Talk about sending mixed messages with opposite effects.

The Jews don't have to make sense. Nobody in the MSM would dare question them.

God is always good!

RickyJ  posted on  2008-07-29   23:06:15 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#95. To: Fred Mertz (#93)

That's another oddity.

Also, he also wants to know what airline companies are involved. I can't see the point in asking that at all.

nobody  posted on  2008-07-29   23:07:09 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#96. To: honway (#83)

* Deena: Tom, they are hijacking planes all up and down the east coast. They are taking them and hitting designated targets. They’ve already hit both towers of the World Trade Center.

* Tom: They’re talking about crashing this plane. (a pause) Oh my God. It’s a suicide mission…(he then tells people sitting around him)

* Deena: Who are you talking to?

* Tom: My seatmate. Do you know which airline is involved?

???? (scratches head)

nobody  posted on  2008-07-29   23:13:31 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#97. To: Fred Mertz (#93)

That's the money quote to me.

He was a passenger, right?

It is difficult to figure out what the truth is here.

You point out some real eye openers.

The wife claims the calls are from a cell phone, the government claims the calls are from a GTE Airfone. If it was a cell phone, it is impossible the call was made from an airplane at 35,000 feet plus, but that is where the government claims the plane was at the time of the call.If it was a cell phone, then we are left with some difficult questions and no easy answers.

honway  posted on  2008-07-29   23:24:55 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#98. To: Fred Mertz (#93)

That's the money quote to me.

what do you mean, Fred?

Do You Know What Freedom Really Means? Freedom4um.com

christine  posted on  2008-07-29   23:39:15 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#99. To: nobody (#96)

i agree with you, nobody. that is puzzling. it seems unlikely to me that tom would think to ask his wife about what airlines are involved. why would that matter when you're in a life/death situation?

Do You Know What Freedom Really Means? Freedom4um.com

christine  posted on  2008-07-29   23:43:01 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#100. To: Fred Mertz (#93)

That's the money quote to me.

He was a passenger, right?

He could easily see the direction they were heading by looking outside the windows. That quote doesn't prove anything.

God is always good!

RickyJ  posted on  2008-07-30   3:34:19 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#101. To: nobody (#95) (Edited)

Also, he also wants to know what airline companies are involved. I can't see the point in asking that at all.

Well if you were shorting a stock you would want to know the MSM reported the airline you shorted as being involved in the 9/11 attacks, wouldn't you? Also he might have thought it was a security breach of a certain airline and not all of them. It is not really a bad question to ask, just one that most people wouldn't think to ask under the circumstances. But then again he should know what airline he is on. Unless of course he wasn't on any plane at the time of this call.

God is always good!

RickyJ  posted on  2008-07-30   3:54:51 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#102. To: honway (#97)

If it was a cell phone, it is impossible the call was made from an airplane at 35,000 feet plus,

Older analog phones would work at those altitudes. The question is what kind of phone did the guy have, digital or an old analog? The answer to that question would solve whether or not that call could have been made from a plane at that altitude.

God is always good!

RickyJ  posted on  2008-07-30   4:01:22 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#103. To: honway (#0)

Mark

If America is destroyed, it may be by Americans who salute the flag, sing the national anthem, march in patriotic parades, cheer Fourth of July speakers - normally good Americans who fail to comprehend what is required to keep our country strong and free - Americans who have been lulled into a false security (April 1968).---Ezra Taft Benson, US Secretary of Agriculture 1953-1961 under Eisenhower

Kamala  posted on  2008-07-30   6:38:34 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#104. To: RickyJ (#102)

Older analog phones would work at those altitudes.

Is there any data to support the claim that an analog phone would work at 35,000 feet traveling at around 450mph?

honway  posted on  2008-07-30   13:45:15 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#105. To: All (#104)

. "Cell tower antennas use power levels of 100 watts or more and group of antennas can have power levels of 800 watts. However, a pocket cell phone only transmits an RF signal of less than 1 watt, with many phones transmitting just .4 watts. No phone call can be made until the cell tower receives this tiny signal and establishes a channel with the phone by assigning the phone a frequency to talk on. This basic procedure takes place on both digital and analog cell phones. Only the older, bigger bag phones can output up to 4 watts of power, which almost no one uses anymore."

