the two ziad jarrahs - aldeilis.netaldeilis.net/fake/1010.pdf · dec. 2001 part 5: jan. 2002 -...

Ziad Samir Jarrah [CNN, 9/18/01]

THE TWO ZIAD JARRAHS

Ziad Jarrah was in the two different places at the same time on more than oneoccasion

By Paul ThompsonAugust 24, 2002, updated September 9, 2002

Other Sections of the Timeline:

The Complete Timelineparts 1 and 2 (excludingDay of 9/11)The Abridged Timeline (agood place to start)Introduction and credits,help needed, and linksThe latest update

ArticlesThe Two Ziad JarrahsSept. 11's Smoking Gun: The ManyFaces of Saeed SheikhAlhazmi & Almihdhar: The HijackersWho Should Have Been CaughtThey Tried to Warn UsIs There More to the Capture of KhalidShaikh Mohammed Than Meets the Eye?An Interesting Day: George Bush Jr. on9/11The Failure to Defend the Skies on 9/11

Summaries9/11 Paymaster Saeed Sheikh9/11 Mastermind Khalid ShaikhMohammedISI Director Mahmood AhmedNabil al-MarabhWould Be Hijacker Zacarias MoussaouiHijackers Nawaf Alhazmi and KhalidAlmihdharEscape from AfghanistanForeign Intelligence WarningsRandy Glass

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SubdivisionsPart 1: 1979 -2000Part 2: Jan. 2001- 9/11Part 3: Day of9/11Part 4: 9/11 -Dec. 2001Part 5: Jan. 2002- present

Day of9/11Flight 11Flight175Flight 77Flight 93Bush on9/11

Ziad Jarrah is one of the best known of the 19 9/11 hijackers.What most people don't know, however, is that there wereactually two Ziad Jarrahs: the one raised in Lebanon and whosepicture has been widely circulated by the FBI, and the one whoactually flew on Flight 93. The evidence of two is undeniable,and amazingly, we even have pictures of the second Jarrah.

The Other Ziad Jarrah

In 1995, a person named Ziad Jarrah rented an apartment in athree-family house on East Third Street in Brooklyn, New York.[Among the Heroes by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 90] Landlordsthere identified his photograph as being the same as that of the9/11 hijacker. A Brooklyn apartment lease from March 1995until February 1996 bears Ziad Jarrah's name. [Boston Globe,

THE TWO ZIAD JARRAHS http://s3.amazonaws.com/911timeline/main/essayjarrah.html

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Jarrah was studying in this Beirut schoolat the same time the FBI has him living in

New York City. [CBC, 10/10/01]

Jarrah's New York City lease. Did the other Jarrah spell his name withan 'i' at the end? Curious how this photo cuts off before the end

of his name. [News of the World, 9/16/01]

9/25/01] "Another man named Ihassan Jarrah lived with Ziad,drove a livery cab and paid the eight-hundred-dollar monthlyrent. The men were quiet, well-mannered, said hello andgood-bye. Ziad Jarrah carried a camera and told his landlordsthat he was a photographer. He would disappear for a fewdays on occasion, then reappear. Sometimes a woman whoappeared to be a prostitute arrived with one of the men. 'Meand my brother used to crack jokes that they were terrorists,'said Jason Matos, a construction worker who lived in abasement there, and whose mother owned the house."[Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 90]

The only problem with the above is that the real Ziad Jarrah, twenty years old at the time, wasactually still in his home country of Lebanon. He was studying in a Catholic school in Beirut, andwas in frequent contact with the rest of his family. His parents drove him home to be with thefamily nearly every weekend, and they were in frequent contact by telephone as well. [LosAngeles Times, 10/23/01] Not until April 1996 did he leave Lebanon for the first time, to studyin Germany. [Boston Globe, 9/25/01] His family believes that the New York lease proves thatthere were two Jarrahs. [CNN, 9/18/01]

But this is not the onlyincontrovertible proof of this second,almost identical looking Ziad Jarrah.

On January 30, 2001, another manwhose name was also Ziad Jarrah,was questioned for several hours atthe Dubai International Airport, inthe United Arab Emirates. This wasdone at the request of the CIA, for"suspected involvement in terroristactivities." The CIA notified localofficials that he would be arrivingfrom Pakistan on his way back to Europe, and they wanted to know where he had been inAfghanistan and how long he had been there. [CNN, 8/1/02] During the questioning, the man"divulged that he had spent the previous 'two months and five days' in Pakistan andAfghanistan -- the only known acknowledgment of an Afghan visit by any of the hijackers --and that he was returning to Florida..." [Chicago Tribune, 12/13/01] It was later reported that"investigators have confirmed that Jarrah had spent at least three weeks in January 2001 at anal-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan." [CNN, 8/1/02] US officials were informed of the resultsof the interrogation before Jarrah left the airport. "UAE and European intelligence sources toldCNN that the questioning of Jarrah fits a pattern of a CIA operation begun in 1999 to tracksuspected al-Qaeda operatives who were traveling through the United Arab Emirates." He wasthen permitted to leave, eventually going to the US. This story was confirmed by numerousUAE, US and European officials. No one has denied that he passed through Dubai on this date,but the CIA has not admitted to ever having ordered his questioning. [CNN, 8/1/02]

The only problem with this story is that the real Jarrah was somewhere else at the time. TheFlorida Flight Training Center, the flight school where Jarrah had been studying for the previoussix months, said he was in school there until January 15. His family claimed he arrived inLebanon to visit on January 26, five days before he supposedly passed through Dubai. Hisfather had just undergone open-heart surgery, and Jarrah visited him every day in the hospital,for over a week. Pointing out this incident, his uncle Jamal Jarrah asked, "How could he be intwo places at one time?" Furthermore, the family claims the longest Jarrah has ever gone


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The original FBI photo of Ziad Jarrah.

The passport photo of "Ziad Jarrah"found in the wreckage of Flight 93.

without phoning them is ten days, back in 1997. [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002,p. 101-102] How could he have maintained such contact in Afghanistan, the second poorestcountry on Earth, with virtually no communication network?

These two examples are just the most glaring clues of manythat someone was posing as Ziad Jarrah for years. The story ofJarrah in New York in 1995 is truly amazing, because thatwould have happened presumably before the 9/11 plot waseven conceived, and before Mohamed Atta or most of theother 9/11 terrorists even joined al-Qaeda. Additionally, it wasbefore Jarrah had moved to Germany so he couldn't possiblyhave had come into contact with any al-Qaeda operatives yet.Yet, not only is there another Ziad Jarrah, but two lookedsimilar enough for people in Brooklyn to confuse the two.

