WASHINGTON (AP) -- Among the human remains painstakingly sorted from the Pentagon and Pennsylvania crash sites of September 11 are those of nine of the hijackers. 

The FBI has held them for months, and no one seems to know what should be done with them. It's a politically and emotionally charged question for the government, which eventually must decide how to dispose of some of the most despised men in American history. 

"I think in Islam, you're supposed to be buried whole, so I would take them and scatter them all over the place," said Donn Marshall, whose wife, Shelley, died at the Pentagon. "They don't deserve any kind of religious courtesies." 
 

In New York, where the monumental task of identifying the remains of 2,823 victims believed to be dead continues, no remains have been linked to the 10 hijackers who crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center. About half the victims' families still are waiting for their loved ones to be identified, though it's likely many never will be because so much of the site was incinerated. 

In contrast, the remains of all 40 victims in the Pennsylvania crash and all but five of the 184 victims at the Pentagon site were identified months ago. 

Little attention has been paid to the terrorists' remains found mingled with those of the victims. 

"It's a unique situation," said Dr. Jerry Spencer, a former chief medical examiner for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, who worked 30 years as a Navy forensic pathologist. "The terrorists are usually not in our possession in the United States like this. The other issue is, will the families want them back?" 

Four sets of remains in Pennsylvania and five at the Pentagon were grouped together as the hijackers -- but not identified by name -- through a process of elimination. 

Families of the airplanes' passengers and crews and those who died within the Pentagon provided DNA samples, typically on toothbrushes or hairbrushes, to aid with identification. The remains that didn't match any of those samples were ruled to be the terrorists, said Chris Kelly, spokesman for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, which did the DNA work. The nine sets of remains matched the number of hijackers believed to be on the two planes. 

Without reference samples from the hijackers' personal effects or from their immediate families to compare with the recovered DNA, the remains could not be matched to an individual. 

With the one-year anniversary approaching, State Department officials said Friday they had received no requests for the remains. The department would be responsible for handling such a request from any government seeking the return of a citizen's body. 

Officials have said that all but one of the nine hijackers recovered had connections to Saudi Arabia. The other was Lebanese. 

Officials at the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment. 

In more typical cases, foreign families also could contact local authorities. But the hijackers' remains are under the control of the FBI. 

"To the best of my knowledge, there haven't been any friends or family members to try to claim the remains of these people," said Jeff Killeen, spokesman for the FBI field office in Pittsburgh. "They are in the custody of the FBI in Washington. They have not been released." 

In cases where badly damaged bodies cannot be identified, or when no one steps forward to claim a body, state or local laws usually dictate what will be done with them. 

"If it's a mass disaster, and they can't identify the remains, they may put all of them in a mass grave or they may be cremated," said Michael Bell, vice president of the National Association of Medical Examiners and the deputy chief examiner for Broward County, Fla. 

Authorities usually retain only small DNA samples, photographs or other pertinent information that might lead to identification later or become evidence in a criminal case. 

A group memorial service is planned for Arlington National Cemetery on Sept. 12, when all the remains from the Pentagon that could not be matched with a particular victim will be buried, said Maj. Sandy Troeber, a spokeswoman. 

The remains linked to terrorists were taken by the FBI in February, she said. 

James Starrs, a professor of forensic science and law at George Washington University, said there should be public oversight of what the government does with human remains, whether they are criminals or victims. 

Policies must take into account that there are cases where relatives don't seek repatriation of remains, including many examples of Americans killed on overseas battlefields, noted Starrs, who is known for his forensic work in historical cases, such as the outlaw Jesse James and the mystery of the Boston Strangler. 

"Good persons or bad persons, you can't assume that the relatives are going to come to the fore and try to reclaim their remains," Starr said. 

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Abdulrahman al-Omari, a pilot with Saudi Airlines, was astonished to find himself accused of hijacking ­ as well as being dead ­ and has visited the US consulate in Jeddah to demand an explanation. 

