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Pilots’ uniforms, laptops, a smashed mobile phone and lists of air crew names were hardly typical holiday luggage, but nor did the hotel workers feel it was enough to merit calling the police.
But the day after the guests checked out of the hotel, their odd behaviour suddenly seemed to make sense, to the horror of those who had witnessed it.
On September 11, 2001, as it became clear that Islamic terrorists were responsible for hijacking and crashing four aircraft with the loss of almost 3,000 lives, the hotel staff no doubt feared that their guests were among those responsible.
On Aug 24, the Qataris flew to Los Angeles on American Airlines flight 143, where they checked into an unnamed airport hotel, paying cash for a three-bed room with a checkout date of Sept 10.
At first, they allowed hotel staff to clean their room as normal, and maids could not help but notice the unusual array of items they had brought with them.
As well as pilot-type uniforms, there were cardboard boxes addressed to Syria, Jerusalem, Afghanistan and Jordan; several laptop computers, one of which was attached to a mobile phone by a wire; a smashed mobile phone and pin-feed computer printouts with headers listing pilot names, airlines, flight numbers and flight times.
The fact that air crew routinely stayed at the hotel perhaps allayed the staff’s worst suspicions of the men, though their concerns were heightened when, during the last few days of their stay, the Qataris “requested that their room not be cleaned”.
Investigators later discovered that the three men had spent a week travelling around California with Mohamed Ali Mohamed al Mansoori, a 19-year-old from the United Arab Emirates.
The cable also suggests the involvement of a fifth alleged conspirator, who is not named, as “a subsequent FBI investigation revealed that the men’s plane tickets were paid for and their hotel reservations in Los Angeles were made by a convicted terrorist”.
Among the tickets bought by the “convicted terrorist” were three seats on the American Airlines flight 144 from Los Angeles to Washington on Sept 10.
The three Qataris “failed to board” the flight, and instead took a direct British Airways flight to London later the same day, arriving at Heathrow on the afternoon of Sept 11.
In a sinister footnote, the cable states that: “The same plane used for AA flight #144 on 10 September 2001 was used for AA flight #77 on 11 September 2001. AA flight #77 was hijacked on route the next day and crashed into the Pentagon.”
Central to the “ongoing” FBI investigation will be the question of whether the three men were booked on to flight 144 in order to hijack either the same aircraft or another aircraft the next day.
They had visited the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the attacks, and the White House which, it has been suggested, was the target of the terrorists on board United Airlines flight 93, which crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers tackled the hijackers.
The fact that the men had also visited the Statue of Liberty and various locations in Virginia and California raises the possibility that if they were indeed a fifth team of hijackers, one of those locations could have been their target.
One other possibility that the FBI is likely to investigate is that the BA flight that the men boarded was intended as a target, to be crashed either in America or London. BA268 landed in London at 2.25pm, or 9.25am New York time. The 9/11 attacks happened between 8.46am and 10.05am.
Intriguingly, the 9/11 Commission report stated that two of the eventual hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, spent time in Los Angeles in 2000, and the report noted “suspicions about whether these two operatives had a support network of accomplices”, though the evidence of this was “thin”. During their stay in California, al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar also spent time in San Diego with Anwar al-Awlaki, the imam blamed for several recent terrorist attacks launched from Yemen, where he now lives.
The US embassy cable detailing the FBI investigation was written by Mirembe Nantongo, the deputy chief of mission in Doha, marked “priority” and sent to the office of Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, together with the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the CIA.
WikiLeaks: 9/11 gang with pilot uniforms fled to London
"On September 11, 2001, as it became clear that Islamic terrorists were responsible for hijacking and crashing four aircraft with the loss of almost 3,000 lives, the hotel staff no doubt feared that their guests were among those responsible."
Originally posted by Xcathdra
reply to post by galactictuan
I see Assange is so desperate to stay in the media he will say anything to keep it there.
This comes on the heels of him trying to take advantage of the Tuscon shooting with his comments about Palin and Huckabee, his failure to release Bank Documents (which is the last on the list of lies he has told us all so far).
He nnow threatens that if his website is shut down he will release all the file unredacted.. I remeber him saying that so many websites act as mirrors that they couldnt be shuit down.
Someone needs to check his meds, get him a refill and send him on his way.
Does anyone not notice his tactic? Every few months, some outrageous claim to get the spotlight again, only to go off on something else..
Originally posted by Namaste1001
"On September 11, 2001, as it became clear that Islamic terrorists were responsible for hijacking and crashing four aircraft with the loss of almost 3,000 lives, the hotel staff no doubt feared that their guests were among those responsible."
Became clear?...............Really?...........on the day it happened ? So clear that when asked years later the FBI admitted they did not know who was responsible for 9/11.
This sounds like disinfo to me.
edit on 1-2-2011 by Namaste1001 because: (no reason given)