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Wednesday, October 31, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
COLUMN: John L. Smith
International trail of quiet hijacker includes mysterious visit to Las Vegas
From Florida to New Jersey and out to Las Vegas, those who met Marwan al-Shehhi remembered him as a pleasant young man with good manners and a charming smile.
Some would recall that he looked like a computer expert, rarely made small talk, but always was sure to say thank you. At a motel in Las Vegas last summer, he was polite to housekeepers and kept mostly to himself.
At a seafood store in Wayne, N.J., al-Shehhi ordered fried fish to go and always thanked owner John Frodella, according to published reports.
"He looked like a computer expert to me," Frodella recalled. "He looked pretty intelligent."
Ever the devoted follower, al-Shehhi was the youngest of the Arab terrorists to visit Las Vegas in the weeks before 19 members of their cell embarked on a Sept. 11 suicide hijacking mission that killed approximately 6,000 people.
If the nation has learned nothing else from this waking nightmare, it is that looks can be deceiving. For all his grooming and polite demeanor, al-Shehhi was as loyal to his dark cause as his recalcitrant, fiery-eyed cousin, terrorist cell ringleader Mohamed Atta.
If Atta was a dour, scowling extremist, al-Shehhi will surely be remembered as a smiling assassin.
Atta steered American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center at 8:45 a.m. Al-Shehhi was aboard United Airlines Flight 175 when he roared into the World Trade Center at 9:05 a.m.
Even in death, al-Shehhi was a follower.
The FBI's sweeping investigation of this complex case illustrates that Atta often kept al-Shehhi near him. They roomed together in Hamburg, Germany, with fellow hijacker Ziad Jarrah and attended college. Al-Shehhi took courses at Technical University. In Hamburg, the trio met with other Islamic extremists and fomented their philosophy of Western hate.
As federal agents gather thousands of shreds of information in an attempt to weave the tapestry of this brazen act of war, it's ever more clear that the terrorists traveled first class coast-to-coast on trial runs starting in the East. They were testing their plan.
What remains unclear is why the key players added a Las Vegas leg to their West Coast flights.
Consider al-Shehhi's trip, which he apparently took alone. On the morning of May 24, sources say al-Shehhi boarded a United Airlines flight at JFK Airport and traveled first class to San Francisco. He then took a flight to Las Vegas, where he rented a car from Enterprise with the same credit card the 33-year-old Atta would use.
After spending one night at a local Travelodge, he checked out and moved to a room at the St. Louis Manor at 2000 Paradise Road. Management of the motel declined to comment Tuesday and referred inquiries to executives with Extended StayAmerica Inc., which owns the property. An attempt Tuesday to reach company executive J.P. Barcena was unsuccessful.
One source familiar with al-Shehhi's Las Vegas visit said maids at the motel clearly recalled his face and manners when questioned by FBI agents. One housekeeper remembered al-Shehhi was once visited by another man of Middle Eastern descent.
On May 27, the quiet young man checked out of his room and returned his rental car. Then he did something that some might find bewildering. Instead of booking a flight from Las Vegas to New York, he flew back to San Francisco and returned first class back to JFK.
Before beginning flying lessons at Huffman Aviation in Venice, Fla., young al-Shehhi and Atta tried to receive instruction at Airman Flight School in Norman, Okla., according to the St. Petersburg Times. Al-Shehhi finally started taking lessons in July.
Earlier this year, al-Shehhi used a Visa card to purchase flight training videos, which he shipped to Isam Mansour in the Arab Emirates, Newsweek recently reported. Mansour later wire transferred $19,500 from a bank account in Dubai to a Florida account in al-Shehhi's name in July only weeks after his Las Vegas trip.
By then, Marwan al-Shehhi was taking flying lessons in Florida and preparing to follow Atta and the rest into unspeakable infamy.
John L. Smith's column appears Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. E-mail him at Smith@lvrj.com or call him at 383-0295.
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