None has so far been forthcoming. It is possible that the hijacker adopted Mr al-Omari's identity but, if he had been using the same false name while training as a pilot in the US, he would presumably have been uncovered. 

That is not the only error on the list of hijackers. The name of Ziad Jarrah ­ identified as the pilot-hijacker of United Airlines flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania ­ was misspelt "Jarrahi". He was a Lebanese whose family, living in the Bekaa Valley, spoke to him just two days before his death but who still refuse to believe that he was involved. 

Mr al-Omari's first name ­ Abdulrahman ­ was later given out by the US authorities as "Abdulaziz" but there can be little doubt that it referred to the pilot who lives in Jeddah. The Americans described him as a father of four and Mr al-Omari does have four children, all of whom live with him and his family in Saudi Arabia's second city. He has refused to talk to reporters and ­ in the words of one prominent Saudi journalist ­ "is one nervous guy". 

------------
Das Wort "suspects" unter der Überschrift deutet an: hier gab es unter der linkadresse 
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story= 94438 Fotos der Verdächtigen zu sehen

 Kampfflugzeuge der Luftwaffe sollen mögliche Angreifer abschießen dürfen 
Entwurf für ”Luftsicherheitsgesetz" sieht weitreichende Befugnisse zur Abwehr terroristischer Gefahren vor / Verabschiedung im Oktober 

Lt. BERLIN, 18. September. Der zwi- schen den zuständigen Ressorts der Bun- desregierung ausgehandelte Entwurf eines ”Luftsicherheitsgesetzes" enthält nicht nur schärfere Überwachungsbestimmungen für das Bodenpersonal und Befugnisse für die Luftwaffe bei Terrorangriffen. Weitere Regelungen stärken die Rechte der Verkehrs- piloten im Umgang mit unbotmäßigen Fluggästen. Dem Piloten wird künftig nach der neuen gesetzlichen Regelung ausdrücklich die hoheitliche Gewalt der Gefahrenab- wehr übertragen, er darf danach an Bord Identitätsfeststellungen und Durchsuchun- gen vornehmen, darf aggressive oder an- greifende Personen fesseln und zu diesem Zweck notfalls körperliche Gewalt anwen- den. Widerstand mit Gewalt oder Gewaltdrohungen gegen die Anordnungen des Piloten werden künftig dem Widerstand ge- gen Vollstreckungsbeamte gleichgestellt und entsprechend mit Strafen bewehrt. 
Der Gesetzentwurf zur Luftsicherheit, der von den Ministerien für Inneres, Vertei- digung und Verkehr erarbeitet wurde und im Oktober vom Kabinett beschlossen wer- den soll, gründet auf einer Forderung von Bundesinnenminister Schily (SPD) nach dem Luftzwischenfall über Frankfurt am Main im Januar. Damals drohte der Pilot ei- nes Kleinflugzeuges damit, in ein Hoch- haus zu stürzen. Der Gesetzentwurf sieht künftig den Einsatz von Kampfflugzeugen
der Luftwaffe vor. Sie können ”zur Verhinderung eines besonders schweren Unglücksfalles" im Luftraum ”Luftfahrzeuge oder Flugkörper insbesondere abdrängen, zur Landung zwingen, den Einsatz von Waffengewalt androhen oder Warnschüsse abge- ben". Falls diese Maßnahmen nicht mög- lich sind oder erfolglos bleiben, können ”die Streitkräfte unmittelbar mit Waffenge- walt einwirken". Die Rechtsgrundlage dafür wird aus Arti- kel 35 Grundgesetz abgeleitet, der in bezug auf die Amtshilfe zwischen Bund und Län- dern festhält, daß der Bund die Zuständig- keit der Länder für die allgemeine Sicher- heit durch eigene Weisungen übergehen kann, allerdings nur dann, wenn ”die Natur- katastrophe oder der Unglücksfall das Ge- biet mehr als eines Landes" gefährdet. Die- se Voraussetzung wird im Entwurf des Luft- sicherheitsgesetzes als gegeben angenom- men. Es heißt in der Begründung des Ent- wurfes, dieser Fall werde ”zumeist" vorlie- gen: ”Insbesondere angesichts des Flugtem-

