'FOLLOW THE MONEY' TO SARASOTA, FLORIDA: Secret ICE Operation Green Quest Investigation of 9/11 Support Network in 2002

UPDATED from original post of Aug 8, 2021. 'FOLLOW THE MONEY' TO SARASOTA, FLORIDA: Secret ICE Operation Green Quest Investigation of 9/11 Support Network in 2002 shut down by FBI in 2003. The FBI appears to have 'protected' the Saudi family in Prestancia Sarasota Fl. The ICE 2002 - 2003 Operation Green Quest Investigation of 9/11 Terrorist Support Network in Sarasota Fl, "follow the money," Saudi funded Ministry of Islamic Affairs linked to support of 9/11 terrorists. Wealthy Saudi Royals connected to Esam Ghazzawi and his son-in-law Abdulaziz al-Hijji, who lived in Ghazzawi's Prestanci home in Sarasota, had been on the FBI terrorist watch list. 

REWARDS FOR JUSTICE, Operation Green Quest and Sarasota Fl...The Tampa FBI is whitewashing the Sarasota Saudi Family and Saudi Gov Connection to 9/11 as it all links directly to Operation Green Quest and Saudi Arabia funded think tanks IIIT and SAAR in Herndon VA. To understand why the FBI is withholding evidence of the involvement of the Sarasota Saudi Family and many others to the 9/11 Hijackers while they were in Sarasota Fl, one has to step back and look at the much bigger and broader picture involving Saudi Arabia. This coverup goes far beyond the suppression of the crucial 28-page chapter from the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11, concerning Saudi support for the 9/11 hijackers, the concealment of which has continued under different Presidential Administrations to this day.The investigation into the Sarasota Muslim network and Sami al-Arian in 2002 to 2003 directly links to the Bureau of Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) 'Operation Green Quest" raid of IIIT. The Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) is yet another institution funded by Saudi Arabia. The IIIT Institute’s Herndon, VA, headquarters, located at 555 Grove St., were subject of a March 20, 2002 raid, along with 19 other Saudi funded business and non-profit entities allegedly related to an umbrella corporation known as the SAAR Foundation, as part of a joint FBI-ICE program known as Operation Green Quest. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report also noted that at the same time that the Bosnia raid occurred, in March 2002, the FBI was also raiding the Northern Virginia offices of the SAAR Foundation, a front for the Al-Rajhi group, linked both to the Muslim Brotherhood and other hard-core terrorist cells around the globe. "Operation Green Quest" targeted SAAR and the affiliated Safa Group of charitable and business fronts, all tied to the Saudi Arabia regime. The FBI took over the Operation Green Quest investigation in late 2003 or early 2004, as it linked to terrorism, and excluded ICE, there was a huge stink over that move and the IIIT FBI investigation continues. In June 2002, the Washington Post will headline an article, “Infighting Slows Hunt for Hidden al-Qaeda Assets.” [Washington Post, 6/18/2002]. FBI Wants Control of Green Quest – With the creation of the new Department of Homeland Security (see November 25, 2002), the FBI and its parent agency the Justice Department are given a chance to gain total control over Operation Green Quest. I was there in April 2002 in Sarasota Fl working as a Confidential Informant for the Bureau of Immigration Customs Enforcement and ICE agent Alan Childers who at the time was based in Bradenton Fl. I was reporting directly to Sarasota Police Department Intel Detective Jim Laplante with an assist from the Sarasota Sheriff Department's Detective Mike Otis and Sarasota based SA FBI Agent Thomas Baugher who claimed he was just an observer. We had weekly meetings all through 2002 and 2003 and into 2004 regarding a support of terrorism network in Sarasota Fl that appears to have some links to 9/11 Hijackers Mohamed Atta and his pals who where in the Sarasota Fl area from at least June of 2000 to February of 2001, or later. As a result of my independent investigation into the support of terrorism network in Sarasota Fl my name was submitted by ICE Agent Alan Childers to the 'Rewards for Justice Program', not once but twice, it appears that the Tampa office of the FBI quashed the 'Reward' both times, if I had received the 'Rewards for Justice' payout ($Millions) the Tampa FBI and DOJ would have to admit as to what was discovered by me in Sarasota Fl. To this day, the FBI alleges no link to the 9/11 hijackers to any support network in the greater Sarasota Fl area or in the USA, this is a lie. Instead of a $Million dollar payout from the 'Rewards for Justice Program' I was finally paid $2,500 by the ICE Bradenton Fl field office on April 29th, 2005 (17 years ago) in old $100 bills that appeared to me had come from a drug deal (confiscated cash), I received a receipt from ICE. SA FBI agent Thomas Baugher had told Sarasota Police Department Intel Detective Jim Laplante that the FBI would match whatever ICE finally paid me, they never did, another lie.