. Plane windows acting as small aperatures for a cell phone RF signal. This forces the cell phone antenna to become highly directional, but without any increase in gain. There is no gain because plane is not a reflector or resonant cavity tuned to cell frequencies.

. The cell phone is rapidly moving past cell towers that may or may not be in line with the side of the plane. If a tower happens to be in line with the side of the plane when it turns, such a connection will not last but few seconds, if at all.

The pocket cell phone signal of less than 1 watt must be received before the call can be placed.

Cell antennas have a weak signal lobe above them, making establishing a connection with a phone unlikely."

honway  posted on  2008-07-30   13:50:02 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#106. To: Kamala (#103)

January 2003 GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES RESPONSIBLE FOR 911 FAILURES PROMOTED

(another smoking gun, imo)

Do You Know What Freedom Really Means? Freedom4um.com

christine  posted on  2008-07-30   13:57:21 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#107. To: Kamala (#103) (Edited)

Great information. Thanks for the post.The article below ties in with the Saudi visa program.

I think most American's are completely unaware that some of the first al- qaeda training camps were on U.S. soil and administered by the CIA.

http://www.opednews.com/articles...pringmann-080725-269.html

THE MISTAKE DEPARTMENT
One Example of Why American Foreign Policy is a Disaster
by
J. Michael Springmann

After airplanes flew into the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon, The Los Angeles Times reported that 15 of the 19 alleged hijackers got their U.S. visas from the American Consulate General at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a consulate where I had served as chief of the Visa Section. What The Los Angeles Times did not report was what I had told their Washington, D.C. bureau after reading the story: (1) that the Jeddah Consulate was not a State Department post but an intelligence services operation; (2) that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) routinely demanded (and got) visas for sleazy characters with no ties to either their home country or Saudi Arabia; (3) that these vile people were terrorists recruited by U.S. intelligence officers along with Osama bin Laden, then a CIA asset.

With the help of non-State Department officials, i.e., Consul General, Jay Philip Freres (retired and living in Clearwater, Fla.), the head of the Political/Economic Section, Eric L. Qualkenbush (retired and living in Findlay, Ohio), the Political Officer, Henry Ensher (currently assigned to D.C. and living in McLean, Va.), a Commercial Officer, Paul Arvid Tveit (retired and also living in McLean, Va.), the Chief of the Consular Section, Justice (given name) Stevens (whereabouts unknown), and a "part-time" Consular officer, Andy Weber (last seen on the PBS program "Bio-Terror"),

they were sent to America for training in blowing things up and shooting things down. Afterwards, they were sent on to Afghanistan to murder Soviet soldiers. It seems pretty clear that they and people that they had trained are now pursuing their own goals (and most likely U.S. foreign policy interests) in helping destabilize Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Their next target may be Iran.

honway  posted on  2008-07-30   14:28:02 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#108. To: christine (#98)

what do you mean, Fred?

The passenger knowing the destination of his airplane is the WTC in NYC...and within a few seconds he figures out that he's now heading south. Those two items don't make sense to me.

Fred Mertz  posted on  2008-07-30   15:06:01 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#109. To: RickyJ (#100)

He could easily see the direction they were heading by looking outside the windows.

Was his aircraft above the clouds? Did he have a compass? I agree he could possibly tell a general sense of direction from the sun, not a specific destination.

Fred Mertz  posted on  2008-07-30   15:26:08 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#110. To: honway (#104)

Is there any data to support the claim that an analog phone would work at 35,000 feet traveling at around 450mph?


www.slate.com/id/1008297/

From this morning's New York Times: "According to industry experts, it is possible to use cell phones with varying success during the ascent and descent of commercial airline flights, although the difficulty of maintaining a signal appears to increase as planes gain altitude. Some older phones, which have stronger transmitters and operate on analog networks, can be used at a maximum altitude of 10 miles, while phones on newer digital systems can work at altitudes of 5 to 6 miles. A typical airline cruising altitude would be 35,000 feet, or about 6.6 miles."


