Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 17:15:30 -0400
Subject: Re: what info?
From: Sean Gallagher <sean-AT-dendro.com>


Hey, catawkin-- Hamburg's Chamber of Commerce ran a full-page advert in the
NY Times today, promising scholarships for American students to colleges in
Hamburg, etc.  Maybe they want to fill the vacancies left by these guys?

On 9/24/01 8:28 PM, "catkawin" <ASWAD-AT-anarch.free.de> wrote:

> 
> Local papers concentrate on Hamburg elections. However, state channel N3
> had a special about investigations against the suspects. Most of what this
> special said was old news.
> 
> But: there was diverging info about the wife of Said Bahaji; first she was
> reported to be of Turkish nationality, then we learned she was a German
> who became Muslim. The above special did a short interview with Bahaji's
> father-in-law, and he indeed happens to be Turkish. He said his son-in-law
> phoned him a few days ago, but did not say much, he heard loud Arab
> conversations in the background, and then the line went dead.
> 
> They mentioned another student of Harburg Tech, of Moroccan nationality,
> by the name of Nabil Hashim. He belongs to the persons who made use of the
> Muslim prayer room and in fact had one of the keys to this room, the other
> keys being held by Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al Shahhi. They did an
> interview with Hashim, and he said although he had a key to the room, he
> did not know the others too well and they hardly ever met. On the other
> hand, he said that when newly enrolled Muslim students arrived, one helped
> them to settle down and find their way about university and town and so
> on.
> As an aside: Hashim did the interview in Arabic, and he spoke classical
> Arabic. The spoken Arabic in Morocco differs widely from classical Arabic
> and from the Arab dialects spoken in the Middle East. Classical Arabic is
> still more or less spoken in Saudi Arabia, and of course every Muslim will
> learn some when being taught the Qur'an. An educated person from Morocco
> could also be expected to be fluent in French.
> 
> The prayer room has been closed. As the comment said, neither Hashim nor
> others using the room have been questioned by police.
> 
> They again interviewed people from the neighbourhood Atta and Al Shahhi
> lived in. All more or less said that there were only few contacts, saying
> 'hello' when one met, and that Atta and others sharing his flat were often
> seen wearing traditional clothes. What got mentioned by more than one
> interview partner was wide trousers. However, such trousers are not worn
> in Egypt, the Emirates, or Saudi Arabia where men wear a long robe
> (galabiya in Egypt, jalaba in Saudi Arabia; basically the same word).
> 
> 
> One paper today reports that police found evidence of links between the
> Hamburg students and Osama bin Laden, at least Marwan Al Shahhi is said to
> have had contacts to a person suspected of being a member of the Bin Laden
> organisation. Federal Attorney Nehm, who only Friday said they had no
> evidence of such links, did not want to give any comment due to pending
> investigations.
> BTW the article now says that Al Shahhi was from Saudi-Arabia whereas
> prior info said he was from the Emirates...
> 
> Mohamed Atta is said to have been observed by US intelligence in Germany.
> Agents are said to have observed Atta in Frankfurt surroundings from Jan
> to May 2000 and saw him buy substantial amounts of chemicals.
> 
> Another article says that Belgian police arrested two suspects on Thursday
> and found large amounts of chemicals which may be used to build bombs in
> their flat.
> 
> It continues with the info that French intelligence service already on Sep
> 1, 2001, warned US intelligence after the arrest of one Zacarias
> Moussaoui. (Zakaria is a name used by both Muslims and Christians. The
> family name is given in French transcript, if too complicated, try
> 'Moussawi'.) Moussaoui is said to have been reported to police by his
> flight teacher because Moussaoui only wanted to learn how to keep a plane
> in the air, but not how to start and land. They did not succeed, however,
> in making Moussaoui talk.
> 
> FBI is also said to have been informed, for several years, that suspected
> terrorists from Bin Laden's surroundings were taking flight courses, but
> never found any evidence that this might have been in preparation of
> suicide attacks. What is described as 'government sources' now are said to
> have affirmed that about four or five different groups allegedly belonging
> to Bin Laden's Al Quaeda organisation are staying in the US presently and
> have lived in the USA for several years already. They have not been
> arrested as of yet because there is no evidence against them.
> 
> 
> The state TV channel's news show tonight reported about Bush's
> announcement of a strike against the financial basis of Bin Laden, but did
> not give details. BBC World mentioned that among the persons/organisations/
> companies effected from having their bank accounts frozen is a charity
> organisation with the purpose of distributing food to Afghan refugees.
> 
> BBC just mention that Bin Laden contacted a Middle Eastern TV station and
> sent them a fax with a call for jihad. They broadcast that station's
> report, it's called Al Jazeera TV, but they did not mention which country
> it's from.
> I waited for another news show to see whether they'd give more info on
> that TV station, but this time they had even taken out their logo... And
> whereas they showed a copy of the fax in the previous show, nothing of
> that this time....
> 
> They showed something interesting, though - a BBC interview with the Saudi
> embassador to GB who said that he has yet to see proof who participated in
> the WTC attack. The embassador said that of the suspects named, several
> had been found alive and well in Saudi Arabia, while others went by names
> about as rarely to be found and as telltale as 'John Smith'.
> 
> 
> catkawin
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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