Incredibly, at least one photo exists that shows how similarthe two Ziad Jarrahs looked. The FBI says they recovered asemi-burnt passport photo of Jarrah in the wreckage of Flight93, in the Pennsylvania countryside. But is it really Jarrah?Compare the shape of their heads. The head of the

Lebanon-born Jarrah has a much squarer top and is more elongated, while that of the otherJarrah is a bit more rounded. Still, it's easy to see how they could be confused for each other.

How can two Jarrahs be explained, and what does it mean?

A Pattern of Deception and Stolen Identities

Jarrah may not be the only 9/11 hijacker to have a secretdoppelganger, and certainly there are problems with theidentities of other hijackers. The evidence is often very clearthat the identities of innocents were stolen by the hijackers. Tomention some of the more obvious cases:

- Ahmed Alnami is still alive and working as an administrativesupervisor with Saudi Arabian Airlines, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.[Los Angeles Times, 9/21/01] He had never lost his passportand found it "very worrying" that his identity appeared to havebeen stolen. [Telegraph, 9/23/01]- Saeed Alghamdi is alive and learning how to fly airplanes inTunisia. [Los Angeles Times, 9/21/01, BBC, 9/23/01] TheTelegraph notes, "The FBI had published his personal details but with a photograph ofsomebody else, presumably a hijacker who had 'stolen' his identity. CNN, however, showed apicture of the real Mr. Alghamdi." [Telegraph, 9/23/01]- Salem Alhazmi is alive and working at a petrochemical plant in Yanbou, Saudi Arabia. [LosAngeles Times, 9/21/01, Telegraph, 9/23/01] He says his passport was stolen by a pickpocketin Cairo three years ago. [Guardian, 9/21/01]- Waleed Alshehri is alive and a pilot with Saudi Airlines, studying in Morocco. [Los AngelesTimes, 9/21/01, AP, 9/22/01] He acknowledges that he attended flight training school atDayton Beach in the United States. [BBC, 9/23/01] He also says FBI photos of the terrorist areof him. [Daily Trust, 9/24/01]- Abdulaziz Alomari is alive and working as a pilot for Saudi Arabian Airlines. [New York Times,9/16/01, Independent, 9/17/01, BBC, 9/23/01] He claims that his passport was stolen when hewas living in Denver in 1995. [Los Angeles Times, 9/21/01] "They gave my name and my dateof birth, but I am not a suicide bomber. I am here. I am alive." [Telegraph, 9/23/01]


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Three different pictures of Khalid Almihdhar. Which one does not belong?

How can all of these pictures be of Majed Moqed?

- The BBC says, "There aresuggestions that anothersuspect, Khalid Almihdhar,may also be alive." [BBC,9/23/01] The Guardian sayshe is believed to be alive, butinvestigators are looking intothree possibilities. Either hisname was stolen for ahijacker alias, or he allowedhis name to be used so thatUS officials would think hedied, or he died in the crash. [Guardian, 9/21/01] Almihdhar is wanted for other terrorist acts,so it is not surprising that he is still hard to reach. Three pictures of Almihdhar have beenreleased, two of one person and one of another (see photos on the right). [FBI, 2/12/02,Boston Globe, 9/27/01]- No one claims that Hamza Alghamdi is still alive, but his family says the FBI photo "has noresemblance to him at all." [Washington Post, 9/25/01]- There are three official pictures of Majed Moqed - one of them doesn't look at all like the othertwo (see the photos on the left, below). [FBI, 2/12/02, Boston Globe, 9/27/01]- There are two official pictures of Ahmed Alhaznawi - they're of different people (see the twopictures near the bottom of this article).

On September 27, 2001,after all of these storiescame out in the media, FBIDirector Robert Mueller stillcould only state, "We arefairly certain of a number ofthem." [Sun Sentinel,9/28/01] But since then thelist of hijackers has notchanged. On November 2,2001, Mueller stated, "Weat this point definitely knowthe 19 hijackers who were

responsible,'' and claimed that they were sticking with the names and photos released in lateSeptember. [AP, 11/03/02] Yet in a number of cases, such as Ahmed Alnami and WaleedAlshehri, all the released pictures are clearly wrong!

It is clear that many - and perhaps all - of the hijackers were using stolen identities. This is notso surprising. "The primer that Osama bin Laden's organization gave to would-be terroristsincluded rules for an undercover member: Don't reveal your true name." [Miami Herald,9/22/01] Yet over and over we hear of the 9/11 hijackers using their real names for everything,even buying their plane tickets in their supposed real names. "In the end, they left a curiouslyobvious trail -- from martial arts manuals, maps, a Koran, Internet and credit card fingerprints.Maybe they were sloppy, maybe they didn't care, maybe it was a gesture of contempt of aculture they considered weak and corrupt." [Miami Herald, 9/22/01] Why not consider thatmaybe it was done on purpose? The surprising thing is not that they used stolen identities: thesurprise is that the FBI continues to believe in the false trail of evidence and the false identities.

The Demonization of Jarrah

Because the FBI refuses to admit the possibility that Jarrah's identity may have been wrong,


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Another Lee Harvey Oswald? [CBC,10/10/01]

the real, Lebanese-born Jarrah has already been convicted in the court of public opinion.Everything the mainstream media writes about him assumes that he is guilty and tries toretroactively explain how he did what he did. He needs to be turned into a monster, becausepresumably only a monster could commit such a horrible act. Take for instance this descriptionby New York Times reporter Jere Longman:

"If there was any retrospect giveaway in Jarrah's face, it wasin his halted smile, neither a smirk nor a grin of graciousnessor delight, but a resolve on unforeseen circumstance. Itresembled the pasty-murderer look that Lee Harvey Oswaldhad in his pursed lips of history altered." [Among the Heroes,by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 84]

Anyone can look at the picture of Jarrah here on the left, andsee that his smile resembles Lee Harvey Oswald's no morethan anyone else's. But anything that makes him look like anevil terrorist is accepted easily, and anything that conflictswith that image is only grudgingly accepted, if reported at all.Chances are many facts regarding Jarrah are as twisted as

the description of his smile, but even through this biased filter reporters have found very littleevidence to prove that Jarrah was a terrorist.

