Mohammad Atta's Request For A Loan: Hoax Or Real?

Some questioned whether Mark Steyn's account of Mohammad Atta's meeting with a Florida bureaucrat named Johnelle Bryant was real or if it's been debunked.

Steyn answers here, debunking some of the debunkers (and calling one a "kook" for good measure, and noting the entire case against the Bryant story seems to rely on Atta's June 3rd 2000 passport entry date.

It comes down to how much credence you put on a passport. Did Atta have multiple passports? The FBI says no, but as Steyn points out, the FBI also wants to debunk the alleged Prague visit based on the fact that Atta's cell phone made a call from the US at that time.

As if he couldn't have left it with a confederate when he jetted over to Prague. Not like the cell phone would have worked there, anyhow.

Anyway, Steyn, I'm guessing, recounted a story he had heard and didn't realize had been challenged, and does his best to rehabilitate that story. It does appear that this story is officially doubted. But, as Snopes would say, I'm putting it in the "undetermined" category.

Thanks to Arthur.

posted by Ace at 12:31 PM

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