by nomo » Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:39 pm
<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Oops! You mean Moussaoui was not it?<br></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><!--EZCODE HR START--><hr /><!--EZCODE HR END--><br>Web site: Al Qaeda IDs 20th 9/11 hijacker<br>Saudi militant named in statement<br><br>Tuesday, June 13, 2006; Posted: 2:15 p.m. EDT (18:15 GMT)<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/13/911.hijacker/index.html">www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/13...index.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>(CNN) -- Al Qaeda identified a Saudi militant, who was killed in 2004, as the 20th hijacker in the September 11, 2001, attack on the United States, according to a statement published Tuesday on an Islamist Web site.<br><br>"<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Turki bin Fheid al-Muteiri</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> -- Fawaz al-Nashmi -- may God accept him as a martyr (was) the one chosen by Sheikh Osama bin Laden to be the martyrdom-seeker number 20 in the raid on September 11, 2001," the statement said.<br><br>Al-Muteiri was not able to join the other hijackers in time for those attacks, the date of which had been pushed forward, the group said without elaborating.<br><br>"The (Sept. 11) operation was brought forward for some circumstances that brother Mohamed Atta explained to the general leadership, through brother Ramzi Binalshibh, God free him," the statement added.<br><br>Binalshibh, suspected of coordinating the 9/11 attacks, was arrested in 2002 in Karachi, Pakistan. He was once a roommate with Atta, the leader of the September attacks and the hijacker of American Airlines Flight 11 which crashed into the World Trade Center's north tower.<br><br>In June 2004, Al-Muteiri was one of four militants killed by Saudi forces during a raid on a residential compound for foreign companies in the oil city of Khobar. The attack killed 22 civilians, including several Westerners.<br><br>In its statement, Al Qaeda said it would publish a video of that attack and described the militants as "martyrs." The group has used the Web site for posting statements in the past.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The group's Internet posting also absolved Zacarias Moussaoui of any role in the attacks, according to The Associated Press.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> "Brother Zacarias Moussaoui had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks, as Sheik Abi Abdullah (bin Laden) mentioned in his last tape," the group's statement said, referring to a May 24 audiotape, the AP reported.<br><br>Another Saudi suspected<br><br>U.S. investigators have said they believe <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Mohammed al-Qahtani</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, another Saudi, was tapped by al Qaeda to be the 20th hijacker.<br><br>According to Time magazine, Atta was waiting for al-Qahtani outside the airport in Orlando, Florida, in August 2001, when an immigration officer detained al-Qahtani and denied him entry to the United States.<br><br>Al-Qahtani was captured in Afghanistan four months later and is being held at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.<br><br>Nineteen men commandeered four commercial airliners on September 11, 2001, piloting two into the World Trade Towers and one into the Pentagon. A fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed in a Pennsylvania field.<br><br>With the exception of that flight, each plane was hijacked by five men.<br><br>Some officials have speculated that al-Qahtani may have been the missing hijacker on Flight 93. Initially, Moussaoui was believed to have had that role, one which he had claimed.<br><br>Moussaoui pleaded guilty last year to terrorism conspiracy and is the only person convicted in the United States for having a role in the September 11, 2001 attacks.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Last month, Moussaoui recanted the guilty plea, calling it a "complete fabrication," and explained that "solitary confinement made me hostile toward everyone, and I began taking extreme positions to fight the system." </strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/05/08/moussaoui.ap/index.html/">(Full story)</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>But the judge in the case said Moussaoui's request to set aside his guilty plea was "too late" under federal rules and must be rejected.<br><br>He was spared the death penalty but sentenced to six life sentences, to run as two consecutive life terms, in the federal supermax prison at Florence, Colorado.<br><br>Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks. <p></p><i></i>