Said the Boston Globe: "Of all the dozens of mysteries still swirling around this month'sdevastating terrorist attacks, the life of alleged hijacker Jarrah has emerged as one of the moreperplexing. From Lebanon to Germany to the United States, there are few clues as to why hewould have joined a terrorist organization, much less commandeered an airplane in a suicidalmission that claimed dozens of innocent lives as well as his own." [Boston Globe, 9/25/01]

A report in the Los Angeles Times contended, "Little, if anything, is known about the personallives of most of the suspects. Of the 19, only alleged organizer Mohamed Atta and Jarrah leftbehind a long trail of acquaintances. But family and friends say the Ziad Jarrah they knewexhibited none of the smoldering political resentments or cultural conservatism of Atta. Instead,they recall Jarrah as quiet, pampered, a little lazy and madly in love. How, they ask, do youconvert a happy, intelligent young man with little religious or political conviction into a suicidalfoot soldier in a holy war? With no answers, they are left to speculate that he was brainwashedor coerced." [Los Angeles Times, 10/23/01]

Convicted by the FBI

One way to explain the Jarrah puzzle is to simply make false claims and invent evidence againsthim. Authorities originally publicly claimed that Jarrah attended the same school in Hamburg asMohamed Atta, Marwan Alshehhi and other known terrorists. Only after Jarrah's family provideddocumentation showing that Jarrah had attended a different technical school, a claim confirmedby the school itself, did the authorities back down from their assertion. [CNN, 9/18/01] OnOctober 23, 2001, Ashcroft claimed that Jarrah lived in the same apartment as Mohamed Attaand Marwan Alshehhi. [CNN, 10/25/01] On the same day, the Los Angeles Times showed thatto be a lie: "Federal authorities in Germany have withdrawn assertions that Jarrah at one timelived at or frequented the Hamburg apartment rented by the three. 'He never lived with theothers. He had three different apartments during his time in Hamburg, but none in commonwith any of the other suspects,' a senior German official told The Times. 'The only informationwe have connecting the three Hamburg suspects is the FBI's assertion that there is aconnection... We have come across absolutely no evidence of our own.'" [Los Angeles Times,10/23/01] Nonetheless, such claims continue to be made, despite a lack of evidence. Forinstance, in May 2002, the New York Times claimed that Jarrah was a frequent visitor to the


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A school portrait of a young Jarrah,from about the time he was

supposed to be hanging out withprostitutes in New York City.

apartment where Atta, Alshehhi and others lived, without providing any evidence to back it up.[New York Times, 5/1/02]

Another technique is to move the behavior of other hijackers onto Jarrah. For instance,compare this statement of Charles Lisa, a Florida landlord of Jarrah's, reported on September15, 2001: "When they left I asked them for a forwarding address,'' Lisa said. "But Ahmed[Alhaznawi] just smiled at me and said 'I'll send you a postcard.''' [Miami Herald, 9/15/01] BySeptember 23, Jarrah now said it: "I said, 'Ziad, you might have some money coming back atyou. Where can I get a hold of you?' " Mr. Lisa recalled. "He said, 'I'll send you a postcard.'"[New York Times, 9/23/01]

In October 2001, New Yorker reporter Seymour Hersh provided a rare, inside look at the 9/11investigation: "Many of the investigators believe that some of the initial clues that wereuncovered about the terrorists' identities and preparations, such as flight manuals, were meantto be found. A former high-level intelligence official told me, 'Whatever trail was left was leftdeliberately—for the FBI to chase.'" [New Yorker, 10/1/01] Nearly a year later, it appears thoseinvestigators who questioned the hijackers' cover identities have lost out, and the FBI has fallenhook, line and sinker for their cover stories. Some evidence tying Jarrah to the other terroristsmay in fact have been falsified, as will be described below. Why the FBI would so stronglysupport the false identities of the 9/11 hijackers and let the real hijackers go free is a separateand much greater mystery that goes beyond the scope of this essay.

Upbringing in Lebanon

To fully understand the mystery of Ziad Jarrah and thetragedy of his stolen past, we need to look at the life of thereal Ziad in closer detail.

Ziad Jarrah was born on May 11, 1975 into a wealthy familyin the town of Almarj, in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon. Hewas the only son of father Samir, a local government official,and mother Nasisa, a schoolteacher. He wanted for little. "Heloved sports, particularly swimming and basketball. Headored - and was doted on by - his two sisters, Dania, now29, and Nisren, 24." [Boston Globe, 9/25/01] As a youngman he rarely attended mosque on Fridays and wasindifferent to politics. [CBC, 10/10/01] His whole family isMuslim but not particularly devout. In fact, believingeducation more important than religion, they sent their son to a series of exclusive, Christianschools. As Ziad matured, he appeared neither political nor religious. He drank alcohol and hadgirlfriends. ''No one in the family has this kind of radical belief,'' said Jamal Jarrah. [BostonGlobe, 9/25/01]

At the time, Lebanon was engaged in a decades-long civil war. But "his family insists he wasshielded from the hardships and showed no interest in politics. Jarrah attended Christianschools, graduating from a French high school, where he became fluent in French and English."[Los Angeles Times, 10/23/01] He took disabled kids camping and volunteered in an anti-drugprogram. [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 85] A British journalist reported,"Everyone I spoke to in Almarj told me that Ziad was a happy, secular youth, that he nevershowed any interest in religion and never visited the mosque for prayers, that he liked womeneven if he was at times reserved and shy." [Independent, 9/16/01]

The Move to Germany

"He was not a good student. He hid his poor grades from his parents as much as possible, and


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Jarrah and his cousin Salim. [CBC, 10/10/01]

Jarrah's girlfriend Aisel Senguen. [CBC, 10/10/01]

when he couldn't hide them any longer and he confessed,Ziad's father arranged to have him tutored in math, physicsand chemistry. Even then, Ziad flunked his high schoolfinals. Two years later he was able to graduate from apublic high school. In his teens he dreamed of becoming apilot, but that seemed out of the question; his familydecided that he should go overseas to get a solideducation." [Inside 9-11: What Really Happened, by DerSpiegel editors, 2002, p. 246-7]

Ziad Jarrah moved to Greifswald, in the former EastGermany, in April 1996. He went there with his cousinSalim, and they lived together for a year and a half. The

Los Angeles Times called the two "more like twins than cousins" and they remained in closecontact for the rest of Ziad's life. [Los Angeles Times, 10/23/01]

He needed to study German in Greifswald before he could start upon a career. "He was just alovely, kind young man," recounted Gudrun Schimpfky of Greifswald's Arndt University, Jarrah'sGerman teacher in a program that brought them together six to eight hours a day, five days aweek. [Los Angeles Times, 10/23/01]

Girlfriend Aisel Senguen

While in Greifswald, he met fellow student AiselSenguen. Soon they were dating - the beginning of afive year relationship that ended only with Jarrah'sdeath. Senguen is from a Turkish family, and isdescribed as very Western in her ways. [CBC,10/10/01] They lived together when they were in thesame town. "I used to criticize him for living with her.By our religion, this living together before marriage isnot allowed," recalled Abdullah Al-Makhadi, aclassmate of Senguen's at Greifswald. [Los AngelesTimes, 10/23/01] Needless to say, it is not common forMuslim suicidal terrorists to live with their girlfriendsout of wedlock.