God is always good!

RickyJ  posted on  2008-07-30   15:51:44 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#111. To: RickyJ (#101) (Edited)

Well if you were shorting a stock you would want to know the MSM reported the airline you shorted as being involved in the 9/11 attacks, wouldn't you? Also he might have thought it was a security breach of a certain airline and not all of them. It is not really a bad question to ask, just one that most people wouldn't think to ask under the circumstances. But then again he should know what airline he is on. Unless of course he wasn't on any plane at the time of this call.

He knows what airline he's taking, he identifies it to her earlier. I also noticed he doesn't ask which airlines (plural), but which airline (singular), which makes even less sense, if that's possible in this context.

I get a slight impression he's trying to cut her off to stop her from saying something that might mess with his script.

nobody  posted on  2008-07-30   16:41:38 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#112. To: honway (#107)

rigorousintuition.ca/boar...c1d066e83fe3eaa92444ff0eb

Mark

If America is destroyed, it may be by Americans who salute the flag, sing the national anthem, march in patriotic parades, cheer Fourth of July speakers - normally good Americans who fail to comprehend what is required to keep our country strong and free - Americans who have been lulled into a false security (April 1968).---Ezra Taft Benson, US Secretary of Agriculture 1953-1961 under Eisenhower

Kamala  posted on  2008-07-31   8:31:34 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#113. To: Kamala (#112)

Great link. More dots.Thanks.

CIA Stalked Al Qaeda in Hamburg

Seeking informant, agency tried in 1999 to recruit associate of 9/11 hijackers in Germany

by John Crewdson The Chicago Tribune November 17, 2002

HAMBURG, Germany -- Nearly two years before the Sept. 11 hijackings, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency began persistent efforts to recruit as an informer a Syrian-born Hamburg businessman with links to Al Qaeda and the key hijackers, the Tribune has learned.

The CIA's attempts to enlist Mamoun Darkazanli were initiated in late 1999, at a time when three of the four Hamburg students who would later pilot the hijacked planes were first learning of the hijacking plot at a training camp of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Darkazanli, 44, has acknowledged knowing the three pilots, Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah, with whom he attended the same radical Hamburg mosque, Al Quds, and shared several friends in this city's sizable but insular Muslim community.

No evidence has ever emerged that American intelligence was aware before Sept. 11, 2001, of Al Qaeda's plot to hijack U.S. commercial jetliners and crash them into buildings, despite what congressional investigators have described as several potential missed opportunities.

But the disclosure that the CIA was seeking to turn Darkazanli into a spy during the time the initial hijacking plans were being laid represents the earliest and deepest set of U.S. intelligence footprints outside the hijackers' window.

In December 1999 the CIA representative in Hamburg, posing as an American diplomat attached to the U.S. Consulate, appeared at the headquarters of the Hamburg state domestic intelligence agency, the LFV, that is responsible for tracking terrorists and domestic extremists.

According to a source with firsthand knowledge of the events, the CIA representative told his local counterparts that his agency believed Darkazanli had knowledge of an unspecified terrorist plot and could be "turned" against his Al Qaeda comrades.

"He said, `Darkazanli knows a lot,'" the source recalled.

Darkazanli's name had first surfaced the year before in the U.S. investigation of Al Qaeda's 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people and injured thousands.

One of those later convicted of conspiracy in that case was Osama bin Laden's former personal secretary, a naturalized U.S. citizen named Wadih El-Hage, whom prosecutors accused of personally delivering bin Laden's order for the embassy bombings to Al Qaeda operatives in Kenya.

As part of his duties for bin Laden, El-Hage helped fashion a skein of fictitious Sudanese companies that Al Qaeda allegedly used as fronts for its terrorist activities. One such company was Anhar Trading, of which El-Hage was managing director, and whose business cards bore the address of the Hamburg flat Darkazanli shares with his German-born wife.

Around the same time, Darkazanli's name had popped up in connection with another alleged Al Qaeda figure, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, a 44-year-old Sudanese who is in jail in New York awaiting trial in the embassy bombing case.

