9/11: Problems with Official Story: Things That Do Not Fit

By Matthew B. Robinson, PhD
Associate Professor of Criminal Justice
Appalachian State University
robinsnmb@appstate.edu


The problem with the official account of 9/11 by the 9/11 Commission is that it is filled with problems.  The problems pertain to the official account of who did it, how, and even why.  This document questions the official story by pointing out some of the problems with the official story that have been alleged and discovered since 9/11.

The Hijackers: Who Were They and Who Really Flew The Planes?

•    According to Thompson, in at least 8 cases, “individuals with the same names and similar appearances have come forward to prove that they were not the 9/11 hijackers.  In other cases, family members and friends of the hijackers have reported that the FBI photographs bore no resemblance whatsoever to them” (p. 181).

•    The alive hijackers that have been confirmed include: 1) Saeed al-Ghamdi; 2) Salem al-Hazmi; 3) Ahmed al-Nami; 4) Abdulaziz Alomari; 5) Waleed al-Shehri; as well as several other possible men (see Thompson, pp.  496-498).  Here is a breakdown of those alleged to be alive:

    Flight 11:

1)    Alomari – pilot with airlines in Saudi Arabia (passport stolen in Denver, Colorado burglary) – received official US apology in Saudi Arabia

2)    Alsheri, Waleed – pilot in Casablanca, Morocco (trained in Daytona Beach, Florida as pilot)

    Flight 175:

3)    Alshehri, Mohand – confirmed alive by Saudi Arabian embassy

    Flight 77:

4)    Alhazmi, Salem – works with petroleum and chemical plant in Saudi Arabia (passport stolen in Egypt)

    Flight 93:

5)    Alghamdi – currently in Tunisia training as pilot (brother Taha asked: “What sort of intelligence agency doesn’t know that there are thousands of Saeed Alghamdis in Saudi Arabia?  It is like accusing Tom from New York.”)

6)    Alnami – administrative supervisor with airlines in Saudi Arabia

•    If the “hijackers” identified by the 9/11 Commission and US intelligence agencies did not really carry out the attacks, who did it?  Who has the capability to create false identities for so many men in Saudi Arabia, many of whom had lost their passports?
   
∙    There were NO ARABS at all on Flight 77 according to American Airlines list AND Morgue list acquired by medical doctor through Freedom of Information Act request

∙    At least six different people verified that hijackers Satam al-Suqami and Salem al-Hazmi were living in San Antonio, Texas in February 2001.  The two were using each other’s names.  The FBI confirmed that al-Hazmi attended a flight school there and is still alive in Saudi Arabia.  That al-Hazmi says he never went to the US and he proved he did not leave Saudi Arabia for two years prior to 9/11.

∙    Original list of hijackers on Flight 77 included wrong people (including Al-Mihammadi, a computer programmer in Saudi Arabia) and 1 dead man!  Adnan and Amer Bukhuri were listed as hijackers after car found at Portland, Maine airport led to house in Vero Beach, Florida where pilot certificates were listed in their names ... Adnan is listed on Flight 11 manifest (but he is alive in Saudi Arabia) and his brother Amer was killed in a mid-air crash with a small plane on 9-11-00 ...

∙    The FBI hijackers’ photos appear to be incorrect … according to former CIA Director James Woolsey, UBL agents murdered people before and used their IDs to carry out other attacks.  Were aliases stolen from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia?  This is the US consulate in Saudi Arabia used by 15 of the 19 hijackers to enter the US.  The FBI reported that al-Hazmi, al-Mihdhar and Hanjour used at least three aliases.

∙    According to the evidence, there are two Ziad Jarrahs … one lived in Brooklyn, New York in 1995-1996 and the other was in Lebanon studying in Catholic School in Beirut.  Later in 2000 and 2001 Jarrah is said to be both in an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and a Florida flight school.

∙    According to the evidence, there may be two Mohamed Attas.  Two men named Atta arrived in Miami on January 10, 2001 and gave different addresses to INS  agents (one in Nokomis, Florida and one at a Coral Spring condo).  Even though Atta has overstayed his visa by a month on a previous visit, he is admitted entry.

∙    KSM did not know the real names of hijackers, only their code names.  Neither did alleged 20th hijacker Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who is also in US captivity.

∙    Hijackers were here longer than thought by 9/11 Commission.  For example, witnesses say Atta was in Florida in September 1999 even though 9/11 Commission says he was not here until June 2000.  Same is true for accounts of al-Ghamdi, al-Shehri, Moqed, and al-Suqami  (if not others too).

