"Mystery: Why Portland?"

Friday, July 23, 2004

Mystery: Why Portland? 
By GREGORY D. KESICH
The Portland (ME) Press Herald


The Sept. 11 commission reviewed more than 2.5 million pages of
documents, interviewed hundreds of officials and interrogated captured
terrorists. But one question on the minds of Mainers remains unanswered:

Why did Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz al Omari, two of the 19 hijackers who
crashed airliners in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, start their
trip in Portland?

The commission's final report, released Thursday, cannot say.

"No physical, documentary or analytical evidence provides a convincing
explanation of why Atta and al Omari drove to Portland, Maine, from
Boston on the morning of Sept. 10, only to return to Logan on Flight
5930 on the morning of September 11," reads the first footnote in the
567-page report.

"Interrogation of detainees has produced no solid explanation for the
trip," concludes another footnote.

In the days after the attacks, reported sightings of the two men flooded
in to Portland police and the FBI. Al Omari was said to have a
girlfriend in Portland. Atta was reportedly seen at the public library,
Micucci's market and Joe's Smoke Shop. 

The hijackers were believed to have come through town on dry runs of
their terrorist plot. Countless hours of tracking down leads shed no
light on the question.

"That's the question we've been asking for three years," said Portland
transportation director Jeff Monroe. "Why Portland? Why Portland ? Why
Portland?"

Initial speculation that the hijackers chose a smaller regional airport
to avoid high security was shot down by the commission. Both men had to
be screened again in Boston, where they also passed through security
without incident. The weapons believed to have been used, short-bladed
knives, were not banned at the time under security rules in any airport.

No evidence of a Portland connection was ever found, and no record of an
earlier visit to Portland is included in the commission's tracking of
the terrorists' travels.

The hijackers may have picked Portland the way any passenger might -
convenience.

"Whatever their reason," the report concludes, "the Portland jetport was
the nearest airport to Boston with a 9/11 flight that would have arrived
at Logan in time for the passengers to transfer to American Airlines
Flight 11, which had a scheduled departure time of 7:45 a.m."

The report offers the following narrative of what happened:

Atta, believed to be the leader of the operation, was the son of an
Egyptian lawyer, a graduate of Cairo University with a degree in
architectural engineering. He was recruited into an al-Qaida cell when
he was a student in Hamburg, Germany, and came to Florida in the summer
of 2000, where he attended flight school. He is believed to have flown
Flight 11 into the World Trade Center's North Tower.

Al Omari, referred to in some accounts as Alomari, was one of the
"muscle hijackers" brought into the plot to overpower flight crews and
passengers. He came from a poor region of Saudi Arabia on the Yemen
border, and studied with a radical cleric. He was married and had a
daughter.

Atta met al Omari and the other muscle hijackers at Florida airports in
the spring of 2001. They usually traveled in pairs on tourist visas.
Atta found apartments for them and supplied them with cash wired from
abroad.

In the last days before the attack, four groups of terrorists moved from
Florida to the cities where the target flights were scheduled, settling
in hotels near Washington, Newark, N.J., and Boston. The exception was
Atta and al Omari, who rented a car in the Boston area and drove to
Portland on Monday, Sept. 10.

"The two spent their last night pursuing ordinary activities," the
report said. "Making ATM withdrawals, eating pizza, and shopping at a
convenience store. Their three fellow hijackers for Flight 11 stayed
together in a hotel in Newton, Mass."

The morning of Sept. 11, Atta and al Omari checked in at the jetport for
the 6 a.m. flight to Boston. An FAA official said that Atta "reacted
negatively" when informed that he would have to check in again in
Boston, but he successfully passed through security screening.

Atta was chosen at random by a computerized prescreening program. Under
rules then in place, the only consequence was that Atta's bag was kept
off the plane until it was confirmed that he had boarded. "This did not
hinder Atta's plans," the report said.

In Boston, Atta, al Omari and three other hijackers passed through
security and boarded Flight 11.

Law enforcement officials have speculated that Atta and al Omari
detoured from Boston as a way to break up the group of hijackers who
arrived in Boston that morning. In addition to Flight 11, United
Airlines Flight 175 was also hijacked from Logan Airport by a crew of
five men that morning.

"The best hypothesis is that they were going through Boston, and they
didn't want to all show up all at once," said Monroe.

If true, that would match a move Atta made once before. When the Hamburg
cell moved to the United States in 2000, the report notes that Atta
traveled to Prague, Czech Republic, and then flew to Newark.

"Atta did not meet with anyone in Prague," the report concluded. "He
simply believed it would contribute to operational security."

Attached Photo:

A surveillance tape taken on Sept. 11, 2001, at Portland International
Jetport shows Mohamed Atta, right, and Abdulaziz al Omari preparing to
board a commuter flight to Boston.

040723attatape.jpg