Salim, also accused by federal prosecutors of attempting to help bin Laden obtain enriched uranium for use in a nuclear weapon, was arrested in Munich in September 1998 at the request of the United States.

Investigators learned that Salim, a resident of the United Arab Emirates, held an account at a Hamburg bank. The co-signatory on the account was Mamoun Darkazanli, whose home number had been programmed into Salim's cell phone.

Germans resist request

The Americans began pressing the Germans to arrest Darkazanli, a naturalized German citizen who moved to Hamburg from Syria in 1982, and extradite him to the U.S. The Germans countered that they had no evidence to warrant an arrest.

"Nobody could prove terrorism," one German investigator said. "In general, the American colleagues feel more persons should be arrested. Hundreds! But the problem is you have to prove this is intentional planning of criminal activities."

At the insistence of the U.S., the Germans opened an investigation of Darkazanli that included occasional surveillance. One of those involved described how Darkazanli, certain he was being followed, walked down the street while looking backward over his shoulder.

But the investigation did not include more costly and time-consuming electronic surveillance, and a German investigator conceded that, before Sept. 11, his agency considered Al Qaeda a lower priority target than Hamburg's radical Turks and neo-Nazis.

By the end of 1999 the Darkazanli investigation had produced little of value. The Americans were saying that if the Germans couldn't put Darkazanli behind bars, they wanted to turn him into their informer.

The LFV representatives explained to the CIA man, who had been in his post less than six months, that German law forbids foreign intelligence services, including those deemed to be "friendly," from conducting operations or recruiting informers inside German borders.

Any attempt to recruit Darkazanli on behalf of the CIA would have to be made by operatives of the LFV. In early 2000, around the time the hijacking pilots were returning to Hamburg from Afghanistan, an LFV agent casually approached Darkazanli to ask whether he was interested in becoming a spy.

Darkazanli replied that he was just a businessman who knew nothing about Al Qaeda or terrorism. When the Germans informed the CIA representative that the approach had failed, the man refused to accept their verdict that Darkazanli was not recruitable.

"He was not happy," one source said. "He kept saying, `It must be possible.'"

When the LFV asked for information it could use to counter Darkazanli's claims that he knew nothing about terrorism or Al Qaeda, the CIA demurred. What the LFV got instead was a CIA textbook lecture on the recruiting of agents.

As it happened, at the end of January 2000, Darkazanli had met in Madrid with Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, the accused Al Qaeda leader in Spain, who is from Darkazanli's hometown of Aleppo, Syria.

The meeting, monitored by Spanish police who were watching Yarkas, included some suspected Al Qaeda figures. But if the CIA was aware of the Madrid meeting, it hadn't told the LFV, whose second attempt to recruit Darkazanli fared no better than the first.

By the late summer of 2000, Atta, Al-Shehhi and Jarrah had departed Hamburg for Florida, where they were learning to fly single-engine airplanes.

Left behind in Hamburg, allegedly to handle logistical and administrative chores for the hijacking operation, were Atta's roommates, Said Bahaji, Ramzi Binalshibh and Zakariya Essabar. All have since been charged with conspiracy in the events of Sept. 11.

Darkazanli knew Bahaji, whose wedding he had attended at Al Quds mosque. A videotape made at the wedding, confiscated by police in a post-Sept. 11 search of Bahaji's apartment, includes a harangue by Binalshibh on the holy war against the "enemies of Islam."

Intensifying its efforts to turn Darkazanli into an informer, a frustrated CIA abandoned the Hamburg LFV and took its case directly to federal German intelligence officials in Berlin.

"Another attempt by the Americans to get somebody to recruit Darkazanli," one source said.

Whether yet another approach was made to Darkazanli by the federal domestic intelligence service, the BFV, could not be determined. Darkazanli did not respond to a registered letter from the Tribune requesting an interview.

Immediately after Sept. 11, however, American intelligence operatives and FBI agents descended on Hamburg in force. According to a senior German intelligence official, the FBI undertook its own surveillance of Darkazanli.