∙    East coast team of hijackers (Hanjour, Nawaf al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar are seen in San Diego, CA in early September, 2001 even though they supposedly were on the East coast for weeks prior to the attacks.  While in San Diego, witnesses saw them getting picked up late at night by limousines several times.  Who was picking them up late at night and why?  They supposedly had no help in the US, according to the official story.

These Guys Were Bad Pilots!

∙    According to former Senator Bob Graham, al-Hazmi and al-Midhdar began flight training in May at Sorbi’s Flying Club in San Diego, CA.  They said they wanted to fly Boeing jets, but the chief flight instructor, Rick Garza, told them they’d have to start on something smaller such as a single-engine Cessna.  Graham says: “It was immediately apparent that the two had little aptitude for aviation ... their poor English prevented them from following instructions ... they seemed woefully unaware of even the most basic principles of aviation.  When asked to draw a plane, one man got the wings backward.  When on of them was trying to land a single-engine Cessna, the other became frightened and began praying loudly to Allah ... After a half-dozen lessons, it became clear that the two would never become pilots.”  Garza gave up and called the two “dumb and dumber” (p. 26).  Hani Hanjour was also a bad pilot.  According to Graham: “One former instructor said in the cockpit Hanjour was unsure of himself, even frightened, particularly during exercises in which an engine is turned off in fligh so that a pilot can practice righting the plane and restoring power.”  Further, after taking advanced courses in a Boeing simulator, “Hanjour’s instructors thought he was so bad a pilot and spoke such poor English that they contacted the FAA to check if his license was a fake” (p. 41).

∙    A flight school manager and a former employee says Hanjour did not have the skills to fly a commercial airliner.  Hani Hanjour also had no ticket to fly on 9/11.  An independent inquiry into 9/11 by military and civilian pilots in the US found that: “The so-called terrorist attack was in fact a superbly executed military operation carried out against the [U.S.], requiring the utmost professional military skill in command, communications, and control.  It was flawless in timing, in the choice of selected aircraft to be used as guided missiles and in the coordinated delivery of those missiles to their preselected targets.”  On member says: “Those birds either had a crack fighter pilot in the left seat, or they were being maneuvered by remote control.”

How Big Was The Plan?

∙    John Walker Lindh, detained in Afghanistan, says he was told that “bin Laden had sent forth some fifty people to carry out twenty suicide terrorist operations against the United States and Israel” including five planes.

∙    On 9/11, weapons are found on three other planes … officials suspect help from within the airports.  Argenbright, the company in charge of security at all airports used on 9/11, did not thoroughly check backgrounds of their employees and they hired criminals and illegal immigrants.  Just how large was the attack supposed to be?  How many planes were actually to be involved and who in our nation’s airports helped the hijackers by putting weapons on board the planes?

∙    One of the planes is United Flight 23, which received a warning after 9am from Ed Ballinger while it was on a Newark, New Jersey runway about to take off for LA.  The crew tells passengers there has been a mechanical problem and it returns to the departure gate.  Somewhere between three and six Middle Eastern men argue with the flight crew and try to get off of the plane.  They flee before security arrives.  In their luggage are copies of the Koran and al Qaeda instruction sheets.  NORAD says we probably avoided another attack on that day.  Who were the men on this lane and where are they now?  What was its intended target?  Further, if there were more than 3 planes and 19 hijackers, then what to make of the claim by captive KSM that in the summer of 2001, UBL urged al Faruq camp trainees to pray for the success of an upcoming attack by 20 martyrs?

∙    On 9/11, a Middle Eastern man flying from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Detroit, Michigan is arrested after his plane is diverted to Toronto, Canada.  He is carrying a flight jacket, Palestinian Authority travel documents, and a picture of himself in a flight crew uniform in front of a fake back drop of the WTC.  The man was reportedly due to arrive in the US a few days earlier but was delayed.  He is an aircraft maintenance engineer in Gaza, Palestine.  Another man was arrested a few days earlier trying to enter Canada and had a similar photo, as well as maps and directions to the WTC.  In the luggage on one of the 9/11 hijackers, a photo of Mohammed  Zeki Majoub (a suspected Egyptian al-Qaeda terrorist) in front of a fake WTC back drop was found.  Who are these men and what was their role in the attacks?

∙    On 9/11, German intelligence intercepts a call between UBL followers that is shared with the FBI, leading them to search for two more teams of hijackers.  The Germans hear of “30 people traveling for the operation.”  Two days later, authorities claim to have identified teams of as many as 50 people who supported or carried out the attacks … 40 are accounted for or in custody and 10 are missing.  They also believed 27 people got pilot training.  On September 19, the FBI claims there were six hijacking teams on 9/11.  Another report says eight and with all the reports of aborted flights there may have been as many as 12 (see Thompson, pp. 499-500).  On September 24, Fox News reports that up to 12 Middle Eastern men dressed up in pilot uniforms were on other flights scheduled to take off on 9/11.  And many pilot uniforms were missing just prior to 9/11.  Again, just how big was the planned attack and where are all these men now?

