Post by Steve Gardner on Dec 1, 2007 20:47:13 GMT
There has been a seemingly endless debate about the piloting skills of Hani Hanjour ever since he was first 'identified' as the pilot of Flight 77, which allegedly hit the Pentagon Building at around 9:38 on the morning of September 11th 2001.
Skeptics claimed he wasn't capable of making the complex spiral dive into the Pentagon because, as The New York Times reported...
In fact, an FAA inspector was called into his flight school in Pheonix Ariz. in February 2001 'after instructors... had found his piloting skills so shoddy and his grasp of English so inadequate that they questioned whether his pilot's license [which records show was obtained in 1999] was genuine.'
It now seems that Hanjour may not have been the pilot after all.
According to The Times, Nawaf al-Hazmi, another of the alleged hijackers aboard Flight 77, was the 'real' pilot.
This is the claim of a 'mysterious Al-Qaeda operative' named Louai al-Sakka, who has been in custody since his arrest in August 2005 and who, it is claimed, trained several of the alleged hijackers.
The Times' article makes interesting reading, as does an article that appeared in Speigel Online in August 2005.
Not only does Speigel reveal that al-Sakka told the Syrians about the 9/11 plot beforehand - naming 'buildings as targets, and airplanes as weapons' - but also that he was suspected by the Turkinsh media of having had contact with the CIA.
Which, if true, is very interesting since...
If the CIA were in touch with al-Sakka in 2000 as Turkish media suspected, did they have any intelligence to suggest that he was training would-be terrorists?
Skeptics claimed he wasn't capable of making the complex spiral dive into the Pentagon because, as The New York Times reported...
...he was a poor student. On one written problem that usually takes 20 minutes to complete, Mr. Hanjour took three hours, the former employee said, and he answered incorrectly.
Ultimately, administrators at the school told Mr. Hanjour that he would not qualify for the advanced certificate. But the ex-employee said Mr. Hanjour continued to pay to train on a simulator for Boeing 737 jets. ''He didn't care about the fact that he couldn't get through the course,'' the ex-employee said.
Staff members characterized Mr. Hanjour as polite, meek and very quiet. But most of all, the former employee said, they considered him a very bad pilot.
''I'm still to this day amazed that he could have flown into the Pentagon,'' the former employee said. ''He could not fly at all.''
Ultimately, administrators at the school told Mr. Hanjour that he would not qualify for the advanced certificate. But the ex-employee said Mr. Hanjour continued to pay to train on a simulator for Boeing 737 jets. ''He didn't care about the fact that he couldn't get through the course,'' the ex-employee said.
Staff members characterized Mr. Hanjour as polite, meek and very quiet. But most of all, the former employee said, they considered him a very bad pilot.
''I'm still to this day amazed that he could have flown into the Pentagon,'' the former employee said. ''He could not fly at all.''
In fact, an FAA inspector was called into his flight school in Pheonix Ariz. in February 2001 'after instructors... had found his piloting skills so shoddy and his grasp of English so inadequate that they questioned whether his pilot's license [which records show was obtained in 1999] was genuine.'
It now seems that Hanjour may not have been the pilot after all.
According to The Times, Nawaf al-Hazmi, another of the alleged hijackers aboard Flight 77, was the 'real' pilot.
This is the claim of a 'mysterious Al-Qaeda operative' named Louai al-Sakka, who has been in custody since his arrest in August 2005 and who, it is claimed, trained several of the alleged hijackers.
The Times' article makes interesting reading, as does an article that appeared in Speigel Online in August 2005.
Not only does Speigel reveal that al-Sakka told the Syrians about the 9/11 plot beforehand - naming 'buildings as targets, and airplanes as weapons' - but also that he was suspected by the Turkinsh media of having had contact with the CIA.
Turkish media reported that the CIA had contacted him twice in 2000, and tried to tempt him with money, apparently very large sums.
Which, if true, is very interesting since...
In late 1999... a group of four young Saudi students went to Turkey to prepare for fighting in Chechnya.
They had begun a path that was to end with the September 11 attacks on America in 2001. They were: Ahmed and Hamza al-Ghamdi who hijacked the plane that crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center; their companion Saeed al-Ghamdi whose plane crashed in a Pennsylvanian field; and Nawaf al-Hazmi who died in the Pentagon crash.
They undertook Sakka’s physical training programme in the mountains and later were joined by two of the other would-be hijackers: Majed Moqed, who also perished in the Pentagon crash, and Satam al-Suqami, who was in the first plane that hit the north tower (Source: The Times)
They had begun a path that was to end with the September 11 attacks on America in 2001. They were: Ahmed and Hamza al-Ghamdi who hijacked the plane that crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center; their companion Saeed al-Ghamdi whose plane crashed in a Pennsylvanian field; and Nawaf al-Hazmi who died in the Pentagon crash.
They undertook Sakka’s physical training programme in the mountains and later were joined by two of the other would-be hijackers: Majed Moqed, who also perished in the Pentagon crash, and Satam al-Suqami, who was in the first plane that hit the north tower (Source: The Times)
If the CIA were in touch with al-Sakka in 2000 as Turkish media suspected, did they have any intelligence to suggest that he was training would-be terrorists?
