BUSH: "WE'RE AT WAR" --
AS THE DEADLIEST ATTACK ON AMERICAN SOIL IN HISTORY OPENS A SCARY NEW
KIND OF CONFLICT, THE MANHUNT BEGINS
by Evan Thomas and
Mark Hosenball
PENTAGON
OFFICIALS CANCELED TRAVEL PLANS ON SEPT. 10 DUE TO "SECURITY CONCERNS"
September 24, 2001
issue, Newsweek
Sept. 24, 2001 issue - Such a polite,
neat young man. He brought his landlord
coffee and cookies. He remembered to use
his frequent-flier number when he bought
his ticket from Boston to Los
Angeles—business class. And a good
student, too, reported his flight
instructor, though he seemed more
interested in turning the plane than
landing it. A little standoffish, maybe,
but he could knock back a vodka with his
buddies. So it was uncharacteristic for
Mohamed Atta to be running a little
behind when he boarded American Airlines
Flight 11 on Tuesday shortly before 8
a.m. One of his bags never made it
aboard, but maybe that was intentional,
too, for inside was a suicide note.
The FBI believes that Atta was in
control when Flight 11 crashed into the
North Tower of the World Trade Center,
but maybe not. The hijackers had an
abundance of piloting talent—four of the
five terrorists aboard had some flight
training. Indeed, there were enough
hijackers with piloting skills to fly
four airliners—two for New York, and two
for Washington.
At
the White House on that beautiful, clear
morning, the occupants were running for
their lives. Vice President Dick Cheney
had already been hustled into a bunker
designed to withstand the shock of a
nuclear blast when, at about 9:30 a.m.,
Secret Service men told staffers leaving
the West Wing to run, not walk, as far
away as possible. "There's a plane
overhead, don't look back!" shouted a
policeman. Agents were yelling at women
to shed their high-heeled shoes so they
could run faster. Several staffers saw a
civilian airliner, reflecting white in
the bright sunlight, appearing to circle
nearby. Perhaps unable to spot the White
House, the hijackers at the control of
American Airlines Flight 77 dive-bombed
the Pentagon instead.
How could a small band of religious
zealots knock down the World Trade
Center, the most visible symbol of
capitalism, killing thousands in lower
Manhattan, and come so close to
destroying the executive mansion of the
most powerful nation on earth? Part of
the answer is that few U.S. government
officials really believed they could.
Consider the dazed reaction of top
officials of the Federal Aviation
Administration, the agency charged with
safely controlling the nation's airways.
Although a couple of aircraft had been
behaving erratically on the radar
screens of flight controllers for at
least 15 minutes, officials at FAA
headquarters did not suspect that a
hijacking had occurred until the second
plane, United Airlines Flight 175,
rammed the South Tower of the World
Trade Center at 9:05. A half hour later,
when the third plane, American Flight
77, hit the Pentagon, the FAA officials
responded in classic bureaucratic
fashion. "Get out your security
manuals," ordered one top official. The
officials dutifully began reading their
manuals to determine who among them were
deemed "essential" and should stay and
work, and who should go home for the
day.
U.S. Air Force fighter planes did not
arrive to protect the nation's capital
for another 15 minutes. Pentagon
officials had watched helplessly as the
suicide airliner bore in on the nation's
military command center. In the chaotic
aftermath, the plane at the greatest
risk of getting shot down was the one
flying the attorney general of the
United States. At least that's the way
it seemed to the pilot, David Clemmer, a
Vietnam combat veteran who received a
warning as he flew the nation's chief
law- enforcement officer, John Ashcroft,
back to Washington from an aborted
speaking engagement in the Midwest. Land
your plane immediately, Clemmer was
instructed by an air-traffic controller,
or risk getting shot down by the U.S.
Air Force. Clemmer turned to an FBI
agent assigned to guard Ashcroft and
said, "Well, Larry, we're in deep kimchi
here, and basically, all the rules you
and I know are out the window." The
pilot notified air-traffic controllers
that he was carrying the attorney
general—but was worried that the message
wouldn't get through to military
commanders controlling the airspace
around Washington. "Thinking out of the
box," as Clemmer put it, he asked
for—and got—a fighter escort into
Washington. His plane, guarded by an
F-16, was one of the last to land on the
East Coast that day.
