Date: 16 Sep 2001 01:36:00 +0200
From: ASWAD-AT-anarch.free.de (catkawin)
Subject: Hamburg connection III




The ban on information is still effective. Media here, whether papers/ 
magazines, or TC news shows, seem to be getting their info from what is  
released news-wise in the USA. The ban has been effected on US request,  
and it seems that authorities here are somewhat p.o.ed by info then  
leaking out in the States - e.g. one paper today somewhat cuttingly  
reported that German federal police authority BKA confidentially informed  
FBI of having picked up phone calls from persons suspected of contacts to  
Bin Laden who expressed joy about the attacks, only to watch Orrin Hatch  
blurting out this info publically short time later on CNN, and in a way  
that indicated that it was in fact US authorities which were successful  
here.

The local TV news did not carry anything much on the 'Hamburg connection';  
the only thing was a short interview with Federal Attorny Nehm who said  
that they still had no evidence that Atta did have connections to the Bin  
Laden organisation.

Local papers have come up with some more details re the situation here.  
Apparently 13 flats have been raided by police, among them one students'  
hall of residence in Harburg. Despite the info provided earlier, only one  
person now is said to have been detained temporarily. He is described as  
an Arab but without any nationality given, and apparently is the one who  
lives in this neighbourhood adjacent to Hamburg airport. He is reported to  
work at the airport premises and doing loading/unloading ops. Reports say  
that he was living in the flat with his 4-year-old son, but without a  
wife. The man was released from detention yesterday, but police apparently  
took off quite a lot of his belonggings out of his flat.

A local paper also said that a person sharing the flat of Atta and Al  
Shahhir is said to have fled to Pakistan and there is an international  
warrant out for him. Another paper said that his Turkish wife told police  
her husband went back for a professional training to Pakistan, but had  
phoned her only once since his departure.

A local paper today carried an article about the attack against WTC. They  
spoke to a blast engineer who said that the buildings were attacked in a  
way to ensure the collapse of both towers. It also reports that a  
spokesperson of the pilots' association commented upon the strategy of the  
attacks and said that the planes must have been flown by trained combat  
pilots. I've also seen an article quoting expert opinion that the pilots  
apparently had a lot of expertise which they would not have acquired just  
by the courses they are said to have taken in the USA.

Some papers mention the attackers were probably trained at an airport in  
the vicinity of Hamburg, by the name of Hartenholm (this thing was first  
mentioned in a paper called 'Welt' [world] which is veeery conservative).  
This is a small airport, say some 120/150 kms northeast of Hamburg, which  
during the early 90ies was privatized and then bought by one or several  
Iranian businessmen, and since then there have been repeated news about  
smuggle, money laundering, and arms trading going on there, which up to  
now have never been proven. Again, this airport is a very small one and  
its runways won't allow anything like jumbos to take off or land there.

As an aside, from today's paper I also learned that a local insurance  
broker up to now has not managed to ascertain the whereabouts of one of  
their employees working in one of the WTC towers (I worked for their  
reinsurance department at some point in time).

I read an article about Atta and Al Shahhi today which now says - in  
contradiction to earlier articles - that Atta was perceived to be a  
fanatic Muslim. The article further mentions that the Islam Study Group  
Atta founded at Harburg Tech was funded with an annual DM 2,000 by  
university, but that they hardly used any of this money, except for an  
occasional DM 200 to buy religious books. The paper reports that despite  
Atta being well remembered by students at Harburg Tech, nobody seems to  
remember Al Shahhi and says he may have been enrolled pro forma. It is  
also mentioned that Al Shahhi also entered Germany on a student's visa and  
first went to Hamburg, but some time later left Hamburg for Bonn, where he  
registered with authorities (remember this is a must here), and returned  
to Hamburg later on. However, foreigner laws over here are not all that  
generous about persons moving about, especially when having entered on  
students' visa: the visa can be cancelled when you change the course of  
studies, or even to another university. A student's visa will restrict you  
to only take up jobs during holidays, and with the unemployment being as  
it is, there's not too much chance to find temporary employment as a  
foreign student. You also must provide a document in which someone  
guarantees to finance you when applying for a student's visa.


There are articles about harrassment of Muslims or persons appearing to be  
of Middle East origin, but again this is yesterday's stage of affairs. TV  
does not mention this so far (I am writing this after the main evening  
news shows).

News shows today mentioned that another hijacker seems to have lived in  
the German town of Bochum and that investigations were being made in this  
area now. This seems to be a man by the name of Ziad Jarrah, of Lebanese  
nationality, whose girlfriend is said to have him reported as missing to  
the police which started off investigations. Jarrah's name meanwhile  
appeared on the list of hijackers published by German papers today.

Just when I finished this CNN gave additional info on Jarrah, so I  
switched over to German late news to see what they say there and if at  
all. They basically said the same. Still there are contradictions: Jarrah  
is believed to have been reported missing by girlfriend in Bochum  
according to info provided by the Fed. Attorney himself, but said to have  
been enrolled at Harburg Tech, same as Atta and Al Shahhi (the towns are  
some 450 kms apart). German news said that Jarrah studied plane building  
at Harburg Tech - as far as I'm informed, Harburg Tech does not offer this  
course, but a different college in Hamburg.

I just saw, on BBC World, where the hijackers sat in the resp. planes. The  
list of hijackers is also in our papers today. There is something which I  
noted about the list of names: for AA 11 they give the name Walid Al  
Shehri, and then Wail Alsheri aka Waleed Alsheri. These seem to be just  
different ways of writing the same name, 'Waleed' is the English  
transcription of the name Walid, and 'Al Shehri' in transcription can also  
be written 'Alshehri' or even 'Alsheri' for more convenient  
pronounciation, or even 'Al Shahri/Alshahri/etc.'.

catkawin




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