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Did Saddam Hussein fear that legendary terrorist Abu Nidal could become the "smoking gun" linking Iraq to the September 11 suicide attacks in New York and Washington?
Ziad Samir Jarrah
Died: September 11, 2001 at age 26
Education:Catholic schools
Organization:Al Qaida
Mentor:Abu Nidal
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Aysel Sengun, a German-born doctor, testified about her close relationship with Ziad Jarrah, who U.S. authorities believe flew the hijacked jet that crashed in Pennsylvania.
"He called me on September 11...he was very brief. He said he loved me three times. I asked what was up. He hung up shortly afterwards... It was so short and rather strange him saying that repeatedly," Sengun told the court at the trial of Mounir El Motassadeq, a Moroccan accused of being the paymaster for the Al Qaida cell based in Germany which allegedly led the attacks.
Ziad Samir Jarrah can't speak of his brief career in terrorism. But he
represents one of the most mysterious of the 19 Al Qaida suicide hijackers
who killed 3,500 people and destroyed the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon more than a year ago.
In fact, links to the mysterious hijacker may have made triggered legendary terrorist Abu Nidal's death by "suicide" earlier this year in Iraq.
"We wanted to get married at some point and have children. He said he wanted to become a commercial pilot," Sengun said.
She told of Jarrah's subsequent move to the United States and her 10-day visit in January 2001, during which she sat as a passenger when Jarrah trained in a Boeing flight simulator, Reuters reported.
For months, U.S. intelligence knew little about Jarrah. He went under
numerous aliases both in Europe and the United States. Moreover, officials
both in the United States and Europe were stumped by what a Lebanese
national who had no links with Islamic fundamentalism was doing in what was
largely a Saudi operation.
Today, Arab intelligence sources believe they have the answer. They
assert that Jarrah was not part of Al Qaida. Instead, he was
lent by a secular Palestinian terrorist group to help in the 9/11 attack
in evidence that could provide the smoking gun of Iraqi involvement.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein seeks to ensure that there is nobody
alive who can tell the tale. Jarrah is dead and in August Saddam killed
another Palestinian terrorist in Baghdad who could have linked the Iraqi
dictator to 9/11. The intelligence sources insist there are others who know.
To Westerners, Jarrah could not have come from a more familiar
background. His father Samir was a civil servant; his mother Nasisa, a
school teacher. As an only son, Jarrah was given the best, including a
privileged Catholic education in Beirut. He rarely attended mosques and
appeared indifferent to politics.
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Jarrah (right) and his cousin, Salim, moved to Greifswald, Germany, in 1996.
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Jarrah was sent to Germany for a university education intent on making
it. He first mastered German and in 1997 registered at the University of
Applied Sciences in Hamburg to study aeronautical engineering, and aircraft
construction and design. He found himself an attractive girlfriend
who later studied medicine.
By 1999, Jarrah was directed to Mohammed Atta, who was already a rising star in Al Qaida. Atta was also studying urban planning at the
Technical University in Hamburg. He was recruiting young Muslims from the
Middle East for a major suicide hijacking in the United States.
Jarrah began to change. He grew a long beard and began to appear as
other Islamic fundamentalists. He took up flying and obtained a license to
pilot single-engine planes throughout Europe. But quietly he kept his
girlfriend and attracted other female attention as well in Hamburg. In other
words, he was playing the fundamentalist, rather than living the part.
In mid-2000, Jarrah went to the United States and took up flying lessons
for a pilot's license. He was hardly in contact with his girlfriend, who
even visited his family in Lebanon to search for him. In November 2000,
Jarrah enrolled at the Florida Flight Training Center in Venice.
Neighbors and colleagues described Jarrah as charming, a flashy dresser
with a fast car. Jarrah was also working out and took up martial arts.
Jarrah left his life in Florida to join the other Al Qaida hijackers in
late August 2001. On Sept. 5, he and another hijacker booked one-way tickets
to Newark. Six days later, Jarrah board United Airlines Flight 93 from
Newark to San Francisco. Nobody knows exactly what took place on that
flight. The FBI believes Jarrah and his accomplices burst into the cockpit
overpowered the pilot and crew and took over the controls.
Unlike the three other planes hijacked by Al Qaida, the passengers of UA
Flight 93 resisted. They fought with the hijackers and the plane crashed or
was downed into the Pennsylvania countryside.
For months, the FBI and the CIA searched for information about Jarrah.
His family pleaded ignorance and for months even doubted that he was on the
plane.
But German intelligence began to achieve progress in efforts to discover
Jarrah and his links. A major piece of evidence came from a review of
files from the former East German intelligence agency Stasi. There, German
agents found a file on Jarrah's uncle. The file detailed his service for the
Stasi as well as that for Libyan intelligence.
Arab intelligence agencies were called to fill in the blanks and sources
said Egypt provided some key information. They said the young Jarrah was
actually recruited -- perhaps by his uncle -- to serve in the Fatah
Revolutionary Council led by Sabri Banna, better known as Abu Nidal. Abu
Nidal has been long linked and supported by Libya and Tripoli has used the
Palestinian terrorist for a range of dirty operations.