Within a day or two, the haplessness,
the confusion, the mentality of "it
can't happen here" had been wiped away,
perhaps forever. An aircraft carrier
patrolled off New York Harbor, past the
skyline so horrifically sundered by the
destruction of the World Trade Center.
Washington was an armed camp on
hair-trigger alert. "We're at war,"
declared President George W. Bush. "We
will not only deal with those who dare
attack America, we will deal with those
who harbor them and feed them and house
them." The FBI had launched the largest
manhunt in history, code-named PENTTBOM
(for Pentagon and Twin Towers), tracking
the suspected 19 suicide bombers and
their backers around the nation and
abroad. Intelligence officials told
NEWSWEEK that they feared that between
30 and 50 teams of terrorists were still
on the loose. It was hard to tell if the
threat was real, or if America was
gripped with the sort of frenzy that
seized the nation after the Japanese
bombed Pearl Harbor—and many citizens
assumed that Japanese troops would soon
be marching on Chicago. Northwest
Airlines confirmed that flight
attendants were staying away from work
in droves. And bomb scares became
routine. By Saturday, FBI agents had
detained 25 people wanted for
questioning on immigration violations
and issued arrest warrants for two other
"material witnesses."
Congress will no doubt hold hearings to
assign the fault for a massive failure
of intelligence. At the CIA, NEWSWEEK
has learned, officials looked at the
Justice Department's list of dead
hijackers aboard American Flight 77, the
plane that hit the Pentagon, and
recognized three of them as terrorism
suspects. ("Oh s--t," exclaimed one
official.) In late August, the agency
had asked the FBI to find two of the
men, one of whom was believed to be
connected to a suspect in the October
2000 bombing of the destroyer the USS
Cole. But the FBI was still looking when
the hijackers struck.
The blame game will go on. But the
finger-pointing may miss a darker and
more troubling truth about the shocking
attack. It is very difficult for a free
and open society to defend against
terrorists who are at once patient,
smart and willing to die. The operatives
run by Al Qaeda, the terrorist
organization that reports to bin Laden,
appear to be all three. As the PENTTBOM
investigation exposes the sophisticated
and long-conceived suicide plot, a
portrait of evil genius emerges.
It
is often said that Islamic extremists
wish to turn back history. They want to
destroy the Western modernity that
threatens to eclipse their fantasy of an
11th-century theocracy. But, like a judo
expert who leverages his opponent's
superior weight and mass against him,
Islamic terrorists have found a
diabolically clever way to flip the
Great Satan on his back. Blending into
American society for months and even
years, quietly awaiting the signal to
move, bin Laden's operatives have
learned how to turn two of America's
greatest strengths—openness and
technology—into weapons against the
American people. Armed with pocket
knives, they transformed U.S. airliners
into guided missiles, flying bombs
packed with 60,000 gallons of explosive
fuel. That feat, while awesome, could be
just the beginning. Talking on cell
phones and by encrypted e-mail,
operatives in bin Laden's far-flung
network can communicate from Afghanistan
to Miami with little risk of immediate
detection. It is chilling to think what
they could accomplish if they get their
hands on the acme of Western military
science, the nuclear bomb. Without
doubt, they are trying.
"The ability to take our expertise and
turn it on us is exhilarating to them,"
says Sen. Ron Wyden, a member of the
Senate intelligence committee. "They
stay at it and stay at it to learn how
to defeat our technological systems.
It's like rattling doors through the
neighborhood, looking for one to break
in. That's what they're doing with our
technology." The lock to America's
rickety, overburdened air-control system
was especially easy to pick. But
America's water and electrical supplies
aren't much better safeguarded. And
teenage computer hackers have already
demonstrated how to use the wide-open
Internet to wreck cyberhavoc on American
businesses and homes.
For all their professed devotion to
medieval religiosity, the terrorists
themselves appear to have comfortably
blended into American culture. They do
not appear to be poor, or desperate or
down on their luck, like the stereotype
of a young Arab man drawn to the false
promise of entering Paradise through
martyrdom. At least one of the 19 had a
family, and all apparently lived
comfortable middle-class lives, with
enough money to rent cars, go to school
and violate the Quran's ban on alcohol
by visiting the occasional bar. A senior
European intelligence official told
NEWSWEEK that some of the hijackers may
have had Swiss bank accounts, which have
now been frozen by Swiss authorities.