Looking back, people try to find any clue that mightindicate that Jarrah had turned into a Muslim fanatic. One such clue frequently cited is thatSenguen would later complain he grew more conservative and possessive. He wanted her towear a head scarf, stop going to parties, and the like. [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman,2002, p. 89] But close friend Mahmoud Ali, who last spoke to Jarrah in July 2001, dismissednotions that this meant he had become a religious radical. "We Arab men are very jealous aboutour women, that's all," said Ali. "We try to tell them what to do, and they just ignore us." [LosAngeles Times, 10/23/01]

Ali says that, in addition to calling his family frequently, Jarrah was in touch with Senguennearly everyday. Like Senguen, he refuses to believe that Jarrah was a terrorist. "There isnothing in his character that would allow him to do this -- not from his past, not from his family,not from his country," Ali said. [Los Angeles Times, 10/23/01]

Training to Be an Engineer

In 1997 Jarrah registered at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg to studyaeronautical engineering, and aircraft construction and design. [CBC, 10/10/01] Apparently his


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Rosemarie Canel's painting of Jarrah. [CBC,10/10/01]

parents didn't want him to be a pilot, so he chose a relatedprofession. He moved in with Rosemarie Canel, an elderlyGerman lady who remembered him as a quiet andcourteous tenant who had few visitors and spent his nightsstudying or watching TV. On weekends he would leave tostay with Senguen, first in Greifswald and later in Bochum,where she moved in 1999 to study medicine. [Los AngelesTimes, 10/23/01] His landlady said of him, "He was such abright young man, totally European." [Inside 9-11: WhatReally Happened, by Der Spiegel editors, 2002, p. 191]She liked him so much, she painted a portrait of him,which he took home as a gift to his mother. [CBC,

10/10/01] Later, when she moved to another part of Hamburg, he moved with her to the newlocation.

Who Did He Know?

Jere Longman alleged, "It was in Germany that his views seemed to harden into a kernel ofhatred that would germinate in terrorism and suicidal martyrdom." [Among the Heroes, by JereLongman, 2002, p. 87] But what is the evidence for this statement? 9/11 hijackers MohamedAtta and Marwan Alshehhi were living in Hamburg at the same time, as were many otherMuslim immigrants later accused of al-Qaeda connections. The key question is, did Jarrah meetthem, and become converted to their cause somehow?

Zakariya Essabar, now believed to be an al-Qaeda terrorist with ties to Atta's cell, studied at thesame university as Jarrah, and the two worked at the same car dealership in Hamburg as aschool internship in the summer of 1998. [Washington Post, 10/23/01] The best evidence ofthat are claims of a photo that shows Jarrah at the 1999 wedding of a Said Bahaji. Bahaji was afugitive known to espouse fanatic views, and who once roomed with hijackers Atta andAlshehhi. [Los Angeles Times, 10/23/01] There supposedly is a photo where Ramzi Binalshibh,Zakariya Essabar, Bahaji, Marwan Alshehhi and Jarrah can be seen together. [Washington Post,10/23/01] Supposedly, he shows up in a video from the wedding as well. [New York Times,10/25/01] But we don't even know which Jarrah this is, or how well Jarrah knew these people.Neither the video nor the photograph has been made public. Finally, Jarrah's landlady Canelalso claims that sometimes Jarrah would spend the night with friends in Harburg, the part ofHamburg where Atta and Alshehhi lived. [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 89]

Certainly, it's likely that at some point he would have run into some al-Qaeda terrorists. Thereare about 80,000 Muslims in Hamburg, the vast majority of them Turkish. Only about five to sixpercent - 4,000 to 4,800 - are Arabic. Around 2,500 of the 80,000 are considered dangerousradicals, and only 270 of the radicals are considered Arabic or Iranian. [Boston Globe, 9/25/01,New York Times, 9/17/01] Terrorists like Essabar were studying at the same university. So itwould have been surprising if the Arabic speaking Jarrah didn't come into contact with at leastone of them.

Jarrah, the Terrorist?

But did he become one of them? German authorities believe Atta recruited him in 1999. [St.Petersburg Times, 9/27/01] Did Jarrah show any signs by then of becoming radical? Where isthe "kernel of hatred"?

Melih Demir, a fellow student at the university, was stunned at the accusation that Jarrah was aterrorist. "He was very happy all the time, making jokes. We could make jokes about him and... I can't believe that he did something like this." [Sunday Herald, 9/23/01] Classmate MichaelGotzmann, who was in a study group with Jarrah, also had a hard time believing he was one of


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the hijackers. ''He never said anything bad about America,'' he told Der Spiegel magazine. ''Tothe contrary, he loved America, and said he always planned to go and study there.'' [BostonGlobe, 9/25/01]

Gotzmann described Jarrah as devoutly Muslim but not rabid about his politics, a man whoprayed five times a day but was open in his views and wanted to continue his studies in theUnited States. However, others don't see him as even that religious. Jarrah rarely attendedFriday prayers and never prayed five times daily, said classmate Abdullah Al-Makhadi. "He wasa weak Muslim, I must say." [Los Angeles Times, 10/23/01] Even a housemate and friend inFlorida later said he never saw Jarrah pray. [Los Angeles Times, 10/23/01]

"Jarrah spoke of a debilitated Lebanon and how the Israelis had cut off the water supply to hisnative country." [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 87] These are hardly radicalpositions, and in fact it would be pretty strange for any Lebanese person not to have someviews on Lebanon's civil war and Israel's invasion of that country in the 1980s.

Jere Longman in his book conceded that other acquaintances in Germany agreed that Jarrahlacked radical political or religious views. Notwithstanding, he wrote, "This was consistent ...with the al-Qaeda training manual, which instructed its members to avoid provocative religiousor political remarks." [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 87] So, in other words, ifhe had radical views that means he was a terrorist, and if he didn't have radical views, that alsomeans he was a terrorist!

"He is not known to ever have attended the Steindamm mosque that is the alleged meetingplace of the other suspects and their purported associates from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaedanetwork." His girlfriend Senguen said she never heard him mention the name Atta or anyoneelse from the FBI's list of suspects. [Los Angeles Times, 10/23/01] His family contended thatJarrah and Senguen spoke nearly every day, and shared everything. Surely she would havenoticed a phase between a political Jarrah and extremist Jarrah just cleverly pretending to beapolitical?

