Haven't seen any discussion of this, so I thought I'd post it. Needless to say, this is very very very disturbing--because it would seem to indicate a potential interest in a biological weapon dispersement vehicle. And this is where the mainstream media come in handy: one simply can't dismiss this the way one could if it came from a less reputable source. If anybody sees any good material on this issue, it's probably worth posting.
tb@uhoh.com
Crop-Dusters Thought to Interest Suspects
By Justin Blum and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, September 24, 2001; Page A01
BELLE GLADE, Fla., Sept. 23 -- The first visit came in February, when three Middle Eastern men drove through the sugar cane fields to the single-runway Belle Glade State Municipal Airport to ask about crop-dusters.
How many gallons of fuel can the planes hold, the group's leader asked. How many gallons of chemicals? How fast are they? Are they difficult to fly?
During the next seven months, the casually dressed man returned to Belle Glade at least once, workers said, and other groups of Middle Eastern men visited many more times to quiz them about the intricacies of crop-dusters -- with emphasis on how far they can fly and how much poison they can carry. The men often had video or still cameras, taking pictures of the crop-dusters and attempting to photograph the interiors.
An airport employee has since identified the first group's leader as Egyptian Mohamed Atta, 33, who the FBI believes was at the controls when an American Airlines flight from Boston slammed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
His visits to an obscure airport in rural Florida, combined with other evidence unearthed since the terrorist attacks, have prompted the FBI and other federal agencies to issue warnings about potential chemical or biological weapons attacks from crop-dusters, which are a common sight over farmland throughout rural America.
Today, as a result of what sources called a "serious, credible threat," the Federal Aviation Administration grounded crop-dusters for the second time since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington that left more than 6,000 people missing and presumed dead.
"The theory is that they were looking into this as a backup to their main objective, or else as a whole other type of operation that could still be a concern," one U.S. government official said today. "There are certainly enough questions to elevate our concerns."
In addition to the visits by Atta and others to the Belle Glade airport, investigators discovered a manual on crop-dusters in the possession of Zacarias Moussouai, a man with alleged links to Osama bin Laden. Moussouai was detained in August in Minnesota after he sought training at a flight school.
"The intelligence community came to us and encouraged us to shut down the crop-dusters," FAA spokesman Scott Brenner said.
Investigators have also issued warnings to the trucking industry to watch for suspicious activity involving the hauling of chemicals, radioactive waste, biological agents and other hazardous materials.
The FBI "has received information on numerous terrorist threats regarding potential use of chemical, biological and/or radiological/nuclear WMD," or weapons of mass destruction, according to an alert issued last Thursday by American Trucking Associations.
The FBI last week arrested a former Boston cabdriver, Nabil Almarabh, who had financial ties to some hijackers and had recently secured a Michigan license to haul hazardous materials such as dynamite, gases and toxic and radioactive waste. Two other men arrested in Almarabh's former Detroit home had licenses to drive commercial trucks, officials said.
"We're trying to exercise an abundance of caution," one FBI official said. "We're not downplaying anything. Any time we get a suspicious report or circumstances, we are trying to ask people to be on the lookout."
James Callen, executive director of the National Agricultural Aviation Association, said the nation's 4,000 crop-dusting planes, which are also used to combat fires and mosquitoes, commonly hold 300 to 800 gallons of chemicals. Crop-duster pilots must obtain small-plane commercial licenses and training for agricultural aviation, Callen said.
Callen said the FBI and FAA have not informed the group of any specific reason for the grounding orders. He said there have been no confirmed reports of stolen planes or chemicals in recent weeks.
The Belle Glade airport, in a part of the Everglades that was drained to accommodate agriculture, is home to several crop-dusting businesses. The airport is about an hour's drive from Delray Beach, the coastal community where some of the alleged hijackers are believed to have lived.
James Lester, who loads chemicals on to the planes for a crop-dusting company, told FBI agents last week that he had seen Atta and two other Middle Eastern men come by twice since February, asking questions about crop-dusters.
Lester said that in addition to questions about fuel and chemical capacities, Atta repeatedly asked to look at the interior of the cockpit and inquired about how to start the planes. The men said they were flight students and wanted to get in the cockpit, but Lester would not let them.
"I just told the guys, 'You can't get in the airplane,' " Lester said. "They just kept standing around."
Willie Lee, general manager of South Florida Crop Care, a single-plane crop-dusting business at the airport, said groups of two or three Middle Eastern men came by nearly every weekend for six or eight weeks prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- including the weekend just prior to the assaults. He said he did not pay much attention to them and could not identify any of the men from photos of the hijackers shown to him by the FBI.
He said they described themselves as flight students, with several mentioning a South Florida flight school where investigators initially believed some of the hijackers might have trained.
"They pull in the gate there and get out and ask you all about the airplane," Lee said. "How much does it haul? How hard is it to fly? . . . They would want to get up on the wing and look at it."
Lee said a small population of people from the Middle East lives in Belle Glade, and the men's presence did not arouse his suspicion. He also said he thinks the visits involved as many as 12 to 15 people, who came in groups of two or three at a time. He said they stayed for 45 minutes to an hour per visit.
After the attacks, FBI agents visited the airport and followed up with a number of phone calls to ask if any of the Middle Eastern men had returned or if anyone had seen anything suspicious, Lee said. Beginning last Friday evening, the airport was placed under 24-hour police watch, he said.
Lee's plane -- an Air Tractor 502 -- holds 500 gallons of chemicals and 200 gallons of fuel. "That's a bomb itself right there," Lester said, pointing to the plane. "A bomb itself right there ready to explode."
Lester now questions whether he should have been more suspicious of the men.
"Maybe if we'd have thought about it," Lester said, "and put two and two together, maybe we could have stopped something from happening."
Blum reported from Belle Glade and Eggen reported from Washington. Staff writer Don Phillips contributed to this report.
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