pos und der Reichweite heutiger Passagier- maschinen ist in der Regel davon auszuge- hen, daß derartige Zwischenfälle das Ge- biet mehrerer Länder berühren." Der Entscheidungsweg für den Luftwaf- feneinsatz bezieht sich ebenfalls auf die Not- wendigkeit des ”besonders schweren Un- glücksfalls" und bedarf deswegen einer Stützkonstruktion", da der Unglücksfall selber zu dem Zeitpunkt noch nicht gesche- hen sein kann, zu dem der Einsatz der Luft- waffe angeordnet werden muß. Es heißt da- her in Paragraph 13 des Gesetzentwurfes: ”Liegen aufgrund eines erheblichen Luft- zwischenfalls Tatsachen vor, die die Annah- me begründen, daß ein besonders schwerer Unglücksfall bevorsteht, kann die Bundes- regierung zur Verhinderung dieses Un- glücksfalles die Streitkräfte im Luftraum" einsetzen.

Die Begründung des Gesetzes führt aus, als Luftzwischenfall gelte jede Abweichung vom normalen Flugbetrieb; er- faßt würden von diesem Begriff nicht nur Flugzeuge als terroristische Angriffswaffe, sondern auch Ballons, Raketen oder ande- re Flugkörper. Der Gesetzentwurf enthält auch eine detaillierte Liste der Personen, die als Teilnehmer am Luftverkehr oder Be- dienstete in dessen Nähe künftig auf ihre Zuverlässigkeit überprüft werden sollen. Zu dieser Personengruppe zählen neben Beschäftigten der Fluglinien und des Bo- denpersonals etwa auch die Arbeitskräfte von Versorgungsunternehmen auf Flughä- fen, aber auch Piloten und Flugschüler und Mitglieder von Flugvereinen auf kleinen Flugplätzen, ”Schülerpraktikanten und Sportflieger".

NORTH PORT -- As authorities continue to dig through the rubble in Tuesday's terrorist attacks, agents were digging through North Port to find one of the many missing pieces to the puzzle of who declared war on the United States and why.

Thursday began like a normal day for North Port residents Tony and Vonnie LaConca, but they would later learn a man who rented their Agress Avenue home is someone whom authorities think may be connected with Tuesday's attacks.

An FDLE agent working in conjunction with the FBI arrived at the LaConca home around 10:30 a.m. Thursday and questioned the couple for two hours concerning a man they knew only as "Mohamed."

The couple told the agent the man was about 25, 5 feet 10 inches, 160 pounds, had "dark, perfect" skin, and was clean cut and "very polite." 

"He was a very handsome guy," Vonnie LaConca said in an interview. "He had beautiful, unblemished skin."

Mohamed was associated with a local woman believed to be Amanda Keller, a local restaurant manager, LaConca said. The FBI is looking for Keller for additional questioning, but she might be missing.

LaConca told the agent that Keller had "dishwater blonde hair, was about 21 years old, big boned with freckles" and seemed to be enamored of Mohamed.

In an effort to locate Keller, the agent accompanied Tony LaConca to the North Port Police Department to pick up a Feb. 25 police report in which Keller had called police about harassing cell phone calls.

According to the police report, after Keller called police about the calls, a computer check was conducted and showed an outstanding warrant from Marion County on a worthless check charge.

"Mohamed bailed her out of South County Jail," Vonnie LaConca said. "We told agents this because we thought they (FBI) might be able to get his last name from the reports."

Keller, who allegedly met Mohamed while working at Papa John's Pizza in Venice, told the couple she would translate because Mohamed spoke limited English. She said he was French/Canadian. She told the LaConcas that he was not a U.S. citizen.

A Papa John's employee confirmed that Keller was a manager there, but has not been to work for some time. 