The U.S. agency (ICE) involved in tracking terrorist funds and terrorist funding was interested in both Esam Ghazzawi and his son-in-law Abdulaziz al-Hijji (FOLLOW THE MONEY' TO SARASOTA, FLORIDA) way before the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforces federal laws governing international money laundering and had Esam Ghazzawi and his son-in-law Abdulaziz al-Hijji under investigation. In the mid-1990s, Esam Ghazzawi's name arose when investigators of the renowned corrupt bank BCCI were trying to recover assets from Saudi Prince Fahd bin Salman, and the prince argued that his assets were being held in another account under Esam Ghazzawi's name.  

Green Quest investigators from the Department of Homeland Security (ICE) charge that the FBI deliberately sabotaged their investigations of Esam Ghazzawi and his son-in-law Abdulaziz al-Hijji in Sarasota Fl. Michael Chertoff was apparently an architect of this, as well. Esam Ghazzawi's influence also extends to his children. His 42-year-old son, Adel Ghazzawi, is a board member of the New York-based think tank 'EastWest Institute', which counts the likes of Michael Chertoff, a director of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush and co-author of the Patriot Act.

In October 2001, Michael Chertoff was appointed head of Operation Green Quest by Pres George Bush, a multi-agency initiative to target sources of funding for terrorist organizations, according to a U.S. Customs Service (later ICE) press release. Underground financial systems, illicit charities, and corrupt financial institutions are among the entities to be scrutinized as possible facilitators of terrorist funding. Chertoff told the Associated Press on Oct. 25, 2001 that, ‘The lifeblood of terrorism is money, and if we cut the money we cut the blood supply.’ Chertoff served in the capacity of Assistant Attorney General of the criminal division at the Department of Justice from 2001 to 2003

“They [The FBI] won’t share anything with us,’ said a Homeland Security official. ‘Then they go to the White House and they accuse us (ICE) of not sharing . . . If they can’t take it over, they want to kill it.’ The Treasury Department agencies participating in Operation Green Quest are the Customs Service (ICE), the Internal Revenue Service, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and the Secret Service. If nothing else, the battle over Green Quest illustrates the bureaucratic tensions that still plague the war on terror. The creation of the Homeland Security Department was supposed to put an end to such turf fights. The new department took over a diverse assortment of federal agencies that had various responsibilities for combating terrorism, including the Customs Service (ICE), the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Border Patrol.”

ISLAMIC CHARITIES FUNDING AL-QAEDA & OPERATIVES IN USA: “Procurement Agent” for bin Laden, Ziyad Khaleel (a.k.a. Ziyad Sadaqa). In November 1996, the FBI monitors the progress of bin Laden buying a new satellite phone and tracks the purchase to Ziyad Khaleel, a US citizen and radical militant living in Missouri with Imam Muneer Arafat (later in Sarasota Fl). Newsweek will later say that this puts the Sudan-based charity Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) “on the FBI’s radar screen” because Ziyad Khaleel is one of IARA’s eight regional US directors. Furthermore, Ziyad Khaleel (his roommate is Imam Muneer Arafat) is working for the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), a Hamas-linked organization co-founded by Mousa Abu Marzook. US intelligence will later reveal that in the late 1990s, IARA is regularly funding al-Qaeda. For instance, it has evidence of IARA giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to bin Laden in 1999. December 1999 Police in Jordan detain Ziyad Khaleel, who the FBI calls a Florida-based “procurement agent” for Osama bin Laden. 

The FBI says Khaleel’s role is to “procure computers, satellite telephones, and covert surveillance equipment” for al-Qaeda leaders, his roommate was Imam Muneer Arafat who moved to Sarasota Fl in early 2000. Ziyad Khaleel and Muneer Arafat were fundraisers for Islamic African Relief Agency and the Holy Land Foundation both designated terrorist supporters of Hamas and Al-Qaeda. UPDATE August 11th, 2021, ABC Action News Tampa I-Team Investigator Adam Walser and Photojournalist Matt McGlashen appear to have some interest in my involvement in a 2002 Sarasota Fl investigation into a terrorist support network that included Imam Muneer Arafat, "We'll see".