∙    Egyptian Abdallah Higazy was found with pilot radio locked in his hotel room safe ... entered US on August 27, 2001 and checked into the Millennium Hotel next to WTC ... room on 51st floor with view of towers ... denied it was his ut acknowledged he had served in Egyptian Air Corps

If It Was Not For Allah, What Was It For?

∙    The FBI trailed Hani Hanjour for six months in 1998.  American Muslim Aukai Collins says he contacted the FBI about him because he was part of a larger, organized group of Arabs taking flying lessons.  And Collins says he was not at all religious.  In May-August 2001, at least six hijackers (Atta, al-Shehhi, Nawaf al-Hazmi, Jarrah, al-Mihdhar, and Hanjour) flew to Las Vegas, and while there drank alcohol, gambled, went to strip clubs and enjoyed lap dances (on a stopover in Minneapolis on the way back from Vegas to Baltimore, Hanjour and al-Hazmi could have possibly met Moussaoui, who had started flight training in Minneapolis the day before).  Former Senator Bob Graham asserts that Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhdar frequented strip clubs in San Diego.  Other stories in the media report them drinking alcohol, trying to sleep with prostitutes, renting porn, and watching strip shows the night before the attacks.  9/11 mastermind KSM is also said to have lived a lavish, partying lifestyle.  So, if these men were engaged in such acts – which are against Islam, were they not Muslims?  If they did not attack us because of their religion and their disapproval of our lifestyles and freedoms (as claimed by US officials, including President Bush), why did they attack us?

Why Did UBL Deny The Attacks?

∙    UBL denied the attacks on a statement played on al Jazeera: “I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks, which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons.”  Why would UBL deny his role in the attacks when historically he has claimed credit for the attacks he ordered?

Now This Just Makes No Sense!

∙    Why were the hijackers trying to get crop-dusters so close to the attack dates if the plot to crash airplanes into buildings had been long planned and practice runs were being carried out by the hijackers?  Supposedly, Atta tries to get a loan to buy a crop-dusting plane in April and May 2000 and then he asks questions about how to start and fly them in March through August 2001.  He and other men came very often to a Florida airport to ask such questions.  Why would these men, who already know their plan is to crash planes into selected targets in the US, be trying to set up some kind of crop-duster attacks?

The Planes: Odd Allegations and An Effort to Minimize Damage?

∙    No windows in planes? (actually still photos exist that show plane windows and sections of the plane with windows found in rubble of WTC)

∙    Objects under plane (missile pods)? (actually this is due to shadows and reflection fo light, nothing more)

∙    Only call from Flight 77 that hit Pentagon was from Barbara Olson, wife of Solicitor General Ted Olson (Ted Olson presented Bush’s case to US Supreme Court in 2000 election).  It has been alleged that all the cell phone calls from the airplanes were not possible because the cell phone networks are not meant to handle calls from high altitudes.

∙    Planes only 27% full

∙    Flight 93 shot down?  Passenger reported explosion and white smoke in cabin ... another said gun and bomb on board ... witnesses heard and saw another, small white jet like a Lear jet or an F-16 which was described in detail as low flying and very close to Flight 93 ... pieces of plane found 8 miles away including light plane debris, the Hemispheres Magazine, and even human remains (all confirmed by state police) ... last 3 minutes of tape played to families of victims blank or deleted.  The FAA confirmed a shooting on one plane (Flight 93), but the person who made the report has not been allowed to talk to the press.

World Trade Center: Odd Allegations and An Effort to Minimize Damage?

∙    What were the mysterious pictures of faces in smoke? (Who knows?)

∙    Fire with jet fuel hot enough to melt or buckle steel and cause pancake collapse?  The WTC collapse inquiry is inconclusive according to FEMA report.  In August 2002, a lost tape of firefighters voices is made public, showing two actually reached the crash site in the WTC and saw only 2 small fires at WTC crash site in South tower at the 78th floor.