While talking to Keller and Mohamed, the couple learned he had a pilot's license to charter small planes of four to six people and was going to school at Huffman Aviation in Venice to train for a commercial pilot's license. Huffman was the school that enrolled Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi, both identified as suspects in the hijacked jet assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"We almost asked him if he wanted to fly our plane," Tony LaConca said. "He was a very polite guy."

Keller said she would be responsible for the rental, but the man gave the couple two checks amounting to $75 each.

While he was writing the checks, the couple noticed Mohamed had brand new clothing, all still with tags on them from a local mall, the couple remembered. 

The only request Mohamed made to the couple was that they provide him a desk in which he could do his aviation homework. 

"He didn't even care if the house had a bed, all he wanted was a desk," said Tony LaConca in a thick New York accent.

The couple learned more about Mohamed from a then-employee of Vonnie's cleaning company. After meeting Mohamed and Keller on Feb. 21, the former employee joined the couple on an adventure to Key West the following day.

"They were gone for three days," said Tony LaConca. "They didn't sleep -- it was a continuous party."

LaConca said Mohamed footed the entire bill for the weekend including buying Keller and the unnamed employee new clothes, alcohol, drugs and hotel stay. However, the couple said, Mohamed did not have a job.

"The two girls were introduced to two men from Germany that they said were Mohamed's friends," Tony LaConca continued. "I thought it was strange, because Mohamed didn't appear to be French-Canadian or German."

The couple said the agent tried to locate and interview the unnamed employee, however they said she was "uncooperative to the agent." However, Vonnie learned the former employee made telephone contact with Mohamed last week.

At the end of his week-long stay at Agress Avenue, Mohamed returned to the LaConcas' home to pick up his $75 security check. This time, the couple noticed he spoke "good English." He arrived in a rental car with a friend that he claimed he had just picked up from the airport. Mohamed requested that the check be made out to his unidentified friend.

"His friend didn't speak any English, and his name was very strange," said Vonnie LaConca. "The two stayed at our house for at least an hour. Mohamed seemed real interested in the architecture and decor of our home. He asked all kinds of questions about it. I thought they would never leave."

The couple said the FDLE agent showed them four photographs of possible suspects in the terrorist attack.

"The first photo they showed us was the pilot who crashed into the first building," Vonnie LaConca said. "It was not Mohamed or his friend. But the last picture they showed us was very close, but I could not say 100 percent that it was him."

The FBI in Tampa would neither confirm nor deny any agents interviewing people in the North Port area. 

"We recommend that you check in with CNN for current information," an FBI spokesperson only identified as "Pam" said Thursday afternoon. "Any press statements can be found on televised stations like CNN."
 

By ELAINE ALLEN-EMRICH 

and JANN BATY

Staff Writers 

Copyright © 2003 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com 

Filipinos Recall Hijack Suspects Leading a High Life 
Don Kirk International Herald Tribune 
Friday, October 5, 2001 
 
 

MABALACAT, Philippines They stayed at a popular resort hotel here, drank whiskey with Philippine bargirls, dined at a restaurant that specializes in Middle Eastern cuisine and visited at least one of the local flight schools.

The two men suspected by the FBI of being at the controls of the planes that flew into New York's World Trade Center on Sept. 11 left those traces behind from visits from 1998 to 2000 to this hustling market town outside a former U.S. Air Force base, according to local residents who say they recognized the two from news photographs.

Philippine and U.S. investigators have been checking out the reported movements here of Marwan Al-Shehhi and Mohamed Atta. They would not confirm the accused hijackers' presence in the Philippines, but the local hotel workers were willing to discuss them.

Mr. Al-Shehhi, whom the FBI has identified as the pilot of United Airlines Flight 175 when it slammed into the trade center's south tower, threw a party with six or seven Arab friends at the Woodland Park Resort Hotel here in December, said a former waitress at the hotel, Gina Marcelo. "There were about seven people," she said. "They rented the open area by the swimming pool for 1,000 pesos. They drank Johnnie Walker Black Label whiskey and mineral water. They barbecued shrimp and onions. They came in big vehicles, and they had a lot of money. They all had girlfriends." She cited "one big mistake they made." Unlike most foreign visitors, "They never tipped," she said. "If they did, I would not remember them so well."

