Al Qaeda disputes FBI account of 9/11 pilots' skills

[Kevin Fenton]

After 9/11, the FBI claimed the four pilots only had experience flying small planes and a few sessions on simulators. However, Al Qaeda has disputed this:

"How do aviation experts evaluate the skill with which the aircraft were flown, especially the Pentagon attack - accurate and professional as it was? Is it credible that the executors had never before flown a Boeing? Is it credible they only had some lessons on small twin-engine aircrafts and some lessons on simulators?

The quote is taken from a fax sent in spring 2002 by Ramzi Binalshibh to journalist Yosri Fouda, who subsequently interviewed him. Binalshibh was the co-ordinator of the 9/11 attacks, so he should have a good idea of the training the pilots had.

[seatnineb]

1. Apparently "conspiracy theorists" ,like me,.... are hated by Binalshib.

From the same fax that was sent to Yosri Fouda by Binalshib:




Ramzi Binalshib............ concerned about conspiracy theorists who made....
"Attempts to strip the brothers(9/11 hijackers) of their credit"

Masterminds Of Terror
By Yosri Fouda And Nick Fielding.
Published By Mainstream Publishing.
Page 28.

The only conspiracy theory is the one that Ramzi "fuckin' bullshitter" Binalshib keeps spewing from his vile mouth.

Well..he can take his bullshit conspiracy theory and shove it up his ass.

[rman]

2. I have as much reason to believe what Al Ciada says,

as i have reason to believe what the bush/neocon camp says.

[spooked911]

3. That is pure disinfo. No terrorist flew a plane on 9/11.

[Tim Howells]

4. Foudra's book is pure crap and disinfo

Just for one example - Fouda gives several supposed examples of Atta communicating with the "masterminds" using code that are unintendedly hilarious. For example Atta, according to Fouda, sent this as a message to Binalshibh:

"...Nineteen certificates for private education and four exams. Regards to the Professor."

According to Fouda this is how Atta informed Bialshibh that there would be 19 hijackers and four targets. However, we know of course that there were more ops on september 11, for example targeting the Sears tower, and that these were aborted when all flights were grounded, so apart from the rather melodramatic silliness of the account, it makes no sense at all.

Here, according to Fouda, is how Atta informed his mastermind Binashibh, of the date of the attack:

"...the phone rang in his Hamburg flat. When he picked it up it was a voice that he recognized ... 'A friend of mine has given me a riddle ... Two sticks a dash and a cake with a stick down - What is it?'"

Well it's 11-9 of course! 11th September! Brilliant!!! I keep expecting Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 to leap out from behind a curtain in the nick of time.

Tim Howells

[Kevin Fenton]

5. Agree a bit

I certainly don't believe Binalshibh is telling the truth all the time and I agree that there probably were more than the 19 hijackers Binalshibh claimed (but why do you think it was the Sears Tower? Oh no, you're not going to mention your favourite Middle Eastern country again, are you?). However, if the US authorities didn't catch or know about the other ones, then why should Binalshibh reveal that they existed? Surely there is an operational reason for keeping them secret?

The cake story strikes me as untrue as well, but the point of deception is that most of the information is true and only a crucial little bit is false. The question is when is Binalshibh telling the truth and when isn't he?

With reference to the fact that whoever was flying the planes probably had more training than the FBI are letting on, why should Binalshibh's claim the pilots were good be untrue?

[Tim Howells]

6. Just pure, obvious propaganda

The book is a laugher, as I said. It tries to titillate the
naive by pretending to provide an "insider" view of the
supposed al-Qaeda plot. I don't know or care whether the BS
originates with Binalshibh or with the authors' imaginations.
It's all as transparently phony as the "Islamic terrorist"
notes that arrived with the anthrax attacks. You'll recall
that FBI analysts concluded that those notes were obviously
written by non-Islamists trying to pretent to be Islamists.

Re our favorite middle-eastern country - I would not want to
give you or our wonderful "moderators" heart attacks.

Tim Howells

[Bushwick Bill]

7. There is no middle ground here.

I have always thought one of two things about the pilots. Either the info that they were rookies is correct, they could not have flown the planes, and they probably never had control of them; or, given the evidence provided by Hopsicker and others that several of these guys trained at U.S. military installations, they really were high level superpilots. I tend to go with the former, although the latter is not impossible. If you apply this to Hani Hanjour, there is no way a guy who was denied the opportunity to rent a Cessna a month before 9/11 could pull off the miracle Pentagon spin and tuck, or, somebody else who had mad pilot skills flew that sucker (I know, I know, or it wasn't a plane to begin with).

[Kevin Fenton]

8. I doubt Hanjour could do it

But there are three ways that proper pilots could have got on the plane:
(1) They were trained military pilots using their own names (as per Hopsicker);
(2) They were properly trained pilots using false identities (other people involved in 9/11 used false identities, so why shouldn't the hijackers?);
(3) They received pilot training in Afghanistan - Osama did actually control an airline that had Boeings. It wouldn't have been difficult for the hijackers to get training, especially as they were stationed at Kandahar airport.

btw, The reports on Hanjour flying skills are contradictory, one instructor even thought he had military training!

[killtown]

9. So if you think Hani couldn't do it

then who do you think flew Flt 77 into the Pentagon (assuming you believe it crashed there)?

[Kevin Fenton]

10. Another hijacker

I do believe it crashed there. It must have been one of the other 3, 4 or 5 hijackers (depending on which account you believe) on the plane with him.

btw, have you seen the video (not the stills) of the hijackers going through security at Dulles?