Two of the alleged hijackers aboard
Flight 93, Ahmed Alhaznawi and Ziad
Jarrahi, drove a Ford Ranger and lived
in a quiet neighborhood in
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Fla. In front of
the house was a wooden wind chime
carrying the message this house is full
of love. NEWSWEEK has learned that the
Pentagon has referred to the FBI reports
that three of the hijackers may have
received help from Uncle Sam—as trainees
at Pensacola Naval Air Station in
Florida; two others may have studied at
Air Force facilities.
Osama bin Laden, their spiritual leader
and financier, comes from a privileged
background himself. One of more than 50
children of Yemeni billionaire parents
who got rich off construction contracts
in Saudi Arabia, Osama, for a time, made
money on those most Western of
beverages, Coke and Pepsi. During the
early '90s, while he lived in Sudan, he
owned part of a company that produced
gum arabic, an essential ingredient of
many soft drinks. Bin Laden may not have
a vast personal fortune, at least not
the $300 million ascribed to him, but he
is able to secure funds from nefarious
sources. According to intelligence
sources, his agents are involved in drug
running and he receives "blood money"
payment from frightened Arab regimes
that want to buy protection from his
zealotry. According to U.S. intelligence
sources, bin Laden is able to pay
pensions to the families of suicide
bombers.
Mohamed Atta was, according to
investigators, the perfect soldier in
bin Laden's army. He was a citizen of
the world. Traveling on a passport from
the United Arab Emirates, he lived in
Germany for a time, studying at the
Technical University in Hamburg. He
frequented a nightspot named Sharky's
Billiard Bar ("the Bar With
Mega-Possibilities"), wore black jeans,
and rented—but failed to return—a video
of John Carpenter's "Vampire." At the
same time, he requested and received a
prayer room at the university for
himself and about 20 other Muslim
students. In the last two years, he
began to wear Muslim dress.
Atta, 33, may have had a shadowy past.
According to German authorities, he is
suspected in the bombing of an Israeli
bus in 1986, when he was only 18 or 19
years old. If true, he should have been
denied immigration visas. Instead, he
was able to move freely between Germany
and the United States. He was clearly
preparing for some sort of terrorist
action for months. According to
law-enforcement authorities, he may have
begun casing Logan Airport in Boston
more than six months ago. And, NEWSWEEK
has learned, he was seen last winter in
Norfolk, Va., where, the FBI believes,
he may have been surveying the giant
U.S. Navy base as a target. Already, say
investigators, there are important links
between the hijackers who attacked
American targets last week and the
plotters who tried to sink the USS Cole
in Yemen last October.
Atta had plenty of cash. He wrote a
$10,000 check to take flight lessons at
one of Florida's many flight schools.
(Because of its year-round good weather
and proximity to the beach, Florida
attracts many international flight
students, especially from the Middle
East; background checks are said to be
minimal.) Last December, he and another
man paid $1,500 for six hours in a
Boeing 727 simulator. "Looking back at
it, it was a little strange that all
they wanted to do was turns," Henry
George, who runs Sim Center, Inc., at
Opa-Locka Airport, told The Miami
Herald. "Most people who come here want
to do takeoffs and landings."
At
the time, Atta aroused no suspicion.
When he turned in his rent-a-car in
Pompano Beach, Fla., on Sept. 9, before
heading north on his suicide mission, he
reminded the dealer, Brad Warrick, that
the car needed to be serviced. "The only
thing out of the ordinary," Warrick
recalled, "was that he was nice enough
to let me know the car needed an oil
change." Atta and several friends were
regulars at a Venice bar called the 44th
Aero Squadron, decorated in the motif of
a bomber-squadron bunker, complete with
sandbags. "I never had any problems with
them," said the owner, Ken Schortzmann.
They didn't want to be bothered, but
didn't drink heavily and flirt with the
waitresses, like some of the other
flight students. Atta seemed to be the
leader. "He had a fanny pack with a big
roll of cash in it," said Schortzmann.
