-Caveat Lector- http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/04/national/04INQU.html?todaysh eadlines=&pagewanted=print
October 4, 2001 Will Suggests Suspect Had Long Planned to Die for Beliefs By PHILIP SHENON and DAVID JOHNSTON ASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — Mohamed Atta, described by law enforcement officials as the ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackers, left a will in which he said he wanted to be buried "next to good Muslims," with his corpse pointed east toward Mecca, the officials said. They said the will was found in a suitcase that Mr. Atta, a 33-year- old Egyptian, left at Logan Airport in Boston, where he boarded an American Airlines jet that later slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York, possibly with Mr. Atta at the controls. The will was dated April 1996, which would suggest that Mr. Atta had been planning for years to die for Islam and that he wanted his final actions to be understood as an effort to serve God. At his funeral, "everybody should mention God's name and that I died as a Muslim, which is God's religion," he wrote, adding that "everyone who attends my funeral should ask that I will be forgiven for what I have done in the past" — although "not this action." The will was written in broken English. Details of its contents were first reported by the German magazine Spiegel. Mr. Atta was a student in the mid- 1990's at a technical university in Hamburg, Germany, where he was seeking a degree in urban planning. Law enforcement officials would not say why Mr. Atta's luggage had remained at Logan Airport, where he transferred onto the American Airlines jet bound for Los Angeles after flying to Boston earlier that morning from Portland, Me. It was not clear if Mr. Atta had checked the bag only to Boston — in the knowledge that its contents would be seized by the police after his death — or if he intended the bag to make the connection and to be destroyed in the crash. The suitcase also held a five-page letter in Arabic offering final instructions to the hijackers. Friends and other students have said that while studying in Germany, Mr. Atta underwent a profound change in his religious beliefs and temperament. He embraced Muslim fundamentalism and surrounded himself with other devout followers. Also today, administration officials confirmed that weeks before the terror attacks in New York and Washington, Washington-based supervisors at the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation turned down a request for a surveillance warrant for a Frenchman who is now being questioned in New York about any knowledge he might have of the hijacking plot. The man, Zacarias Moussauoi, was taken into custody in August after officials at a Minnesota flight school warned the bureau that he was acting suspiciously. Officials confirmed an account in Newsweek magazine that bureau agents in Minnesota had requested a warrant to review his computer hard drive but that they had been turned down by Justice Department officials in Washington. The Washington officials, they said, believed that the request did not provide enough evidence to suggest a crime to support a warrant under terms of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The officials would not confirm reports elsewhere that the drive was later inspected and found to contain information about crop- dusters, which law enforcement officials have feared could be used by terrorists for attacks with chemical or biological weapons. Earlier this year, the judge who oversees enforcement of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act complained to the Justice Department over whether prosecutors were presenting enough information to the court to justify wiretaps. Government officials also offered new details today about negotiations several years ago between the United States and Sudan in which the Sudanese government offered to turn over Osama bin Laden, who is reported to be the mastermind of last month's terror attacks. The officials said the United States turned down the 1996 offer because American prosecutors had little hard evidence at the time to use against Mr. bin Laden. Details of the negotiations were first reported by The Washington Post. Mr. Atta's will made clear that he wanted his funeral to be carried out according to strict Muslim tradition. "The people who will prepare my body should be good Muslims because this will remind me of God and his forgiveness," he wrote. "Those who will sit beside my body must remember Allah, God, and pray for me to be with the angels. "When you bury me, the people with whom I will be buried should be good Muslims. I want to face east toward Mecca." There were detailed instructions for the preparation of his body before burial. He wanted only "good Muslims" to wash his corpse, and he asked that his body then be wrapped in three pieces of white cloth "not to be made from silk or expensive material." He asked that "the person who will wash my body near the genitals must wear gloves on his hand so he won't touch my genitals." Mr. Atta, said to be painfully shy around women throughout his life, asked that women play no role in his funeral. "I don't want any women to go to my grave at all during my funeral or any occasion thereafter," he wrote. "I don't want a pregnant woman or a person who is not clean to come and say goodbye to me because I don't approve of it." Law enforcement officials say they are continuing to search for evidence tying Mr. Atta to Mr. bin Laden, who has long lived in exile in Afghanistan. During long, mostly unexplained absences from Germany in the 1990's, officials suspect, Mr. Atta may have traveled to the Middle East or Asia and had contact with followers of Mr. bin Laden. Officials said today that in 1996, Sudan offered to the United States to expel Mr. bin Laden and send him via Saudi Arabia or another country to the United States. At that time, American officials say, they had little hard proof against Mr. bin Laden that could be taken to a grand jury. For example, they could not prove then that Sudanese officials or Mr. bin Laden had provided training centers for international terrorists in the mid-1990's. Moreover, they said, the United States did not trust Sudan to deliver on its promise, calling it part of a meaningless charm offensive intended only to help Sudan get off the State Department's list of terrorist-supporting states. -- Best wishes In times of tumult & discord, bad men have the most power; mental and moral excellence require peace. ~~Tacitus <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