UPDATE SEPT 9th, 2021: ABC ACTION NEWS 9/11 SUPPORT NETWORK IN SARASOTA: Click image above for ABC News video and print story. $4,000 phone bills fished from the trash/ Sarasota private investigator Bill Warner started his own 9/11 investigation in 2002. “They were here, in my neighborhood. So I had to look at it, kept looking at it,” Bill Warner said, he partnered with police, sheriff’s deputies and was eventually paid by ICE for providing surveillance photos and phone bills he collected from the garbage cans of people of interest. Bill Warner said some of the cell phone bills he collected were 35-to-40 pages long, with calls made to phone numbers located all over the world. At that time, cell phone and long-distance companies charged by the minute for calls. “The bills you could see they were $1,200, $1500, $2,000, sometimes even $4,000 a month,” Bill Warner said. ”These are guys living in duplexes, driving old cars, who don’t have a job, see more CLICK HERE.

On Feb 26, 2003 I attended a meeting in Tampa FL at ICE/US Customs Service headquarters by Tampa Int Airport concerning an investigation into "trade based" terrorist funding originating out of Sarasota and Tampa Fl sending cars to Iraq, Dubai and Jeddah Saudi Arabia for re-sale. Led by the U.S. Customs Service (ICE), and included agents and analysts from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Federal prosecutors from the U.S. Justice Department's Criminal Division also formed an integral part of Operation Green Quest. The director of Operation Green Quest was a senior special agent from U.S. Customs and the deputy director is a senior special agent from the IRS. Sarasota FBI Agent Thomas Baugher was at first just an observer but the FBI took over the case in in early 2003 when it positively linked to terrorism. Sarasota FBI Agent Thomas Baugher famously told me on several occasions at the Sarasota Police Dept, "there ain't no coincidences in terrorism".

ICE along with Sarasota Police Intel unit and Sarasota County Sheriff Dept Intel unit and myself were the nexus of a 2002 "trade based" money laundering investigation in Sarasota Fl that was eventually taken over by FBI agent Thomas Baugher when it linked to support of terrorism in June 2003. Same time frame as the so-called 2002 FBI Secret Sarasota Investigation of Abdulazziz al-Hijji’s clan in Prestancia Sarasota Fl and their links to 9/11 terrorist pilots. Ain't no coincidences in terrorism as FBI agent Thomas Baugher told me on several occasions in 2002 and 2003. I was there and involved in undercover work obtaining nexus connections.



October 26, 2001 Feds Launch 'Operation Green Quest' The government is assembling a team of financial sleuths to cut off terrorists from their lifeblood - money, "follow the money". Under Operation Green Quest, law enforcement people with financial expertise will investigate how terrorists move their money and where, the Bush administration announced in Oct 2001. The government would use the findings to freeze financial assets, seize money, impose fines and launch legal proceedings, including criminal prosecutions. Using undercover operations, electronic surveillance, cell phone records and other techniques, the special investigative team will closely examine underground financial systems, illicit charities and corrupt financial institutions. It also will target other funding mechanisms for terrorists, including counterfeiting, credit card fraud, cash smuggling, trade based (used cars) money laundering and drug trafficking. "The lifeblood of terrorism is money, and if we cut the money we cut the blood supply," said assistant attorney general Michael Chertoff, the head of the Justice Department's criminal division.

Operation Green Quest disbanded June 2003: as a result of conflicts between the FBI and ICE the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement the successor agency to Customs. In May 2003 the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security signed an agreement concerning terrorist financing investigations. In it, DHS acknowledged that the Department of Justice, through the FBI, was the lead agency in the fight against terrorist financing, and that any terrorist financing investigations would have to be conducted under the auspices of the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force. DHS also agreed to disband Operation Green Quest by June of 2003 (Sarasota ICE investigation shut down), and not to start any investigations into terrorism or terrorist financing without the permission of the FBI. 

Jihad Preaching Imam Muneer Arafat Had Pilot's License From Parks college in St Louis Before Coming to the Sarasota Mosque in March 2000, and just prior to 9/11 Kamakazi Terror Pilots Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah arrival in July 2000 in Venice Fl and then Laurel Ave W Nokomis Fl until Jan 2001. Suiciders Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah all took pilot training courses in Venice and then Sarasota Fl. The flying Imam Muneer Arafat was a 4 year Grad of Parks College of St. Louis Univ with a BS in Aero Space ENG, Sept 1986 to April 1990. Parks College of St Louis Univ is a flight school.  Imam Muneer Arafat was a well know jihad preacher in the East St Louis area prior to coming to Sarasota in 2000 after purchasing a 2000 blue Isuzu Trooper SUV. 

