FBI middle management seemingly defiant in refusing
to order tests on Atta's car! Meanwhile, conveying the image of a bogged down investigation, Director Mueller is now asking the press for leads!?<lol> What a circus!!
Congress is on the verge of yet ANOTHER probe into the seemingly endless parade of botched investigations, screwups, malfeasance and incompetence that seems to have become entrenched in the FBI hierarchy during the past 10 years.
Isopatch
"Hijacker's 'White Powder' Car Still Untested
by the FBI (Saturday Nov. 3, 2001; 1:00 p.m. EST)
Nearly a week after it was revealed in published
reports that a suspicious spot of white powder had
been discovered in the trunk of the car rented by
Twin Tower terrorist Mohamed Atta, the FBI has
made no effort to test the vehicle for anthrax,
NewsMax.com has learned.
"They told me it's been five weeks now and we're
still healthy so the cars must be OK," said
Bradley Warrick, owner of Warrick Rent-a-Car in
Pompano Beach, Fl, in an exclusive interview with
NewsMax.
Atta and fellow hijacker Marwan Al-Shehhi returned
their vehicles to Warrick's agency just two days
before slamming commercial airliners into the
World Trade Center.
"That's been the position of the FBI," the agency
owner said. "They've offered a couple different
stories. The first one was they thought there was
no need to check these properties. Then the other
one was that we've had these two cars in our
building, circulated by the same air conditioner.
We walk by them all the time..... It's been five
weeks now and we're still healthy so they must be
OK."
Atta's 1995 white Ford Escort and the 1996 blue
Chevrolet Corsica rented by Al-Shehhi were
returned to Warrick on Sept. 26, after being in
FBI custody for the previous two weeks. But the
Pompano Beach car renter said he didn't notice the
Escort's suspicious powder until a week ago, when
an ABC News team stopped by and inquired about the
hijackers' cars.
"(ABC) went over and under and all through them
and one of the things they said is, 'Can we take a
look in the trunk?' I said, sure.
"So we open the trunk of the first car and there
was nothing there. We opened the trunk of the
second car and we all jumped back because in the
corner of the trunk was some white powder.
"Up to that point I'd never opened the trunks of
the cars," Warrick told NewsMax. "There was no
reason to."
The FBI expressed surprise at the discovery of the
white powder when it was first reported earlier
this week. "We were not called out on that," the
bureau's Miami spokeswoman Judy Orihuela told the
Miami Herald on Monday. "I find that hard to
believe."
Orihuela was apparently unaware that ABC News had
broadcast video footage of the white powder
discovered in Atta's car trunk the day before.
Mr. Warrick said that even though the FBI placed
no restrictions on what he could do with the
hijackers' vehicles, he has taken both cars out of
circulation as a precaution.
"Neither of the cars has been rented and I have no
plans to rent them. The powder is still in the
trunk. Nothing's been touched," he told NewsMax.
"They're stored in our shop, indoors."
Aside from the white powder, Atta apparently left
his car in good condition. "He didn't get it dirty
or trash it," Warrick said.
In what may be an indication that the FBI failed
to check Atta's vehicle even for fingerprints,
Warrick told NewsMax that there was a difference
in the cars when the FBI returned them.
"The blue Corsica had some biohazard stickers on
it because of some chemicals they used in
processing for fingerprints and whatever," Warrick
revealed. Atta's Escort had no such warning
stickers, he said.
FBI spokeswoman Orihuela's voice mailbox was full
on Saturday, making it impossible even to leave a
request for clarification on the discrepancy.
On Friday, FBI Director Robert Mueller seemed
unaware of that his investigators had failed to
check out the white powder in Atta's car,
announcing that the bureau was baffled by the
anthrax attacks because of the dearth of clues in
the case.
"If you know that somebody is doing different
things with anthrax than they should be and it's
somewhat suspicious, we're asking you to let us
know," he told reporters in Washington." |
