Imagine the intelligence value

[noise]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into whether a United Airlines flight scheduled to leave Kennedy International Airport for San Francisco was a target of hijackers on Sept. 11, aviation and law enforcement officials said.

The United plane, Flight 23, was late pushing back from the gate and was seventh in line for takeoff when Kennedy was closed because of the terrorist attacks.

When the captain announced that the plane was returning to the gate, four male passengers described as Middle Eastern in appearance stood up and began urgently consulting with each other, two aviation officials said. The men refused orders from flight attendants to return to their seats, the officials said.

Link

This has been discussed on DU before but I wasn't aware of it until I read a recent post on 911blogger.

According to the article the departure time was supposed to be 8:30.

1) Who were they?

2) Who were they working for?

3) Source of funding?

3) What weapons did they have?

4) ID's, real for fake?

5) Motive?

6) Target?

7) Planned hijacking MO?

If there were four potential hijackers on United 23 it seems they could answer so many questions about the attacks.

[Bassman66]

1. Interesting

New York Times story from October 20 2001.

Was there any follow up?

[Bassman66]

2. Did the 9/11 commission report

discuss other potential hijacks that were abandoned for reasons similar to the above?
Did the 9/11 CR discuss this one even?

[Sweet Pea]

3. Great questions!

Too bad there was no reason at the time to ask said questions.

United 23 was caught in the shutdown of JFK (9:06 am), and was in line for take-off when the airport closure was issued.

However long it took to taxi back, park and deplane the passangers is unknown, but the JFK tower was evacuated at 9:17 am. At this point in time, the exact nature of the hijacks and hijackers was unknown, even though many controllers in the area watched one or the other or both aircraft crash into the towers. So, asking those questions at that particular time is a moot point, and is about as moot as moot can get.

In any event, the 4 "young arab men" in first class became lost to history.

[noise]

4. The FBI couldn't locate these four men ?

Possible 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd hijackers weren't a priority for the FBI's 9/11 investigation?

[Bassman66]

5. CCTV at airports?

Where are the pictures of these men?

[Sweet Pea]

7. Did YOU get any photos of them?

What makes you think that every airport security access portal on Sept 11 had CCTV cameras? Assuming something can make you look very, very stupid, and that is whhere you are headed - assuming that there were cameras everywhere.

[Bassman66]

8. They are.

So where are the pictures?
Where is the follow up of this incident?
Why should we not consider it significant?
Where do I find an explanation for it?

[Sweet Pea]

6. Who said they weren't?

Who said these individuals were not a priority of the FBI?

Perhaps they were found and investigated and it turned out they were just victims of "Flying While Arab"?

Perhaps they fled the country in the days afterwards?

Who KNOWS what happened.

I love it how you Troofers make stuff up when you don't know something.

[Bassman66]

9. Who said they are?

I don't recall anyone asking the public for information about these people. That's what you normally do when you try to find someone.

So where are the appeals? Where are the pictures? Where are the descriptions?

[wildbilln864]

10. What exactly was made up...

besides your false assertion? :popcorn: I love it how you no-truthers try so hard in vain to discourage seeking the truth.

[AZCat]

11. I love it how you CTers try so hard in vain to reframe the rest of us as "no-truthers".

I have yet to meet anything so idiotic and non-truth-related as the grab-bag of nutjob theories that populates the disparate "9/11 Truth Movement". The irony of your pathetic attempt to "massage" the language is probably lost on you. Too bad.

[Bassman66]

15. Was this incident every explained AZCat?

It seems significant to me, why didn't we hear any more about it? When people are ruled out of an investigation it's normally a good idea to tell the public why so that they don't need to think about it anymore.

Did the 9/11 CR report consider other aborted attacks that day?

[Bassman66]

18. Did the 9/11 CR report consider other aborted attacks that day?

My question still stands.

[wildbilln864]

12. What was made up? nt

:popcorn:

[noise]

13. A simple definitive statement from the FBI would be nice

If the FBI investigated properly who was in charge? Who looked at the manifests? Was a determination ever made that the possible hijackers were not involved?

Later, authorities checked their luggage and found copies of the Koran and al-Qaeda instruction sheets.

Link

They left their luggage? Isn't that odd? Aren't we told that Atta left incriminating documents in his luggage? One would think the luggage would give the FBI clues to their identities. Al-Qaeda instruction sheets? That seems relevant to 9/11.

[MinM]

16. United 23

http://y-oh-y.blogspot.com/2007/02/united-23.html

There may have been an attempt to hijack United Airlines Flight 23 flying from JFK Airport, New York to Los Angeles around 9:00 a.m. Shortly after 9:00 a.m., United Airlines flight dispatcher Ed Ballinger sent out a warning about the first WTC crash to the flights he was handling (see (After 9:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). Because of this warning, the crew of Flight 23 told the passengers it had a mechanical problem and immediately returned to the gate.

Ballinger was later told by authorities that six men initially wouldn’t get off the plane. When the men finally disembarked, they disappeared into the crowd and never returned. Later, authorities checked their luggage and found copies of the Koran and al-Qaeda instruction sheets. In mid-2002, a NORAD deputy commander says “we don’t know for sure” if Flight 23 was to have been hijacked...
http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a091901abortedflights

[KJF]

14. Vague memory

Some people came back on the Thursday and were questioned, if a very vague memory serves. Can't remember where I read it. Sorry. I will try to dig it out at some point. btw, Almihdhar apparently told a relative in Saudi there would be five attacks, not four (9/11 CR, p. 237).

[noise]

17. This story was covered in Touching History by Lynn Spencer

On page 105:

Although news reports reveal that Al Qaeda documents and box cutters are found in the Arab passengers' unclaimed baggage, and although the FBI will interview the crew nearly half a dozen times in follow-up, no information about the passengers-who seem to have simply vanished into the crowd evacuating the busy airport-is ever revealed to the public.

But Yosri Fouda and his source KSM told us that there were only 19 hijackers. Fouda did interview KSM right? Would there be any reason for KSM to stick to the FBI's findings?