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Attack on America Story index Arrested Algerian pilot Lotfi Raissi is escorted by police Friday outside a London court. Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Saturday, September 29, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Algerian accused in Britain of training hijackers

Prosecutor confirms pilot visited LV in June

REVIEW-JOURNAL WIRE SERVICES

LONDON -- U.S. authorities began extradition proceedings in a London court Friday against a British-based Algerian pilot suspected of being the flight instructor for four of the 19 hijackers who attacked U.S. landmarks Sept. 11.

Investigators consider the arrest a breakthrough in the search for living co-conspirators to the New York and Pentagon attacks.

"We believe he is by far the biggest find we have had so far. He is of crucial importance to us," an FBI source told the Times of London.

Lotfi Raissi, 27, the first of dozens of suspects arrested across Europe to be officially linked to the U.S. hijackings, was ordered held without bail after a British prosecutor told the court that Raissi may have helped the hijackers acquire their piloting skills.

"What we say is that he was in fact a lead instructor for four of the pilots responsible for the hijackings," said the prosecutor, Arvinda Sambir. "He was in the background to facilitate training of these pilots. His job was to ensure the pilots were capable and trained."

Sambir said Raissi's mission related to American Airlines Flight 77, the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. It was unclear whether he was suspected of training hijackers on other jets.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Sambir said Raissi made several trips to the United States over the summer and made contact with some of the hijackers in Las Vegas. Other newspapers reported the prosecutor said Raissi met with one hijacker in Las Vegas.

The Review-Journal on Friday reported that authorities have confirmed that five of the 19 hijackers made trips to Las Vegas between May and August. Authorities believe four of these hijackers were at the controls when the four hijacked planes crashed and killed thousands.

Sambir confirmed that Raissi visited Las Vegas in June, and said the FBI has surveillance videotape of him traveling with one of the hijackers.

"On June 23, he visited Las Vegas with his wife, then flew to Arizona with the Pentagon pilot. We say he was there to ensure that the pilots were capable and trained for this purpose," Sambir said, according to the Daily Telegraph of London.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Sambir identified 29-year-old Hani Hanjour as the hijacker with whom Raissi flew from Las Vegas to Arizona.

U.S. officials believe Hanjour flew the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. Both Hanjour and Raissi were members of the flight simulator club of the Sawyer School of Aviation in Phoenix.

Former employees at the Sawyer School told The Associated Press they remember Raissi using its flight simulator as recently as 1999 to instruct others, including one of the hijacking suspects.

Sylvia Stinson, Sawyer's former chief flight instructor, said Raissi usually arrived with a group around 11 p.m., when fewer people were around and more time was available on the simulator.

Wes Fults, who had been the simulator manager, said he recognized Raissi's name and identified him from an Associated Press photo from London.

He said Raissi would bring as many as five other people with him, including Ziad Jarrah, whom the FBI identified as one of the suspected hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania. Fults identified Jarrah from photos released by the FBI.

Raissi, who was detained Sept. 21 after the FBI reportedly traced him from records of phone calls made by the suspected hijackers, attended the same flying schools as four of the hijackers and also supervised their training, Sambir told the court. He lived in a Phoenix apartment complex as late as September 2000.

Raissi's attorney, Richard Egan, said his client was not involved in the hijackings. "He adamantly denies any involvement in the recent appalling tragedies," he said.

Raissi did not speak except to confirm his name.

Sambir did not name the four hijackers linked to Raissi.

Those identified as being in the Las Vegas area on trips between May and August were Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi, Nawaf Alhazmi, Jarrah and Hanjour.

Daron Borst, a spokesman for the Las Vegas office of the FBI, said local media coverage of the suspected hijackers' presence in Las Vegas led to hundreds of tips pouring into the local FBI office on Friday.

He said he could not discuss possible motives for Raissi's Las Vegas trip. "We were aware of him, but we're not going to comment on it," he said.

Authorities have confirmed that Atta visited Las Vegas twice this summer.

Citing an unidentified source, the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reported in today's edition that Atta had a video camera in his possession when he visited Las Vegas in late June and early July.

The report did not specify the reason Atta traveled with the 8 mm video camera that was rented at Select Photo in Delray Beach, Fla.

Authorities have offered no explanation for why five of the hijackers chose to visit Las Vegas in the months prior to the attack.

The Times of London reported that under Britain's complicated extradition laws, it could take several years to successfully remove Raissi to the United States.

The newspaper cast Raissi's extradition fight as a major test of the British government's pledge to battle international terrorism. The newspaper also reported that emergency laws may be introduced within the next two weeks that could cover Raissi's case.

In a break with legal tradition, the British government is considering whether to apply the laws to existing cases. That would mean that Raissi would be sent to America as soon as the new laws had gone through Parliament.

Formal charges have not been filed against Raissi, who will return to court Friday.

His extradition is being sought on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by the U.S. attorney in Phoenix, accusing him of falsifying FAA forms, one of which he used to obtain a pilot's medical certificate.

The arrest warrant alleges that Raissi made false claims in Arizona on June 19 when he did not acknowledge undergoing knee surgery or a 1993 criminal conviction for theft in Britain, according to an affidavit filed by a Phoenix FBI agent.

Sambir promised the court in London that the FBI would present evidence that Raissi was more deeply involved in a conspiracy.

"We are looking at far more serious charges," she said. "It is no secret that conspiracy to murder is being looked at."

An experienced pilot, Raissi studied at several Arizona flying schools that were also attended by four hijackers between 1997 and 2000, Sambir said. According to pilot certification records, he was qualified as a flight instructor.

When police raided Raissi's apartment in suburban London, they confiscated his pilot's logbook. Pages dating between March 2000 and June of this year were missing, Sambir said.

Raissi is one of dozens of people arrested across Europe in the wake of the hijackings, but until now none has been linked directly to the terrorist attacks. "The hope is that he will be able to tell us who planned what and when," one senior U.S. official told the Washington Post.