∙    WTC 7 collapsed supposedly from internal fire ... (Larry Silverstein, WTC leaseholder, said he decided the smartest thing to do was to “pull it” when NYFD commander told him he wasn’t sure they were going to be able to contain the fire in the building ... “they made decision to pull it and we watched the building collapse”) ... pulled building six days later

∙    Passport of Suqami found at WTC site in millions of tons of rubble along with horrific human remains that are intact ... but no black boxes were found at the World Trade Center.  Flight 77 had no useful voice information.  The black boxes from Flight 93 were found yet badly damaged.  The tape is eventually played for family members of the crash victims, but it ends prior to the crash.  If every scrap of material from the World Trade Center was removed from the site and the black boxes are “virtually indestructible” and meant to handle far greater stresses than what they experienced, where did they go?

∙    Arabic flight manuals found in rental car at Boston ... why would the hijackers be carrying such materials if they already knew how to fly?

Pentagon: Odd Allegations and An Effort to Minimize Damage?

∙    Plane or missile hit Pentagon?

∙    No photos exist of plane hitting building (photo released by Pentagon does not look like passenger plane).  The photos of the Pentagon released in March 2002 had the wrong date and time (September 12, 5:37 pm) and are missing one second

∙    Size of hole too small for plane impact? (No, actually, since the building was reinforced to withstand such a blast, the wings likely broke off and followed the body of the plane inside the Pentagon).

∙    On October 12, 2001, Rumsfeld said in interview: “It is a truth that a terrorist can attack at any time, any place, using any technique and it’s physically impossible to defend at every time and every place against every conceivable technique.  Here we’re talking about plastic knives and using an American Airlines flight filled with our citizens, and the missile to damage this building and similar (inaudible) that damaged the WTC.”

∙    Undamaged lawn!  (The plane never hit the ground ... so the lawn should not have been damaged).

∙    FBI confiscated videos of businesses with surveillance film

∙    No photos of plane debris?  (Actually, photos do exist!  Plus, dozens of witnesses saw it and described it in great detail, 2 black boxes discovered, all victims identified by DNA except 1, fallen light poles)

∙    White line in grass where plane hit building prior to it being struck

∙    Struck section of Pentagon with least amount of people in it (under renovation)

∙    Hit opposite side where Rumsfeld was

Fighter response

∙    Fighter response times are off.  Did fighters get in the air at 8:52 am (CBS News), 9:37 am (Joint Chiefs of Staff), or 9:46 am (New York Mayor Guiliani)?  The 9/11 Commission says 8:52 am!

Behavior of President and Advisors on Day of Attacks

∙    In car from hotel to elementary school from 8:30-9 am (Flight 11 crashed at 8:46 am).  Did President know of first crash in the car?( 4 media reports said he found out while in car and several others reported others in motorcade also found out in car)

∙    President Bush said twice, once in December 2001 and once in January 2002, that he watched the first plane crash into the WTC live on TV (recall there was no live broadcast of this crash and video of it was not discovered until following day).

∙    Official story is that Bush found out about first crash after arriving at school and was told by Andrew Card (Chief of Staff).

∙    CIA Chief Tenet and media at school already knew of crash (and so did the rest of us!)
∙    Second crash of Flight 175 was at 9:03 am and Bush was told between 9:05-9:07 am. After this, he sat for 8-9 minutes while My Pet Goat was read by students.

∙    After book was finished, Bush talked to students and teachers and stayed in room until he left to back room in school.

∙    President stayed at school until 9:30 am (pre-arranged time) for a speech where he commented about attacks.

∙    President stayed even longer talking with principal and then headed to airport ... was in motorcade when Flight 77 hit Pentagon at 9:53 am.

∙    Took off at 9:55 am and learned of a threat from Cheney of a credible threat against Air Force One (threat said “Air Force One is next”).

∙    Plane circled Sarasota, FL for a long time with no fighter protection from any of numerous air bases in area despite threat.

∙    Another threat came at 10:32 am and Air Force One flew away from DC to Louisiana.  Another threat came at 10:55 am.

∙    On 9/12 (next day), it was reported that threats were false (misunderstanding of secret service discussion).

∙    Fighter protection did not arrive until after 11 am and by 11:30 am 6 fighter jets were guarding Air Force One in air.  Bush flew to Louisiana and then to Orcutt Air Force Bas in Nebraska (US Strategic Command Center there).

Unexplained

∙    Anthrax – extremely rare and lethal weapons grade anthrax used in attacks (only available in US military labs) ... first to die was Bob Stephens (photo editor of American Media, Inc, the parent company who owns the National Enquirer which showed Jenna Bush’s phot falling down drunk with cigarette in hand) ... White House officials took Cipro at least 1 week prior to first mailing of letters on September 12 (timing of letters and USA PATRIOT Act?) ... unexplained deaths of world’s microbiologists!  How is the Anthrax case connected to 9/11?  The source of the anthrax was domestic, a highly toxic military strain, and the letters were sent from New Jersey.