Last week Atta and two of his buddies
seem to have gone out for a farewell
bender at a seafood bar called Shuckums.
Atta drank five Stoli-and-fruit-juices,
while one of the others drank rum and
Coke. For once, Atta and his friends
became agitated, shouting curse words in
Arabic, reportedly including a
particularly blasphemous one that
roughly translates as "F--k God." There
was a squabble when the waitress tried
to collect the $48 bill (her shift was
ending and she wanted her tip). One of
the Arabs became indignant. "I work for
American Airlines. I'm a pilot," he
said. "What makes you think I'd have a
problem paying the bill?"
Although investigators now suspect that
Atta may been the leader of his cell, it
is not clear if and when he was, in
effect, "triggered." The pattern of bin
Laden's terrorism is to insert
operatives into a country where they are
"sleepers," burrowed deep into the local
culture, leading normal lives while
awaiting orders. Intelligence sources
believe that one or two control agents
run by bin Laden's Qaeda may have
slipped into the United States in the
last couple of weeks to activate the
airliner plot. The idea of using suicide
pilots may have been germinating for a
very long time. One of the other
pilot-hijackers on Flight 11, Waleed
Alshehri, attended flight school in
Florida in 1997. Last week FBI Director
Robert Mueller told a news conference,
"The fact that they received flight
training in the U.S. is news." But maybe
it shouldn't have been. Only last
September an Orlando, Fla., cabdriver
named Ihab Ali was indicted for refusing
to answer questions about his ties to
the bin Laden organization, including
his "pilot training in Oklahoma,"
according to court papers. Indeed, the
records of the terrorism trial in New
York for the August 1998 bombings of two
U.S. embassies in Africa offer a wealth
of information about bin Laden's use of
U.S.-trained pilots. One of them, Essam
Al-Ridi, who had been trained at a Texas
flight school, was a key government
witness, testifying that bin Laden's
associates used him to try to buy a
private jet to transport Stinger
ground-to-air missiles from Pakistan to
Sudan.
It
is
not
known
exactly
how
many
of
bin
Laden's
operatives
are
still
on
the
loose.
One
of
the
most
intriguing
suspects
may
be
Amer
Mohammed
Kamfar,
41.
Last
winter
or
fall,
he
showed
up
in
Florida
and
took
flight
lessons
at
Flight
Safety
Academy.
He
rented
a
house
in
Vero
Beach,
where
he
had
a
wife,
who
dressed
in
the
traditional
chador,
and
several
children.
Kamfar,
who
called
himself
"John,"
"shopped
at
Wal-Mart
and
ate
a
lot
of
pizza,"
according
to a
neighbor.
Two
weeks
ago
he
packed
up
his
family
and
left
the
area.
Last
week
Florida
cops
put
out
an
all-points
bulletin,
warning
that
Kamfar
may
be
toting
an
AK-47.
Two
of
the
suicide
bombers
may
have
just
slipped
out
of
the
federal
government's
grasp.
According
to
intelligence
sources,
on
Aug.
21
the
CIA
passed
along
information
to
the
Immigration
and
Naturalization
Service
on a
man
who
belonged
on
the
watch
list
for
terror
suspects.
The
man,
Khalid
al-Midhar,
had
been
videotaped
in
Kuala
Lumpur
talking
to
one
of
the
suspected
terrorists
in
the
Cole
bombing
(the
man
is
now
in
jail
in
Yemen).
When
the
INS
ran
its
database,
it
found
that
al-Midhar
was
already
inside
the
United
States.
The
CIA
asked
the
FBI
to
find
him
and
an
associate,
Salem
Alhamzi.
But
the
bureau
didn't
have
much
to
go
on.
They
listed
their
U.S.
residence
as
"the
Marriott
Hotel
in
New
York."
There
are
10
Marriott-run
hotels
in
New
York.
The
bureau
checked
all
of
them
and
found
nothing.
Al-Midhar
and
Alhamzi
were
listed
among
the
five
hijackers
of
American
Airlines
Flight
77.
Ever
since
the
Customs
Service
foiled
an
apparent
bomb
plot
on
the
eve
of
the
millennium,
U.S.
intelligence
has
been
very
edgy
about
an
attack
on
America.
