Amerika Forum - USA 4 ALL - Informatie

Amerika forum door USA4ALL!

Amerika Vakantie Routes en hulp bij uw planning. Uiteraard kunt u hier ook terecht voor andere Amerikaans gerelateerde vragen over de Verenigde Staten van Amerika!
Als u zich registreert als lid, ziet u minder advertenties! Bovendien ziet u meer onderwerpen, zoals bijv. voorgestelde routeopties en krijgt u toegang tot de veel gestelde vragen. Bij aanmelding heeft u geen last meer van dit bericht.

Possible 5th pilot, who would have targeted White House, eyed in Sept. 11 inquir

Discussie gestart

Ronald Verhoog

WASHINGTON (AP) — An al-Qaeda member in military custody overseas has told interviewers he was planning to ram a fifth hijacked plane into the White House on Sept. 11, 2001, according to published reports.

But according to The New York Times, the plan unraveled when the suspect failed to obtain permission to enter the USA to attend flight school in Florida.

The Times, citing senior U.S. officials, said that the theory of a fifth hijack team led by Ramzi Muhammad Abdullah bin al-Shibh has gained credibility as investigators track his movements. It's known that he knew Mohamed Atta, termed by authorities the ringleader of the Sept. 11 air-attack plot.

More details are expected to emerge now that the suspect's former roommate has been nabbed in Germany. Abdelghani Mzoudi, who police say shared a Hamburg apartment with bin al-Shibh, Atta and one other hijacker, was arrested Thursday.

The evidence of a fifth terror team comes not only from these arrests. In debriefing American Taliban sympathizer John Walker Lindh, officials also learned about that aspect of the terror plot. Lindh told interrogators that Sept. 11 was just the "first phase" of a three-part series of terror assaults, which were to total 20 attacks.

The Times cites a recently released memo on the Lindh interrogation as its source. That memo mentions the four confirmed hits on Sept. 11: two at the World Trade Center, one plane into the Pentagon and another brought down in a Pennsylvania field. Some investigators believe that plane's target was the U.S. Capitol.

Meanwhile, plans for a panel to probe the attacks have apparently fallen apart.

Advocates of an independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks are blaming the White House after the collapse of an announced agreement to create the panel. "They are doing everything they can to try to block this and that's what they've been doing since day one," said Stephen Push of Families of Sept. 11, a group of relatives of victims of the attacks.

Lawmakers announced Thursday that an agreement had been reached among the four leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees to form a commission. The commission would have a broader scope and more time to do its work than the joint inquiry that the two committees are conducting

But after the White House and House Republican leadership raised concerns about the plan, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., said more details had to be worked out. He denied that a full agreement had been reached, saying only four particular issues had been resolved.

The leading House advocate for the commission, Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., blamed the Bush administration for blocking the agreement.

"I worry that the White House is trying to pull the carpet over the independent commission and do the slow roll and kill it," he said.

Both the House and Senate have voted for an independent commission, though the two versions differ. The administration initially opposed a commission, but announced last month it would support it. Lawmakers have been meeting with White House officials to work out the commission's structure and scope.

Lawmakers said Thursday morning that talks with the White House had broken down. Hours later, they said intelligence committee leaders had worked out an agreement among themselves, which they would try to add to a bill authorizing 2003 intelligence programs.

But the White House said no agreement had been reached with them, though they repeated their support for a commission.

"We are pleased with the progress being made and believe we are close to reaching a consensus on the best way to proceed," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Under the plan announced Thursday, the commission would have consisted of 10 members with two co-chairmen, one appointed by the president, the other by the Democratic leader of the Senate, and have a two-year mandate. The commission would look into issues such as intelligence, commercial aviation and immigration.

The joint inquiry of the intelligence committees began in February and has a one-year mandate. Its scope is limited to intelligence issues related to the attacks.

Many lawmakers complain the committees' work has been hampered by difficulty in receiving information from intelligence agencies.

On Thursday, the committees met with CIA Director George Tenet and FBI Director Robert Mueller, discussing the case of an FBI informant who was the landlord of two Sept. 11 hijackers. Lawmakers have been bothered both by the handling of the matter and their difficulties in obtaining information about it.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., declined to discuss details of Thursday's meeting with Mueller and Tenet, but said he believed it helped ease lawmakers' doubts.

"There have been some communications problems, but I don't detect a systematic effort to deceive," he said.

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said concerns about communications problems were aired at the hearing. Asked if he was satisfied with the cooperation, he said, "I think it is allowing us to get our job done."

The Senate committee's top Republican, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, said cooperation from intelligence agencies "has been spotty at best. We have to extract bit by bit, piece by piece any information, it seems."
#1 - 12-10-2002, 11:14 uur

leden:

0 leden en 1 gast bekijken dit topic.


Sitemap 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15