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America Strikes Back Story Index "He was not a very nice person, cold and abrupt." -- Las Vegas woman who says she spoke with terrorist Nawaf Alhazmi (above) at a Days Inn in August.

Friday, October 26, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Ex-hotel worker says she conversed with hijacker

A woman has told the FBI she is certain she conversed with suicide hijacker Nawaf Alhazmi at a Days Inn in Las Vegas in August.

The witness, who gave a statement to agents with the FBI's Las Vegas office in late September, is a former employee of the Days Inn at 4155 Koval Lane, near East Flamingo Road. She was located by the Review-Journal Thursday morning and agreed to speak on the condition that her name be withheld.

She said she told the FBI that she had a single encounter with Alhazmi during the first two weeks of August in the lobby of the Days Inn.

She tried to make small talk, and Alhazmi said he was briefly staying in Las Vegas on "important business" and would soon be traveling to Los Angeles.

"He was not a very nice person, cold and abrupt," she said. "He appeared to be waiting for someone."

FBI spokesman Daron Borst declined to comment on the woman's statement or whether the FBI views it as a credible sighting. The woman said the FBI did not tell her whether her account could be independently confirmed.

However, authorities previously have said Alhazmi was one of five hijackers who visited Las Vegas this summer, and that he departed on Aug. 14. Two of the hijackers, Mohamed Atta and Hani Hanjour, left town on the same date.

The woman said Alhazmi, a native of Saudi Arabia, told her he was taking a trip to Los Angeles. She said he asked for a list of Days Inn properties located in that area, including the city of Whittier. She provided him the list, but he would not let her make a reservation and did not give her his name.

Calls to a majority of the Days Inn outlets in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles on Thursday failed to unearth any registration records for Alhazmi.

Other than the date he departed, authorities have revealed nothing about Alhazmi's visit to Las Vegas. No details of his stay have previously been reported.

The witness said she could not say if Alhazmi was an actual guest at the Days Inn on Koval. His name did not appear in registration records there.

The Review-Journal has confirmed the FBI visited the property as part of its massive investigation into the presence of the five hijackers in this city.

The witness said she called the FBI immediately after recognizing Alhazmi's picture on television in late September. "God, I know that guy," she said of her reaction the moment she saw Alhazmi's picture on television.

On Thursday morning, when shown all 19 photos of the Sept. 11 hijackers, she immediately pointed to Alhazmi's picture and said there was no doubt he was the man she encountered. She said there was no mistaking the man's eyes, and that she picked out Alhazmi's photo when interviewed by the FBI as well.

The five terrorists who visited Las Vegas included the four hijackers who flew the planes that crashed in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

Authorities say Alhazmi was aboard the plane that Hanjour crashed into the Pentagon. Atta, considered a central figure in the terrorist plot, flew the first plane that struck the World Trade Center. Marwan Al-Shehhi flew the second plane that struck the trade center. Ziad Jarrah was at the controls of the plane that crashed into a Pennsylvania field.

The five men visited Las Vegas at various times between May and August, with Atta traveling here on two occasions.

Witnesses have placed the terrorists at a variety of locations in Las Vegas, including a Starbucks on East Flamingo and a Maryland Parkway business that provides access to personal computers. The Days Inn where the woman worked is also located in southeast Las Vegas.

Authorities have repeatedly said they don't know why the hijackers came to Las Vegas and that they have no information to indicate Las Vegas is a potential target of terrorism.

The former Days Inn employee said she often tried to make small talk with customers, and that she tried to do so with Alhazmi. He showed little interest in talking, responding to her queries with the briefest of answers.

"I asked him if he was here for business or pleasure," she said. "He said 'important business.' "

Alhazmi would occasionally check a board on which information about airline flights was posted.

"He just acted like someone who was waiting for someone," she said.

She said she asked Alhazmi where he was from. "Florida," he replied.

Several of the terrorists resided in Florida. But Alhazmi was among a group of hijackers with extensive ties to San Diego.

The only report linking Alhazmi to Florida surfaced earlier this week in a bizarre Associated Press story out of Wyoming. This account, which cited the Cody Enterprise newspaper as its source, reported that police had placed Alhazmi in Cody in the fall of 1999.

Witnesses said Alhazmi was one of two men who made a truck delivery from Canada to Cody High School. Alhazmi reeked of body odor and perfume and was dressed in silky clothing, pointed leather shoes and many gold chains and jewelry.

The two men, who spoke poor English, asked for directions to Florida, police said.

Authorities have placed Alhazmi, Hanjour and a third terrorist in San Diego before the attacks. Indeed, Alhazmi's name was listed in a San Diego-area telephone book.

His former neighbors in San Diego have said Atta was a regular visitor to the apartment that Alhazmi is believed to have shared with fellow terrorist Khalid Almihdhar, who also was aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.

Alhazmi and Almihdhar sought flight training at Sorbi's Flying Club in San Diego, the school's employees said.

Rick Garza, a flight instructor at Sorbi's, said their flying aptitude was poor from the start and never improved over three weeks of lessons.

"It was like Dumb and Dumber," he told the New York Times. "I mean, they were clueless. It was clear to me they weren't going to make it as pilots."