In St. Louis, 1996 to 2000, Muneer Arafat became a well-known lecturer at different Masjids and built up quite a following. Muneer Arafat gave lectures at local mosques that almost exclusively focused on Jihad week in and week out and this got him into trouble with Sheikh Muhammad Nur of the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis who at one point banned Muneer Arafat from giving lectures at the Gateway Masjid. Jihad preaching Imam Muneer Arafat banned in St Louis but welcomed in Sarasota in March 2000? Why did the Saudi funded Ministry of Islamic Affairs send jihad preaching Imam Muneer Arafat to Sarasota Fl?

In early 1999 Muneer Arafat and Ziyad Khaleel lived in Manchester, Missouri, and both were linked to Columbia College in St. Louis. Upon moving to Columbia, Missouri, he was known as Ziyad Khaleel, but began using the surname Sadaqa as early as 1996. That year he was a fundraiser and one of eight regional directors of the Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA), which the government later determined was a front for al-Qaeda and Hamas.



IMAM MUNEER ARAFAT WENT TO FLIGHT SCHOOL IN ST LOUIS, HE GOT HIS PILOT'S LICENSE IN 1990: The flying Imam Muneer Arafat lists on his resume, Parks College of St. Louis Univ BS in Aero Space ENG Sept 1986 to April/1990. It appears that Muneer K. Arafat came into the US on a student visa around 1986. At Federal trial of Sami al-Arian in 1995 in Tampa Muneer K. Arafat said he meet terrorist Sami al-Arian at a conference of the Islamic Committee for Palestine in St. Louis in 1988. Muneer Arafat rejected Sami Al-Arian's invitation to join Palestinian Islamic Jihad as he was already a member of a another terrorist group, both men are Palestinians. Under cross-examination by Al-Arian’s attorney, William Moffitt, Arafat admitting lying in the past on resumes, job applications and a voter registration form. Arafat also testified that the government has paid him a total of $35,000 since 2003 to cooperate with them (wear a wire). Muneer Arafat the flying Imam: At Parks College of Engineering Aviation and Technology trains students to become skilled pilots as well as strong industry leaders. Flight School in aviation, planes, hours, certification. The Center for Aviation Science is housed at the St. Louis Downtown Airport, located at 4300 Vector Drive in Cahokia, Illinois. Students enrolled in SLU’s Parks College aviation program are able to fly within weeks of their freshman year, and continuously gather more and more certification throughout each year of the flight science degree program.


April 3rd 2002 FBI report indicates that at least two people linked to the al-Hijji house in Prestancia Sarasota Fl were taking flight lessons at Huffman Aviation with the 9/11 hijackers in the year 2000. Individuals tied to Huffman Flight School and 9/11 Hijackers by FBI linked to 4224 Escondito Circle Sarasota as family members appear to be Abdulaziz al-Hijji and Adel Ghazzawi son of Esam Ghazzawi. In the year 2000, Sarasota Saudi’s Abdulaziz al-Hijji then age 27 and his brother in law Adel Ghazzawi then age 30, were contemporaries of 9/11 Hijack Pilots Ziad Jarrah then age 25, Marwan Al-Shehhi then age 22, and Monamed Atta then age 32 who all appear to have taken Flight Training in Venice Fl at Hoffman Aviation at the same time, small world, eh? It appears the Adel Ghazzawi had been staying at 4224 Escondito Circle Sarasota, he also was linked to a address in nearby Longboat Key Fl. Interestingly the flying Imam Muneer Arafat at the Sarasota Mosque who has ties to al-Qaeda members before coming to Sarasota Fl in 2000 also had taken advanced flight lessons, small world, eh? Sarasota Fl was Terror Central from the summer of 2000 and into 2001.

EXCLUSIVE: 9/11 Pilot Ziad Jarrah and Wife/Copilot Aysel Sengun Partied in Sarasota for 10 Days in January 2001 at Al-Hijji Prestancia House from Jan 5th to Jan 15. Ziad Jarrah was living high on the hog and rolling in the dough thanks to his wealthy parents while in the USA. FBI had received proof that 9/11 pilot Ziad Jarrah's sporty red 1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse had visited at 4224 Escondito Circle Sarasota Fl multiple times passing through the guard gate under video surveillance. Florida license plates were photographed at the Prestancia north gate. The vehicle and name registration information on Ziad Jarrah's red 1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse fit that of the drivers entering Prestancia on their way to the Al-Hijji house. Phone records documented communication, dating back more than a year to August 2000, that connected the Saudi Abdulaziz al-Hijji family living in the Prestancia house in Sarasota Florida with hijack pilot pal Ziad Jarrah.