Jarrah Drops Out

Jarrah was apparently having trouble with his schooling - at best he was considered a mediocrestudent. [St. Petersburg Times, 9/27/01] Salim Jarrah said he believed his cousin had decidedto go to flight school because he simply did not want to invest the time required to earn aGerman doctorate in aviation engineering, which could take up to a decade. [Los AngelesTimes, 10/23/01] His landlady believed that by the summer of 1999 he was spending most ofhis time in the German city of Bochum with his girlfriend Senguen. In September 1999, hedropped out of school after attending only one class. [CBC, 10/10/01] Other reports contendedit was in the middle of the semester. In any case, he told his friends that he was going to learnto fly in America - his dream since childhood. [Inside 9-11: What Really Happened, by DerSpiegel editors, 2002, p. 258]

What happened next is a matter of dispute. CNN reported, "Jarrah's family said he had spentsome time in Afghanistan 18 months ago." [CNN, 9/18/01] Jere Longman said, "Some familymembers suspect he was in Pakistan or Afghanistan; others vehemently disagree and won'teven admit he was ever out of touch." [Inside 9-11: What Really Happened, by Der Spiegeleditors, 2002, p. 192] Note how his family must be wrong; they can't "admit" the "truth" thatJarrah went to Afghanistan.

The official story goes further, asserting that Jarrah had disappeared for up to five weeks (recallthe family says they've never been out of touch more than 10 days). It alleges that the familywas notified by Jarrah's girlfriend that she had heard he had gone to Afghanistan. The familythen contacted friends in Peshawar on the Pakistani-Afghan border, the official story argues,


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This US student visa was issued to Jarrah on May 21, 2000. Butis it the real Jarrah, or the fake? Compare the round head with

the passport photo and other pictures of Jarrah above. [CBC, 10/10/01]

and implored them to help get him to leave. But his father and other family memberscompletely denied this story. [Independent, 9/16/01] They countered that the story was madeup out of whole cloth. Said his uncle, "The rumor [that he went to Afghanistan] as Iunderstand, sticks to Ziad, just to complete the story." [Australian Broadcasting Corp., 9/18/01]Attorney General John Ashcroft has claimed that all nineteen of the September 11 hijackers hadtrained in camps in Afghanistan [Ashcroft News Conference, 12/11/01] - so obviously thereneeds to be a story of Jarrah in Afghanistan.

Where's the Other Jarrah?

By this time another Jarrah could have been shadowing him. Perhaps he ran into some Muslimradicals in Hamburg and one of them noticed a striking similarity between both his name andface and that of the terrorist/ photographer Jarrah who lived in New York City back in 1995.Add the fact that he wanted to become a pilot. It would have been too good of an opportunityto pass up. Perhaps the names were close but not the same - the family can't understand whyhis name sometimes appears as Jarrahi, when he never spelled his name that way (his name onthe flight manifest shows up as Jarrahi, which investigators say may be a typo [Boston Globe,9/25/01]). It could be that this other Jarrah and/or others, were manipulating the real Jarrah tomake sure his actions followed a certain pattern. The fake Jarrah probably was learning to copythe real Jarrah's behavior, skills and appearance.

In 1999, the presumably fake Ziad Jarrah got a pilot's license in Hamburg - the same licensethe real Jarrah would get in Florida later. [St. Petersburg Times, 9/27/01] It's hard to see howthe real Jarrah could have gotten this license without his girlfriend or family knowing, why hewouldn't have told them, and where he would have found the time. Later, when he began flighttraining on single engine aircraft in Florida, he certainly didn't have the skills to indicate healready had a license for flying a single engine aircraft. [Boston Globe, 9/25/01] FFTC ownerArne Kruithof explained: "We had to do more to get him ready than others ... His flight skillsseemed to be a little bit out there." Even after 200 hours of flying, Kruithof could onlycharitably say, "He was a guy who needed some more." [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman,2002, p. 91] Other students at FFTC were so frightened of Jarrah's flying skills that theyrefused to be in a plane if he was at the controls. [Among the Heroes by Jere Longman, 2002,p. 92]

Some time around February 2000, helost his passport while waiting for avisa to go to the US. This was only twoor three months after Atta andAlshehhi lost their passports. [Inside9-11: What Really Happened, by DerSpiegel editors, 2002, p. 257-258]Investigators say all three were tryingto cleanse their travel documents ofvisas that might arouse suspicion. [LosAngeles Times, 10/23/01] Could it bethat someone stole his passport, aspart of a trail of evidence designed tolink him to the 9/11 attacks? Could thefake Jarrah have even used the realJarrah's missing passport to enter theUS?

Jarrah's Move to Florida


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The real Jarrah arrived in Atlanta on June 27, 2000. He was enrolled at the Florida FlightTraining Center from June 2000 to January 15, 2001 [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman,2002, p. 90-91] The fact that he studied in southern Florida, the same place where many otherterrorist pilots studied, is not actually that surprising. Most foreign students who study flying inthe US do so in southern Florida, where the cost of living is cheap and the weather and terrainare ideal to learn how to fly. Flight schools are so numerous in Florida that the state calls itselfthe "aviation state." [Los Angeles Times, 9/27/01] Many of these schools have 80% or moreforeign students, and a number of them are advertised frequently in Hamburg. Samir Jarrahexplained, "He had told me last year that he had a choice of courses – in France or in America –and it was me who told him to go to the States." [Independent, 9/16/01] Unfortunate choicefor Ziad!

We know it was the real Jarrah studying in Florida because of what others say about him. Thosewho met Jarrah at the flight school also say they can't see him as a terrorist. [Los AngelesTimes, 10/23/01] "Our entire staff does not believe that he had bad intentions," FFTC PresidentArne Kruithof told the Los Angeles Times. "Let's put it this way: Everybody interviewed here onthis guy was in shock, because he was a friend to all of us. I don't think there's anyone in thetime that he was here that could say anything negative about him; on the contrary, he wouldhelp everybody," added Kruithof, who insisted that Jarrah's demeanor was "not faked." [LosAngeles Times, 10/23/01] "Not just nice, but he had qualities you look for in a dear friend,someone you trust," Kruithof said. Jarrah always looked him in the eye and offered a firmhandshake and a friendly smile. [Among the Heroes by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 92]

Kruithof said Jarrah would have a beer or two, "but not three," and he made "seeminglybenign" jokes about how fat and lazy Americans were (again, notice the desperation to find anyevidence making him appear evil). He certainly could have been a more devout Muslim andturned down even one beer without drawing suspicion. Osama bin Laden would not let his mensmoke cigarettes, and drinking alcohol would have led to banishment from the ranks of hisal-Qaeda movement. [Independent, 9/16/01]

Jarrah roomed with three other men, including a twenty-three-year-old German flight student,Thorsten Biermann. [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 91] Biermann found him tobe "just a normal person, like anyone else." [Los Angeles Times, 10/23/01] Jarrah wouldsometimes talk to Biermann about Lebanon, speaking in German with almost no accent.[Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 92]

The other Ziad Jarrah must have also moved to Florida, and continued to shadow him. It hasbeen claimed that while living with Biermann and others in Venice, Jarrah kept anotherapartment in Venice but didn't sleep in it. [Among the Heroes by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 92]This makes no sense at all unless the other Jarrah was living in the other apartment, leaving adouble paper trail to puzzle investigators. Eyewitness accounts of him also vary. "Later, peoplewould not even agree on how tall he was, or how heavy he was, whether he stood five footeight or five foot eleven, whether he weighed one hundred seventy pounds or one hundredninety." [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 84]

Back to Lebanon

In mid-January 2001, Jarrah left the flight school, saying he was returning to Germany. [Amongthe Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 93] (Note that he's already supposed to have been inAfghanistan since late November!) He returned to Lebanon for what would be his last time withhis father, who underwent open-heart surgery. [CBC, 10/10/01]

"He looked after his dad and went to the hospital every day," recounted uncle Jamal. "He wasso normal. His personality and his life bore no relation to the kind of things that happened." Toprove the point, they released a video of Jarrah dancing at a wedding party; two stills are


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Jarrah dancing with his family in Lebanon, January2001.

