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In
the second major blow in as many weeks
to the credibility of the 9.11 Commission
report, the MadCowMorningNews
has learned exclusively that during
final preparations for the Sept 11
attack, Mohamed Atta’s father
was 'visiting' his terrorist ringleader
son in Venice, Florida.
Moreover,
the FBI knew about the
U.S. visit of Cairo attorney Mohammed El-Amir almost immediately after the
attack, when, after seeing him on television
denying that his son had anything to
do with the terrorist hijackings, a
number of credible witnesses called
the Sarasota office of the FBI to report
they had seen Atta’s father in Venice
with his son ten days to two weeks before
the attack.
In
addition, closed
circuit videotape provided to the
FBI as evidence of Atta Senior’s presence
appears to have been intentionally erased.
"Remember where you heard it first."
The
revelation is yet another major
contradiction of the FBI’s official
account of the 911 attack, and it comes
hard on the heels of news that a military
intelligence unit called Able
Danger was tracking Atta’s movements
in America in 1999 and early 2000. at
a time when the FBI steadfastly maintains
Atta was not yet in the U.S.
Atta
first arrived in the U.S. on June 3,
2000, according to the FBI. The glaring
“discrepancy” has begun fueling urgent
calls for an reappraisal of the Bureau’s
entire 9.11 investigation.
When
the FBI’s official story about Mohamed
Atta’s timeline, activities, and numerous
close non-Arab associates in the U.S.
is finally shown to be riddled with
untruths and deliberate deception, it
will come as no surprise to readers
of the MadCowMorningNews and “Welcome
to TerrorLand.”
Could
things get any worse for
the beleaguered FBI?
The
answer appears to be an emphatic yes.
In addition to not informing either
the 9.11 Commission or the Congressional
Intelligence probe which preceded it
about Mohamed Atta Senior’s U.S. visit,
closed circuit videotape provided to
the FBI with evidence of his presence
has apparently been erased.
When
a pharmacy in Venice provided the Bureau
with videotapes from the store’s closed
circuit cameras as proof of the visit
of Atta, his father, and Marwan Al-Shehhi
to the store, it was returned 10 days
later, minus “excisions” in the tape
from the afternoon of August 28, 2001,
the date of the three men’s visit to
the store.
Sending a fax to--where else?--New
Jersey
We first learned of Atta Senior’s presence in
Venice in a casual conversation with
a Venice pharmacist who has been known
to us for over 25 years, since my parents
bought a retirement home here after
my father suffered a series of heart
attacks.
Accompanied
by Mohamed Atta and his bodyguard Marwan
Al-Shehhi, the pharmacist stated that
Mohamed Atta Senior had been in his
pharmacy several weeks before the attack,
to send a fax.
“We
have just about the only public fax
in town,” the pharmacist stated. “The
fax went to a number in New Jersey.”
Why
is this man being protected by the FBI?
While
Atta’s father stood at the counter supervising
the sending of the fax, he related,
Atta and Marwan took chairs in
the pharmacy waiting area. When Mohamed
Atta impatiently got up out of his chair
while the fax was being sent, Atta Senior
spoke to him in a loud commanding voice.
“And
the son sat right back down,” said the
pharmacist. “He (Atta Senior) was clearly
in charge.”
After
recognizing Atta’s father on television,
the pharmacist called the FBI...
“I
recognized him immediately. He was very
imperious, arrogant almost, big hand
gestures, and an air of authority. I
also remember that when he paid for
the fax, he had a wallet that was larger
in size than any I’ve ever seen. It
sort of unfolded on the counter.”
“The
FBI sent two young agents over to see
me, but they already knew about Atta
Senior’s visit, and so didn’t consider
what we had to tell them to be any big
deal,” he stated.
“They
told me he (Atta Senior) used an alias
to get into the U.S.,” he said. “We
gave them the videotape from our closed
circuit surveillance cameras, and that
was it.”
The
videotape was returned two weeks later.
And it sat on a shelf in the pharmacy
until we requested to watch it. After
screening the (six weeks worth) of videotape,
we discovered that the tape had been
altered before being returned to the
pharmacist.
In
television interviews after the attack
Atta’s father had strenuously contended
that his son had nothing to do with
the 9.11 attack, even stating his son
had phoned home on September 12th to
assure him he was alive.
Now
the news of his visit to the U.S. would
clearly seem to have rendered that statement
“inoperative.”
"He never even flew a kite."
Describing
himself to reporters as “one of the
most important lawyers in Cairo,” he
portrayed his son as a mama’s boy prone
to airsickness, a dedicated architecture
student who rarely mentioned politics,
and a victim of a intricate framing
by the Israeli intelligence agency.
Atta Senior also said his son didn’t
know anything about flying, telling
Newsweek, “He never even had a kite”
“The
Mossad kidnapped my son,” Atta Senior
asserted at the time to reporters. “He
is the easiest person to kidnap, very
surrendering, no physical power, no
money for bodyguards. They used his
name and identity.”
“He
was still alive after the attack,” Atta
Senior claimed vociferously. “He called
me twenty-four hours and forty-eight
hours after the attack. That was the
last time. Because after that, they
indeed killed him."
But
after the recent London bombings he
had changed his tune. He condemned Arab
leaders and Muslims who denounced the
London attacks, and praised the bombers.
Mohammed
Atta's father told CNN "Muslims are
like nuclear bombs which have been activated."
And he offered to finance future
suicide bombings himself by charging
the CNN crew a $5,000 fee for an interview,
then giving the money to terrorist groups.
(The crew told him that the channel
did not pay for interviews.)
At
the very least, Mohamed Atta Senior’s
visit to his soon-to-be-dead son bespeaks
foreknowledge of the 9.11 attack. It
also would seem to confirm the persistent
rumors of his involvement with the Muslim
Brotherhood, outlawed in Egypt.
Answering to the Family...but whose?
Is
this “the family” which
Marwan Al-Shehhi was referring to in
his heated argument—“we’re talking $200,000!
We have to answer to the Family!”—with
Atta in a restaurant a week before the
attack over the return of unspent funds
before the suicide mission?
Questions
we would like to ask the FBI, which
has not returned calls seeking comment,
include:
Why
have they concealed Atta Senior’s visit
from the 9.11 Commission and the Congressional
Intelligence Investigation into 9.11?
Do they know the purpose of the visit?
What
do they know about Atta Senior’s role,
if any, in the 9.11 attack?
And,
most importantly... Why has someone
with clear foreknowledge of an attack
which murdered almost 3000 civilians
not been brought to justice?
Stay
tuned.
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