Daniel Hopsicker is one of those reporters of the good old kind that John Pilger -- one of the best-regarded journalists in the world -- says he is missing more and more: 'Their journalistic experience has taught them to take their time and listen to people; they willingly accept danger and inconvenience to follow leads and collect facts. They look skeptically at the powerful. They are what all reporters really should be, namely real investigative journalists.
The mass murder of 11th September is totally unsolved until this day. Who exactly were the alleged 19 hijackers? The FBI doesn't know. Had they helpers? The U.S. government has stopped the police investigation after a few months, destroyed evidence, carted off documents and locked them away. When state attorneys and police are not allowed to investigate, then reporters have to do it. Hopsicker is a U.S. citizen, formerly a television journalist and today a free-lance reporter. One who is persevering in his research, rings doorbells unannounced, takes a good look around on the scene, talks to neighbors and caretakers.
For two years, Hopsicker investigated the trail of Mohammed Atta in Venice, Florida. Until shortly before the attack, Atta lived in this pensioner's paradise, of all places, and longer than officially admitted. Here, there is a small, discreet airport. Here, strange things happen. The police have to look away time and again on instructions from above.
Hopsicker meets worried witnesses, discovers Atta's American ex-girl friend who lives in hiding. She is a sometime stripper with a pink hair-rinse; she tells of sex, drugs and jealousy. Hopsicker runs into Atta's helpers in the U.S. -- but those "brothers", as Atta calls them, are no bearded turban-wearers, but smart business types, among them Germans, too. Atta the 'terror pilot' did not come out of an Afghan cave. He was promoted/protected* by the West:
"Welcome to Terrorland".