More of Jarrah dancing in 2001. Does thislook like a man determined to kill

himself? [BBC, 9/24/01]

shown here (forthe entire video,look at thiswebsite). Friendsand relatives whosaw him at thiswedding stronglyagree that "theordinary personthey knew --reliable,responsible, witty,ambitious -- couldnever, never have been part of the diabolical terrorist attacks."[Sunday Herald, 9/23/01]

Again, it's hard to see a Muslim radical. Compare him to Atta, who wouldn't even listen to anyform of music except prayer chants, much less dance.

He then visited his girlfriend in Bochum, Germany in March. [Los Angeles Times, 10/23/01]

Return to Florida

When he came back to Florida in April, he moved from Venice, on the west coast, to Hollywood,on the east, near Fort Lauderdale. He stayed in a Hollywood apartment until June 22. [Amongthe Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 93] This is the same town Atta and Alshehhi lived in atthe time, but no evidence ties Jarrah to either of them in Florida. [Los Angeles Times,10/23/01] Could they have been shadowing him, using others to befriend him and influencehim?

It appears that his girlfriend may have visited him in Florida when he returned. [Los AngelesTimes, 10/23/01] That would hardly seem to be smart if he was hiding a great secret in Florida.

Martial Arts Training

Shortly after coming back to Florida, he began taking self-defense classes one mile from wherehe lived. It's not clear if this was the real Jarrah, or someone imitating him. One strange fact isthat he told his trainer that he was from Saudi Arabia. [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman,2002, p. 94] There's no conceivable reason why he would do this - both before and after this,he told his landlords and other people that he met he was from Lebanon. Could this have beena truthful slip by the other Jarrah?

On the other hand, whoever it was, the person certainly acted like the real Jarrah. BertRodriguez, Jarrah's personal trainer from May to August, told the Associated Press that Jarrahwas "the nicest guy in the world. Very humble, very soft-spoken." [AP, 9/21/01] "I liked theguy. He was very humble, very quiet … and he didn't want to be in a situation where he wouldget picked on." [CBC, 10/10/01] The sessions ran for an hour, one on one between teacher andpupil. "He did his best but he was very timid," Rodriguez said. "You could have never told thathe was in any way, shape or form a radical of any kind." [AP, 9/21/01] "You need a certain firein you to commit certain acts. My sense of him was that he was more of a follower." [SundayHerald, 9/23/01] That sounds like the real Jarrah, or at least a very good imitation. Did he havefriends at the time who talked him into doing this seemingly harmless activity which only lookssinister in retrospect? If so, why would he have said he was from Saudi Arabia?

At different gyms, some other hijackers were also weight lifting and training, especially in early


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Ahmed Alhaznawi is either the man on the right or the man onthe left. Both pictures have been released by the FBI. His

appears to be another case of stolen identity.

September. But were they actually training, thinking they would need the skills to survive in amatter of days, or were they just making a cover story? Three of them - Waleed Alshehri, WailAlshehri and Satam al-Suqami - "simply clustered around a small circuit of machines, neverasking for help and, according to a trainer, never pushing any weights. 'You know, I don'tactually remember them ever doing anything,' said the trainer, Joe Farnoly. 'They would juststand around and watch people.'" [New York Times, 9/23/01]

Rodriguez also said that he noticed that Jarrah was practicing moves he was learning on others,so he offered to give Jarrah a lesson to him and his friends at a special rate. Jarrah declined,saying, "The guys are traveling." [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 97] Whowould these guys be, if this was the real Jarrah? Are they the same as the hijackers whorefused to push weights? It's very unclear who Jarrah's friends were at this time.

Enter Ahmed Alhaznawi

On June 22, Jarrah moved to anapartment in Lauderdale-by-the-Seawhere his roommate was AhmedAlhaznawi, another of the suspected9/11 hijackers. [CBC, 10/10/01]"Alhaznawi was twenty and was fromSaudi Arabia, the son of a mosqueprayer leader. He reportedly trained inbin Laden's camps in Afghanistan andrecruited two distant cousins, Ahmedand Hamza Alghamdi." [Among theHeroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 98]

Jarrah had never previously beenassociated with Alhaznawi. [LosAngeles Times, 10/23/01] Yet suddenly, "they seemed so inseparable that their landlord initiallywondered whether they were lovers." [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 98]Alhaznawi drove Jarrah's car, and took him to appointments. [St. Petersburg Times, 9/27/01]

Was this the real Jarrah, or the impostor? From what his landlord Charles Lisa says, he stillsounds like the same Jarrah. For instance, "He was too happy a man for a guy who knew hewas going to die in the next ten days or so." [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p.97]

In June he traveled to Las Vegas. His uncle in Lebanon describes the trip as a gambling junket,but it also provides another possible vague connection with other hijackers. Atta, Alshehhi andthree other suspects also made trips to Las Vegas between May and August. However, theydon't appear to have been in Las Vegas at the same time as Jarrah. [Los Angeles Times,10/23/01]

Jarrah Keeps Close Ties

In mid-July, Jarrah saw his Turkish girlfriend Senguen for what would be the last time. Hereturned to Florida in less than a week. Then Senguen went to Lebanon to attend Jarrah'ssister's wedding and meet her future in-laws. [Los Angeles Times, 10/23/01]

The Independent noted that Jarrah did not attend, and accusingly questioned, "Too busy tobring his fiancée to meet his family? Busy doing what?" [Independent, 9/16/01] Busy with hisstudies, it turns out. Records show that Jarrah took his test for his pilot's license for a singleengine aircraft on July 30 (which he passed), while the wedding was on August 2. [Los Angeles


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One of the Jarrahs pulled over for aspeeding ticket. Unfortunately, thereis no video of what the driver looked

like. [CNN, 1/9/02]

Times, 10/23/01]

The Time Grows Close

On August 17, Jarrah took a flight to test his proficiency at an airport in Fort Lauderdale. Fivedays later, investigators said Jarrah purchased diagrams of the cockpit instruments on a Boeing757. He also came to possess flight manuals for Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft. [Among theHeroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 97-98] These are just a few of the examples of plantedevidence, which date back to his time in Germany. The last time Jarrah's landlord inLauderdale-by-the-Sea saw him was at the very end of August. [Among the Heroes, by JereLongman, 2002, p. 99-100]

On August 27, Jarrah spent three nights in a hotel in a suburb outside Washington. The sameday he left, hijacker Nawaf Alhazmi checked into the same hotel. [Miami Herald, 9/22/01] Twoother hijackers stayed at a hotel about a mile away between August 23 and 30.