Sarasota Imam Muneer Arafat and his roommate Ziyad Khaleel aka Ziyad Sadaqa were fundraisers for the terrorist organization Holy Land Foundation for Relief which funded Hamas, while in Columbia MO and just prior for Arafat showing up in Sarasota Fl. Holy Land Foundation boss Ghassan Elashi got 65 years in Federal Prison. Ghassan Elashi is currently located at: McCreary USP a high security Federal prison in Pine Knot KY with a scheduled release date of 06/24/2068, just 47 more years to go, LOL. If Muneer Arafat had not flipped for the FBI in December 2002 he would have been right there in prison with Elashi.

Saudi's who assisted 9/11 hijackers in San Diego are Fahad al-Thumairy, Omar al-Bayoumi, Musaed al-Jarrah and Omar Abdi Mohamed. FBI documents show that a foreign ministry official within the Saudi Embassy, Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah, who had duties overseeing the activities of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs , had repeated contacts with two figures at the heart of the case and was even suspected of directing them to assist the hijackers. One was Fahad al-Thumairy, a Saudi Islamic Affairs official and radical cleric who served as the imam of the King Fahd Mosque in Los Angeles and met with the two hijackers there. FBI document contains information that al-Bayoumi made thirty calls to (202) 342-3700 from January 19 to March 24, 2000. Saudi government letterhead lists that phone number as belonging to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs office at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., headed by Khalid al-Sowailem. The FBI document also shows al-Bayoumi called a second number, (202) 494-2777, used by al-Sowailem.


RE: September 11, 2001 Attack on America.
U.S. Customs Service (ICE) Launches "operation Green Quest" Multi-Agency Initiative to Target Sources of Funding for Terrorist Organizations; October 25, 2001. Operation Green Quest a multi-agency effort led by the Customs Service will probe such areas as counterfeiting, credit card fraud, fraudulent import and export schemes, drug trafficking, cash smuggling and other activities that could be used by al Qaeda and other terrorist groups for financing their operations. Investigators are also looking at "trade-based" money laundering, in which goods (USED CARS) are imported or exported to the Middle East at inflated prices, as a way of getting large sums of money across borders under the guise of commerce.

U.S. Customs Service (ICE) Launches "operation Green Quest"
Multi-Agency Initiative to Target Sources of Funding for Terrorist Organizations. Washington, D.C. -- Deputy Treasury Secretary Kenneth Dam, Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Treasury Under Secretary of Enforcement Jimmy Gurule, and U.S. Customs Service Commissioner Robert C. Bonner today announced the launch of Operation Green Quest, a new multi-agency financial enforcement initiative. The goal of Operation Green Quest is to augment existing counter-terrorist efforts by bringing the full scope of the government's financial expertise to bear against systems, individuals, and organizations that serve as sources of terrorist funding. The initiative will target current terrorist funding sources and identify possible future funding sources. Underground financial systems, illicit charities, and corrupt financial institutions are among the entities to be scrutinized as possible facilitators of terrorist funding. The initiative will also target counterfeiting, credit card fraud, fraudulent import/export schemes, drug trafficking, cash smuggling, and other activities that may fund terrorists. Led by the U.S. Customs Service ICE, Operation Green Quest will serve as the operational and investigative arm for the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the new Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking center, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and other entities tracking terrorist assets. Using leads from these entities and leads developed independently, the initiative will launch full-scale investigations resulting in seizures, blocking orders, civil and criminal forfeitures, criminal prosecutions, and other actions. Operation Green Quest will use the full array of law enforcement techniques to pursue its objectives, including undercover operations, electronic surveillance, outbound currency operations, and the exploitation of intelligence data, financial data, trade data, and confidential source data. The initiative will also draw on the resources and expertise of the Treasury and Justice Departments and many other federal agencies. A command and coordination center for Operation Green Quest has been created at Customs Service (ICE) headquarters. A senior Customs official will serve as the director and a senior IRS [Internal Revenue Service] official will serve as the deputy. A senior FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] official will also be posted to the facility. Two federal prosecutors from the Justice Department and nearly 30 special agents and analysts from the participating agencies will be present. The Customs Money Laundering Coordination Center will be supporting this center. The Green Quest coordination center for will be responsible for collecting, managing, and disseminating leads to field agents. The center will serve as a deconfliction mechanism for all investigative activity related to the initiative. In addition, the center will serve as a means to exchange data with the FBI and other agencies targeting terrorist finances and to ensure that their activities are not duplicated by Operation Green Quest. Outside Washington, D.C., Operation Green Quest will have field task forces (Tampa and Bradenton Fl) pursuing terrorist finances. Each of these multi-agency units will be modeled after an existing financial task force in New York known as the "El Dorado Task Force." The first unit will be located at the Customs Special Agent-in-Charge Office in New York and will actually operate as a component of the El Dorado Task Force. By utilizing the existing El Dorado framework for the first field unit, Operation Green Quest will immediately be able to draw on an established financial intelligence center and a large cadre of highly trained special agents, analysts, and bank regulators. Following the establishment of the task force in New York, Operation Green Quest will consider establishing similar task forces in other parts of the country. Consistent with the 2001 National Money Laundering Strategy, the Customs Service and other participating agencies will monitor the effectiveness of Operation Green Quest based on qualitative, quantitative, and enforcement measurements. The Treasury Department agencies participating in Operation Green Quest are the Customs Service, the Internal Revenue Service, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and the Secret Service. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and federal prosecutors from the Justice Department's Criminal Division are representing the Justice Department in Operation Green Quest. "Operation Green Quest (ICE) was shut down nationwide due to the conflicts with the FBI in the Sarasota 9/11 investigation which led directly to terrorism".