Turning blind eye

That surveillance would have been illegal under German law. But with the horror of more than 3,000 deaths at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field dominating the world news, the Germans looked the other way.

"I don't judge it," the senior official said.

Darkazanli's name first surfaced publicly two weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when the "Mamoun Darkazanli Import-Export Company" appeared on the Bush administration's initial list of individuals and organizations suspected of involvement in terrorism.

The company is evidently defunct. No incorporation records for the company are on file at the Hamburg courthouse, and sources said it had not done enough business over the years to support Darkazanli and his wife.

When the German federal prosecutor, Kay Nehm, announced an investigation into possible money laundering by Darkazanli and his company on behalf of Al Qaeda, the news that Darkazanli was in trouble spread quickly through Al Qaeda's network.

In Madrid, Spanish police listening in on Imad Yarkas' cell phone overheard a conversation in which Abu Nabil, the leader of a Syrian extremist organization known as the Fighting Vanguard, warned Yarkas that Darkazanli had caught the "flu" that was going around.

To the reporters who flocked to his apartment in a well-kept Hamburg neighborhood, Darkazanli admitted having known Atta, Al-Shehhi and Jarrah as fellow worshipers at the downtown Al Quds mosque. But Darkazanli declared that he knew nothing about terrorism or the Sept. 11 plot.

The bank account he shared with Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, Darkazanli told the Los Angeles Times, had been opened in March 1995 to facilitate Salim's attempted purchase of a commercial radio transmitter. Darkazanli said he hadn't seen Salim since the transmitter deal fell through a few months later.

Two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Darkazanli had been brought in for questioning by the German federal police, and his apartment thoroughly searched. The police, Darkazanli said, had found nothing. His inclusion on the Bush administration's list of designated terrorist entities was just "a big misunderstanding."

A few days after Darkazanli's police interview, detectives questioned Mohamed Haydar Zammar, another Syrian-born Hamburg resident who has since acknowledged encouraging Atta, Al-Shehhi and Jarrah to make their fateful visit to Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Asked whether he knew Darkazanli, Zammar replied: "Yes, I know him well. He is a friend who I have known for a long time."

Police later learned that it was one of Zammar's brothers, Abdulfattah, who had driven Darkazanli to the Madrid meeting with Spanish Al Qaeda leader Yarkas in January 2000.

The absence of documents in Darkazanli's flat was partly explained on Oct. 31, 2001, when a young Serbian immigrant with a record of convictions for burglary walked into the fortress-like headquarters of the Hamburg police.

The man presented astonished detectives with a bag full of documents that appeared to have been taken from Darkazanli's files. After accepting the purloined documents, the police arrested the man for burglary.

According to the burglar's story, he had discovered the documents stashed in a small summer house outside Hamburg that he had broken into.

He had first gone with the documents to the U.S. Consulate in Hamburg, where it had been suggested that he take them to the police.

But when police asked the burglar to show them the house where he had found the documents, he couldn't locate it.

"We all thought, `CIA,'" one German investigator said.

Relations improve

The CIA representative in Hamburg, who was recalled to Washington in July, declined to comment last week. Since the arrival of his successor, relations with the CIA are described by German intelligence agents as "more collegial."

Darkazanli's lawyer, Andreas Beurskens, said he had advised his client not to speak with the media until the police investigation is complete.

But as the Sept. 11 investigations on both sides of the Atlantic have progressed, more links have emerged between Darkazanli and Al Qaeda.

One is the disclosure that Darkazanli received at least $16,000 from Mohamed Kaleb Kalaje Zouaydi, a wealthy Spanish-Syrian arrested in Madrid in April and accused of funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to Al Qaeda and other radical Islamic organizations.

Another is the discovery by German investigators that Darkazanli was previously employed by Abdul-Matin Tatari, an Aleppo-born textile exporter in Hamburg whose links to the Sept. 11 hijackers are under investigation by German police.

Police sources say they have expanded the Darkazanli investigation to include his business transactions over the years.

In view of what the expanded investigation was producing, one source said, "the situation for Darkazanli might become more complicated."

Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune

honway  posted on  2008-07-31   12:14:16 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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