On September 5, Ziad Jarrah and his apparent friend Ahmed Alhaznawi booked one-way ticketson a September 7 flight to Newark. [CBC, 10/10/01] Note that while he may have flown toNewark, no evidence has been released that he actually bought a ticket for the hijacked plane.His name (spelled Jarrahi) appears to have been on the flight manifest [Boston Globe,9/25/01], but presumably that would be the other Jarrah, carrying the passport that had thepicture showing the differently shaped head.

On September 9, 2001, Jarrah apparently stayed at the same hotel as hijacker MarwanAlshehhi, also near Washington. [St. Petersburg Times, 9/27/01]

On September 9, he made his final phone call to his family. He confirmed receipt of the moneysent on the 4th. The family reported he was cheerful and normal. [CBC, 10/10/01]

Two Red Mitsubishis

Something else very curious happened on September 9. Astate trooper stopped Jarrah's car in Maryland near theDelaware border after observing him driving 90 mph in a 65mph zone a few minutes after midnight. The car was a redMitsubishi. Jarrah had bought a red Mitsubishi in 2000 inFlorida. [St. Petersburg Times, 9/27/01] However, that was a1991 Eclipse, and this Mitsubishi was a 2001 Galant. [Amongthe Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 101] The vehiclestopped in Maryland was a rental car with New Jersey tags,rented near the Newark Airport. [CNN, 1/9/02] The driverwas carrying a valid Virginia driver's license, which listed a

Springfield, Virginia address. [Delaware News Journal, 1/9/02]

Did Jarrah just like red Mitsubishis so much that he wanted to rent the same kind of car healready had? Or was someone trying to imitate Jarrah but was unable to hide the fact that thecar was a rental? Why a ticket at such a strange hour, and so close to September 11? Could itbe that his double was trying to make sure records would show Jarrah was near Washington?Or was it the real Jarrah who had somehow been hoodwinked into coming north by hissupposed friend Alhaznawi? If he went to Newark with Alhaznawi, why does he appear to havebeen alone when the car was stopped?

Future Plans

Perhaps Alhaznawi or someone else was manipulating Jarrah. It's striking that even at this latedate no witnesses actually saw Jarrah with any of the hijackers, only in close proximity in time


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Jarrah's present, still waiting for himwith German license and sticker.

[CBC, 10/10/01]

or location (with the exception of his rooming with Alhaznawi, if that was the real Jarrah whoroomed with him and if the landlord can be believed). But whatever the case, it certainlyappears that he didn't think he was going to die or be a wanted man anytime soon.

On his September 9 phone call to his family, he confirmed that he and his girlfriend would be inBeirut on September 22 for another family wedding -- this time Salim's younger sister. [LosAngeles Times, 10/23/01] He said he had completed his studies, and would try to get a goodjob in Lebanon. [Al-Watan, 10/1/01] ''It makes no sense,'' says his uncle, who recalled, ''hesaid he had even bought a new suit for the occasion.'' [Boston Globe, 9/25/01] One might sayJarrah was simply lying, except that his landlord in Florida noticed that in June, Jarrah actuallydid drop off a new suit to be tailored. [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 97]

Jarrah also confirmed to his family that he had received seven hundred dollars sent to him ontop of his usual two-thousand-dollar monthly allowance. He had asked for the money for "fun."[Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 102] People have pointed to this transfer ofmoney as proof that he needed last-minute money for the terrorist attacks. But this makes nosense, because the terrorists had plenty of available money from other sources. A number ofthem even wired a total of $15,000 back to the United Arab Emirates around September 9,because they had more than they could spend. His family sees this transfer as evidence that hewas planning a vacation before making his next career move.

The family had bought Jarrah a new Model 300 Mercedes-Benzon September 9. On the phone they joked that one of hissisters would take the car if he didn't come home soonenough. [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 102]They also talked about his own wedding with Aisel planned forthe following summer. [Sunday Herald, 9/23/01] The tragicironies keep piling up. He had talked in recent months for thefirst time about not only getting married, but having a child.[Inside 9-11: What Really Happened, by Der Spiegel editors,2002, p. 191] His father had also recently bought land for amansion he planned to build for his son and daughter-in-law.[Inside 9-11: What Really Happened, by Der Spiegel editors, 2002, p. 249]

If Jarrah was planning on making himself a martyr, it's understandable that he might not beable to say that to his dearly loved family and girlfriend. But to lead them on with plans ofmarriage and children, saying he would be visiting within two weeks, letting them buy propertyand a car for him - it seems inexplicably sadistic and completely unnecessary. Clearly he had noidea he was about to die. These facts also raise the question of how al-Qaeda could havetrusted such a man for such a vital mission, when the pull of wife, child, friends, and parentscould have caused him to change his mind at any time.

He continued to call Senguen nearly every day, as he always did. [Inside 9-11: What ReallyHappened, by Der Spiegel editors, 2002, p. 191] Mahmoud Ali, the family friend, said Senguencalled him on September 11 and told him that she had just spoken to Jarrah -- about an hourbefore he boarded United Flight 93 (stories that he called from the cockpit of Flight 93 areclearly exaggerations). She described the conversation as pleasant and normal, although it isunclear whether she knew he was flying that day. [Los Angeles Times, 10/23/01] According to aCBC interview with his uncle, his family didn't have the faintest suspicion that Jarrah was beingtied to the 9/11 attacks until they were told several days after September 11 (listen to the22-minute interview here).