KSM denies that Saudis were chosen for the 9/11 plot to drive a wedge between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and stresses practical reasons for considering ethnic background when selecting operatives. He says that so many were Saudi because Saudis comprised the largest portion of the pool of recruits in the al Qaeda training camps. KSM estimates that in any given camp, 70 percent of the mujahideen were Saudi, 20 percent were Yemeni, and 10 percent were from elsewhere. Although Saudi and Yemeni trainees were most often willing to volunteer for suicide operations, prior to 9/11 it was easier for Saudi operatives to get into the United States. Like many other al Qaeda operatives, the Saudis who eventually became the muscle hijackers were targeted for recruitment outside Afghanistan- probably in Saudi Arabia itself. Al Qaeda recruiters, certain clerics, and-in a few cases-family members probably all played a role in spotting potential candidates. Several of the muscle hijackers seem to have been recruited through contacts at local universities and Imam's at Mosques. According to the head of one of the training camps in Afghanistan, some were chosen by unnamed Saudi sheikhs who had contacts with al Qaeda. Omari, for example, is believed to have been a student of a radical Saudi cleric named Sulayman al Alwan. His mosque, which is located in al Qassim Province, is known among more moderate clerics as a "terrorist factory." The province is at the very heart of the strict Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia. Saeed al Ghamdi and Mohand al Shehri also spent time in al Qassim, both breaking with their families. According to his father, Mohand al Shehri's frequent visits to this area resulted in his failing exams at his university in Riyadh. Saeed al Ghamdi transferred to a university in al Qassim, but he soon stopped talking to his family and dropped out of school without informing them. KSM claims that Bin Ladin could assess new trainees very quickly, in about ten minutes, and that many of the 9/11 hijackers were selected in this manner. Bin Ladin, assisted by Atef, personally chose all the future muscle hijackers for the planes operation, primarily between the summer of 2000 and April 2001. Upon choosing a trainee, Bin Ladin would ask him to swear loyalty for a suicide operation. After the selection and oath-swearing, the operative would be sent to KSM for training and the filming of a martyrdom video, a function KSM supervised as head of al Qaeda's media committee. As to targets on 9/11, Atta understood Bin Ladin's interest in striking the White House. Atta said he thought this target too difficult, but had tasked Hazmi and Hanjour to evaluate its feasibility and was awaiting their answer. Atta said that those two operatives had rented small aircraft and flown reconnaissance flights near the Pentagon. Atta explained that Hanjour was assigned to attack the Pentagon, Jarrah the Capitol, and that both Atta and Shehhi would hit the World Trade Center. If any pilot could not reach his intended target, he was to crash the plane. If Atta could not strike the World Trade Center, he planned to crash his aircraft directly into the streets of New York.

Bill Warner Private Investigator Sarasota 941-926-1926 - Cheaters and Child Custody Cases.