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washingtonpost.com: Who Aided Hijackers Is Still Mystery

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washingtonpost.com

Who Aided Hijackers Is Still Mystery FBI Disputes Findings Of Congressional Inquiry By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, September 10, 2003; Page A01

Two years after al Qaeda terrorists slammed jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, FBI and congressional investigators remain deeply divided over whether the 19 hijackers received help from other al Qaeda operatives inside the United States and still are unable to answer some of the central questions in the case. The uncertainties persist despite the largest FBI investigation in U.S. history ~ which has included 180,000 interviews and 7,000 agents ~ and raise the possibility that Americans will never know precisely how the conspirators were able to pull off the most devastating terrorist attacks in U.S. history. "We know quite a bit about the attacks," FBI counterterrorism chief Larry Mefford said last week. "Unfortunately, we don't know everything." Some of the doubts surround intriguing details: Investigators still have no firm grasp on why the hijacker pilots booked layovers in Las Vegas during apparent practice runs on commercial airliners in 2001. Authorities also have found no definitive explanation for why ringleader Mohamed Atta and another hijacker, Abdulaziz Alomari, began their suicidal journey on Sept. 11, 2001, with a seemingly risky commuter flight from Portland, Maine, to Boston ~ coming within minutes of missing their flights out of both cities. And what exactly was discussed at a pivotal meeting in Kuala Lumpur in January 2000, where investigators believe ~ but cannot prove ~ that the Sept. 11 plot was put in motion? But perhaps the biggest riddle ~ one that has only become murkier in recent months ~ centers on the support given to the hijackers while they were laying the groundwork for the attacks, and what that suggests about a pre-existing network of operatives in the United States. A recent congressional inquiry raises the possibility that al Qaeda supporters were in place in this country to help the hijackers; were aware of at least some aspects of the plot; and may have been supported by elements of another government, Saudi Arabia. If true, that could mean that domestic accomplices to the attacks are still at large. FBI investigators ~ who initially believed that such a support network was likely — concluded by early 2002 that no evidence could be found of any organized domestic effort to aid the hijackers. Since then, FBI, Justice Department and intelligence officials have portrayed the hijacking teams as disciplined operatives who kept to themselves and did not draw upon existing terrorist cells for help. Investigators believe the hijackers relied on unwitting fellow immigrants in obtaining apartments, identification papers and other assistance after they had entered the United States. "While here, the hijackers effectively operated without suspicion, triggering nothing that would have alerted law enforcement and doing nothing that exposed them to domestic coverage," FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said during a joint inquiry of House and Senate intelligence committees in June 2002. "As far as we know, they contacted no known terrorist sympathizers in the United States."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51669-2003 Sep9?language=printer

9/10/03