And then on September 11, he vanished. His girlfriend Senguen alerted the police a few dayslater, calling to report him missing. German federal police said they found a suitcase of


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''airplane-related documents'' in her home (note how that is made to sound vaguely ominous,but of course someone training to be a pilot would have some "airplane-related documents"!). Afew days after September 11, Senguen checked into a witness protection program and droppedout of sight, leaving many questions about Jarrah unanswered. She later called Jarrah's familyand the FBI, and insisted that Jarrah was not acquainted with any of the other allegedhijackers, which presumably included Alhaznawi. [Boston Globe, 9/25/01]

The Work Permit

However, the story of Jarrah doesn't end there. A number of curious items have appeared sincehis death. In the Flight 93 wreckage, as explained previously, a half-burned copy of his passportwas found. [CNN, 8/1/02] This is not that remarkable, since a lot of documents have beenrecovered from the wreckage. But what is remarkable is another document that was also foundin the wreckage: an old German work permit of Jarrah's distant cousin, Assem Omar Jarrah.Why on earth would Jarrah have been carrying this document with him at all - what possibleuse could it have except as scratch paper? Yet because of this document, German weekly DerSpiegel claimed that investigators had discovered the records of the former East German Stassisecret service, showing that Assem served with the Libyan secret service and collaborated withPalestinian terrorist mastermind Abu Nidal in the 1980s. If this is true, and Ziad Jarrah reallywas a terrorist, then it would be even more inexplicable that he would be carrying documentsexposing the illicit past of his distant cousin. [An-Nadar, 11/8/01]

A possible explanation for this rather odd event is that the real terrorists were shadowing Jarrahand looked very closely into his life during the years they monitored him. They somehowdiscovered that he had a distant cousin who was connected to espionage or terrorism or at leastthat the Stassi had made some claims to that effect. Assem Omar Jarrah did say he gave thiswork permit to Ziad, but did not say when. [An-Nadar, 11/8/01] At some point, someone musthave then stolen it from Ziad. And finally, on or after September 11, someone must haveplanted it at the Flight 93 wreckage site, to make sure that investigators would discover thislink. The odds otherwise - that Jarrah had this useless document with him, that it was one ofthe few possessions of his surviving the crash; and that his distant cousin would turn out tohave terrorist ties - must be astronomical.

The Lost Letter

In another surprise discovery, in early November a four-page letter written by Jarrah onSeptember 10 to his girlfriend Aisel was found by US authorities. Presumably, it had been sentto the wrong address, and thus eventually returned to the US. [CNN, 1/9/02] Why Jarrah wouldsuddenly forget the address of where his girlfriend had lived since early 1999 is not explained.Only a few quotes from this letter have been made public. He says, "I have done what I had todo," and "You should be very proud because this is an honor and in the end will bring happinessto everyone." This has been taken as proof that he knew he was going to be a martyr. [LosAngeles Times, 11/18/01]

But setting aside the possibility that the whole letter is a forgery, there is the possibility thatthese two sentences could have been taken out of context. He had just gotten his pilot's license- could he be talking about that? His father says, "Ziad wanted to become a pilot since he wasfive years old. He didn't care whether he would be a civilian or a military pilot. He was crazyabout airplanes. The only books he ever borrowed from the library were about airplanes. Istopped him from being a pilot. I only have one son and I was afraid that he would crash."[Wall Street Journal, 9/18/01] It appears that Jarrah may have tricked his parents into thinkinghe was still studying to be an aeronautical engineer and would be continuing his classes inHamburg after taking some aeronautical courses in the US. [Independent, 9/16/01, Wall StreetJournal, 9/18/01] So this letter may have been a coming out of sorts - the sentences could


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Jarrah's father Samir. [BBC, 9/24/01]"My boy was just a normal person.He would never do this. There mayhave been another Ziad Jarrah on

the plane." [Independent, 9/16/01]

easily refer to him revealing that he was following his dream to be a pilot over his father'swishes, something that in the end would make his family proud.

In any case, if it is a suicide letter, it's a strange one, because he also "talks of plans for afuture meeting, as Jarrah tells her to 'hold on to what you have until we see each other again.'"Even stranger, the package also contained papers about Jarrah's flight training and scuba-divinginstruction. [Los Angeles Times, 11/18/01] Scuba-diving lessons? More typical behavior of aterrorist and a martyr? The scuba diving could easily explain his "unexplained trips" to thenearby Bahamas, since there is good scuba diving there but none in the greater Miami areawhere he lived. [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 2002, p. 91-92]

The Cockpit Voice Recorder

Though it hasn't been made public, the cockpit voice recorderfor Flight 93 did survive. A few snippets were released; youcan listen to them on this website. Jarrah is said to havespoken English with a German accent. [Sunday Herald,9/23/01] He is also said to have been the pilot whose voicecan be heard in these recordings. Given his accent, it shouldbe easy to determine if the voice was his or not. His uncleJamal explained, "'Ziad was not a hijacker... To this day theyhave no proof Ziad was the pilot.' What about the cockpit voicerecorder? 'That's not Ziad's voice.' What about the good-byeletter to Aisel, the kick-boxing lessons in Florida, the messageon Atta's cell phone? What about all the documents about

death in martyrdom? 'Fabricated. False. Inventions.' But why? 'The Americans shot down theplane, so they've got to make it look hijacked.'" [Inside 9-11: What Really Happened, by DerSpiegel editors, 2002, p. 247-8]

The Remains of Jarrah

Terrorist or dupe, was the real Jarrah actually on Flight 93? DNA remains would be able toanswer that question. In December 2001, US officials announced that everyone on Flight 93had been positively identified through their DNA, except for the four hijackers. Their remainsare grouped by common DNA. Because they don't have any DNA to check them by, "The deathcertificates will list each as 'John Doe.'" [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 12/20/01] The other accusedhijackers were all from Saudi Arabia, and virtually no information and certainly no DNA has yetcome out for them. But Jarrah's family has said, "We are ready to cooperate with theauthorities." [Independent, 9/16/01] They would like to know if their son was a terrorist andmurderer. In mid-August 2002, a new report on the victims' remains noted the DNA still hadnot been checked, because "little attention has been paid to the terrorists' remains." [AP,8/16/02]

As one reporter put it, Ziad Jarrah is "no neat fit into any conspiracy puzzle, with no clearmotivation or any obvious ties to an identifiable organization." [Australian Broadcasting Corp.,9/18/01] Clearly the terrorists were brilliant in stealing identities and keeping their trueidentities hidden. Probably each case was slightly different, and with Jarrah they had theincredible luck of a look-alike with a similar name. The FBI investigators made their work easy.For instance, according to an FBI document given to German police, the FBI initially put Jarrahand the three other accused hijackers on the hijacker list simply because theirs were the onlyArabic sounding names on the flight manifest. [Los Angeles Times, 10/23/01] But still, theterrorists made mistakes. Numerous clues pointing to a doppelganger for Jarrah, including solidevidence that he was in two places at once on more than one occasion, has been ignored orbrushed aside by the media and the FBI investigation. Until we get smart enough to see


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through the cover stories and stolen identities, we will never know who the real hijackers were,and never really understand what happened on September 11.


18 of 18 20.6.2012 17:12

the two ziad jarrahs - aldeilis.netaldeilis.net/fake/1010.pdf · dec. 2001 part 5: jan. 2002 -...

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