But by 2002, Libya had cut off most of its ties to Abu Nidal. He was
being harbored by Iraq and treated for skin cancer in Baghdad. Abu
Nidal was said to have had a cozy relationship with Saddam despite the
Palestinian's refusal to launch a wave of terror attacks in 1990 after Iraq
conquered Kuwait.
But by August, Saddam was told that the United States, with the help
of its allies, was building a case to link the Iraqi dictator to 9/11. The
case was built around Jarrah's links to Abu Nidal. An unidentified Arab
intelligence agency, believed to be that of Egypt, was said to have relayed
information that the United States has evidence that Abu Nidal had
cooperated with Al Qaida for the 9/11 attacks.
Saddam was alarmed. The smoking gun he had feared was not only alive but
living near him in Baghdad. Arab intelligence sources said Saddam decided to
kill Abu Nidal immediately. On Aug. 15, Saddam's agents burst into Abu
Nidal's spacious apartment and either killed him or allowed him to commit
suicide. Then, for four days, Saddam's aides fabricated a story that
portrayed Abu Nidal as an ungrateful terrorist who was seeking to help Al
Qaida in attacks on Arab leaders everywhere. In other words, Saddam became
the fighter of terrorism.
Arab intelligence sources said Abu Nidal did not commit suicide. He was
simply shot in the head. They said Egypt knew of Abu Nidal's activities with
Al Qaida for a while. Indeed, Abu Nidal had secretly lived in Egypt and his
group was thoroughly infiltrated by Egyptian security services. One leading
aide of Abu Nidal was in fact an Egyptian intelligence agent.
The sources said Abu Nidal was secretly brought to Iraq by Egypt in a
special plane around 2001. After 9/11, Egypt spilled the beans and relayed
information to the United States on Abu Nidal's ties to Al Qaida.
Girlfriend Tells German Court About Sept 11 Pilot
Tue November 19, 2002 12:03 PM ET
By Philip Blenkinsop
HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - The girlfriend of an alleged September 11 hijacker told a German court on Tuesday she helped him find a flying school, planned to marry him and got an odd phone call from him on the day of the attacks.
Aysel Sengun, a German-born doctor, spoke at length about her close relationship with Ziad Jarrah, who U.S. authorities believe flew the hijacked jet that crashed in Pennsylvania.
"He called me on September 11...he was very brief. He said he loved me three times. I asked what was up. He hung up shortly afterwards... It was so short and rather strange him saying that repeatedly," Sengun told the court at the trial of Mounir El Motassadeq, a Moroccan accused of being the paymaster for the al Qaeda cell based in Germany which allegedly led the attacks.
Sengun said she met Jarrah in the western German city of Bochum in 1996 and spoke about problems in their relationship.
"He had a different view of Islam than I did. He was more serious... He wanted me to cover up. I said I wouldn't do so for him, only for God," Sengun said, sitting in a turtle-neck pullover and jeans next to her lawyer.
Jarrah disappeared from November 1999 to February 2000. Prosecutors say he went to meet fellow conspirators at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. Sengun said he told her he had visited Pakistan, and returned with a plan to train as a pilot.
"We wanted to get married at some point and have children. He said he wanted to become a commercial pilot," she said.
She recounted Jarrah's subsequent move to the United States and her 10-day visit in January 2001, during which she sat as a passenger when Jarrah trained in a Boeing flight simulator.
Her only contact with Motassadeq came from late 1999 to early 2000. Jarrah, who was out of the country, had asked him to look after her and Sengun said she had spoken to the accused several times on the telephone.
But she said she knew none of Jarrah's other friends in Hamburg, such as Mohamed Atta, who allegedly led the Hamburg cell and flew the first plane into the World Trade Center.
CHILLING WARNING
Later on Tuesday, former university library worker Angela Duine told the court she had met a number of Atta's alleged group, including Marwan Al Shehhi, who is believed to have crashed the second plane into the twin towers.
Recounting one incident in 1999, she said Al Shehhi was agitated, sweating and typing wildly on a computer keyboard.
"He told me something would happen in which thousands would be killed. The World Trade Center was mentioned," she said.
Defense lawyers also learned on Tuesday the United States will not make available for questioning two suspects held in U.S. custody: Zacarias Moussaoui, a French national on trial who U.S. officials think was meant to the 20th hijacker, and Ramzi Bin Al-Shaibah, an ex-Hamburg resident arrested in Pakistan.
However, trial judges and lawyers will travel to Seattle next month to question Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian who was arrested in December 1999 trying to enter the United States from Canada in a car packed with explosives.
Motassadeq, a 28-year-old electrical engineering student, is charged with being an accessory to 3,045 murders in New York and Washington and with belonging to the Hamburg Islamist cell. His lawyers deny he was involved in the September 11 attacks.