The
man
caught
crossing
between
British
Columbia
and
Seattle
with
explosives
and
timers
in
his
car,
Ahmed
Ressam,
later
confessed
that
he
planned
to
blow
up
Los
Angeles
International
Airport.
Ressam
allegedly
worked
for
a
shadowy
group
of
Algerian
terrorists
with
ties
to
bin
Laden.
Twice
a
week,
the
"Threat
Committee,"
a
group
of
top
intelligence
officials
and
diplomats,
meets
in
the
White
House
complex
to
review
dozens
of
terrorist
threats
at
home
and
abroad.
In
late
June
the
CIA
warned
of
possible
terrorist
action
against
U.S.
targets,
including
those
in
the
United
States,
for
the
Fourth
of
July.
Nothing
happened,
but
then
in
July
the
agency
again
warned
about
possible
attacks
overseas.
The
threat
seemed
grave
enough
to
force
U.S.
ships
in
Middle
Eastern
ports
to
head
for
sea.
Three
weeks
ago
there
was
another
warning
that
a
terrorist
strike
might
be
imminent.
But
there
was
no
mention
of
where.
On
Sept.
10,
NEWSWEEK
has
learned,
a
group
of
top
Pentagon
officials
suddenly
canceled
travel
plans
for
the
next
morning,
apparently
because
of
security
concerns.
But
no
one
even
dreamed
that
four
air-liners
would
be
hijacked
and
plunged
into
targets
in
New
York
and
Washington.
Some
officials
complain
that
the
intelligence
community
has
been
too
focused
on
terrorists
obtaining
weapons
of
mass
destruction—biological,
chemical
and
nuclear—while
overlooking
low-tech
threats—like
the
use
of
penknives
and
box
cutters
to
hijack
a
plane.
The
Threat
Committee
has
every
reason
to
worry
about
bin
Laden's
trying
to
get
hold
of a
nuke.
During
the
New
York
trial
of
the
men
accused
of
bombing
the
embassies
in
Africa,
one
bin
Laden
associate
testified
that
the
boss
had
hatched
a
1993
plan
to
spend
$1.5
million
to
buy
black-market
uranium.
He
apparently
failed—that
time.
Now
the
Bush
administration
and
Congress
seemed
primed
to
do
just
about
anything
to
foil
future
attacks.
Justice
Department
lawyers
have
been
told
to
take
a
fresh
look
at
"everything,"
one
official
said.
Perhaps
the
most
startling
idea
under
examination
would
be a
new
presidential
order
authorizing
secret
military
tribunals
to
try
accused
terrorists.
The
idea
first
occurred
to
former
attorney
general
William
Barr
after
the
bombing
of
Pan
Am
Flight
103
over
Lockerbie,
Scotland,
in
1988.
Barr,
at
the
time
chief
of
the
Justice
Department's
Office
of
Legal
Counsel,
got
the
idea
after
learning
that
his
office
was
used
during
World
War
II
to
try—in
secret—German
saboteurs
who
were
later
hanged.
The
idea
was
rejected,
but
it's
being
revived
on
the
theory
that
terrorists
are
de
facto
military
"combatants"
who
don't
deserve
the
full
run
of
constitutional
rights.
Civil
libertarians
may
balk,
but
never
underestimate
the
desire
for
revenge.
Consider
some
statistics:
more
people
were
killed
by
the
suicide
hijackers
last
week
than
the
number
of
American
soldiers
killed
in
the
entire
American
Revolution.
Or
at
Antietam,
the
bloodiest
one-day
battle
of
the
Civil
War.
Or
at
Pearl
Harbor.
Or
on
D-Day.
And
those
were
soldiers.
War
had
become
more
and
more
remote
and
sterile
to
Americans
who
experienced
combat
as a
phenomenon
that
occurred
on
TV,
either
in
movies
or
occasionally
by
watching
cruise
missiles
light
up
Baghdad
on
the
evening
news.
Now
those
same
American
civilians
are
in a
war.
Not
as
spectators,
but
as
targets.
With
Michael
Isikoff,
Dan
Klaidman,
Martha
Brant,
Debra
Rosenberg,
Weston
Kosova,
Andy
Murr,
George
Wehrfritz,
Catharine
Skipp
and
John
Lantigua