28 September 2001
Identical Letters Link Terrorists on Three Hijacked Flights September 11
(Attorney General Ashcroft briefs at Sept. 28 news conference) (560)
By Wendy S. Ross
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Identical letters in Arabic found in three different
sites in the United States link together the hijackers of three of the
four airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon, and in western Pennsylvania on September 11, Attorney
General John Ashcroft told reporters September 28 at a Justice
Department news conference.
"A four-page, hand-written letter was found in the suitcase of Mohamed
Atta, one of the hijackers on American Airlines Flight 11. You may
recall there was a suitcase that did not make it to the plane and was
recovered by the FBI in Boston," Ashcroft said.
"A second copy of the letter was also found at Dulles Airport in a
vehicle that was used by Nawaf Alhazmi, one of the hijackers on
American Airlines Flight 77.
"Additionally, a third copy of the letter was found at the crash site
of United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. These three documents,
this letter, is clear evidence linking the hijackers on the three
separate flights on September 11th," Ashcroft said.
The letter, he said, contains instructions to the hijackers, as well
as Islamic prayers.
"It is a disturbing and shocking view into the mindset of these
terrorists. The letter provides instructions to the terrorists to be
carried out both prior to and during their terrorist attacks."
Ashcroft said that while the letter contains a number of religious
references, he did not believe it to be representative of Muslims or
the Islamic faith.
"The letter is a stark reminder of how these hijackers grossly
perverted the Islamic faith to justify their terrorist acts," he said.
The Attorney General said "I want to express my appreciation for the
efforts of American Muslim leaders to educate the public about their
faith, and to stress that the Muslim faith is peaceful and in no way
condones these acts of violence. And I remind all Americans that
law-abiding Muslim Americans are patriotic citizens who deserve
dignity and respect."
Asked if Osama bin Laden was the only mastermind behind the September
11 attack on the United States, Ashcroft said, "We have not ruled out
the participation of other individuals and other organizations in this
attack."
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller added
that "the focus of the questions in the past and the answers we've
given is that there's not just bin Laden but there's an al Qaeda
network."
He said focus should not just be on one individual, but on a series of
networks across the world.
"We quite obviously want to identify the ties not to just one
individual, but any individual which may, or who may, share
responsibility for what happened on September 11th," Mueller said.
The United States, he added, has had "substantial cooperation" in the
investigation "from a number of countries that have enabled us to
start to put together the picture," of those responsible. "But the
picture is nowhere near fully painted," he said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is planning to post a photocopy of
the letter in Arabic on its website at www.fbi.gov
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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