Victoria Brocoy, a chambermaid at the Woodland, recalls Mr. Atta, the Egyptian who investigators believe flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the trade center's north tower. "He was not friendly. If you say hello to him, he doesn't answer. If he asks for a towel, you do not enter his room. He takes it at the door."

Mr. Atta was by no means a recluse. "Many times I saw him let a girl go at the gate in the morning," she said. "It was always a different girl."

:The accounts here tend to confirm reports from the United States that at least some of the accused hijackers had free-wheeling lifestyles full of sex and alcohol, and took precautions to keep their identities secret.

They are assumed to have gravitated here in search of flying lessons. The area is a hub for pilots and flying instructors, Filipinos as well as foreigners, as a result of its relationship to Clark Air Base, converted to a special economic zone after the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1991. At least two flying schools offer lessons, one of them in the zone; the other, the Angeles City Flying Club, is owned by the same corporation as the Woodland hotel, about 20 kilometers to the east.

The hijacking suspects were introduced to the hotel, according to workers who saw them, by a Jordanian businessman who runs a travel agency in Manila and often stays there but denies having known them.

Their presence aroused little curiosity in the male-dominated foreign community that ranges from retired military people to tourists from Europe, Australia and the Middle East, many of them drawn by the cheap prices and the availability of the local women.

The investigation by Philippine and American authorities has focused not only on the timing of their visits to this town about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Manila but also into exactly what they were doing and why.

The search is complicated by the fact that they made certain not to register under their own names, but two patterns have emerged from the investigation, according to Philippine police officials. The first is that the two displayed a keen interest in learning how to fly small planes, and the second is that they dominated a clique of Arab visitors, most of whom have not been seen since shortly before the attacks.

Ferdinand Abad, who was working as a security guard at the entrance to the hotel in mid-1999, remembers Mr. Atta asking at what time he should wait outside the Woodland hotel for a van to take him to the Angeles City Flying Club.

"I told him about 7 in the morning, and he gave me a tip of 50 pesos," - about $1 - Mr. Abad said. "Two or three times a week the van would pick him up. He didn't say he was going to fly. After our first meeting, he never talked, never said hello."

The driver of the van, Mr. Abad said, was Melvin Troth, manager of the flying club, who retired as a master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force in 1986 after serving his last tour at nearby Clark Air Base. Mr. Troth told investigators, however, that the names of Mr. Atta and Mr. Al-Shehhi did not appear in his records.

"I pick up a lot of people and take them out here," he protested to a colonel from the Philippine National Police headquarters, one of a stream of official visitors to the Flying Club in recent days, as a reporter was present. "It's a regular procedure. I don't remember them."

On the base, converted to a special economic zone after the Philippine Senate refused to extend the bases agreement with the United States in 1991, Philippine officials respond to such denials with derision mingled with serious concern.

"We want the whole world to know about the danger of these people around here," said Tony Salenga, chief executive assistant to the chairman of the Clark Development Corp., which is responsible for attracting investors to the former base to set up stores and factories there. "We believe they were establishing cells right here."

Residents recall that friends of Mr. Atta and Mr. Al-Shehhi often gathered at the Woodland Park and at the Jerusalem Restaurant in Angeles City, which borders the base just south of here.

Trudis Dago, manager of the restaurant, remembered Mr. Atta as someone who "would never smile and would never talk to anyone except his friends."

"I knew this face when I saw it in the paper," she said.
 
 

 Copyright © 2003 The International Herald Tribune 
Quelle: http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=34614&
PHPSESSID=dcd1903529afa8dc56e0d96b34aa0050

DCANG MISSION

To provide combat units in the highest 

possible state of readiness. We will support 

the Air Force and other DOD agencies. We

will provide operational support to our 

local communities whenever possible.

DCANG VISION

To be the premier organization in the Air

National Guard recognized as the

benchmark for fulfilling our federal, state,

and community missions.

Home