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« Intel: Third London Strike Planned; City Faces Lockdown | Main | King Fahd Dies »
August 01, 2005

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
Comments



What does Johnelle Bryant say about the episode? Wouldn't she be the best source for confirming or disputing Steyn's account? Has anyone even tried to follow up with her? Blogger preferred, of course.

Posted by: Pat on August 1, 2005 01:05 PM

If there is some truth to this, that assumes the entry dates were wrong, and god knows how many 10's of millions went into tracking and reconstructing the movements of the hijackers that failed to place Atta or the other hijacker in the April-May timeframe that Bryant claims.

The other thing a lot rests on is Johnelle Bryant's story that Atta totally broke cover and became A Raging Islamoid Madman dropping clues right and left of his nefarious intent. This is the same guy that lived amidst Germans for years without drawing suspicion and was described as "the quiet neighbor" while here in the US. The only story the breaks from the "nice, but women-phobic" Atta cover was his being a prick and leaving an airplane rental in the wrong place and walking away.

If the two meetings with Atta - the raving Atta and the Atta in unclever disguise - are true, and that assumes what we know of his movements is all wrong, the possibility still exists that Ms. Johnelle Bryant is a bit of a fabulist - inventing an exchange to juice up the story and give her GS-9 humdrum life some pizazzz!

No one else was in the room, no one else in her office recollects Bryant talking about the wild conversation she had, the subsequent "in disguise" visit. Brant herself has been "unavailable for interviews" since her ABC day in the sun two years ago. No co-worker will comment on her stability or reputation for veracity. Bryant has been reassigned to the Boonies.

Odds are Steyn was had.

Posted by: Cedarford on August 1, 2005 02:23 PM

Any doubts I had about Steyn's story have now been removed.

Posted by: BrewFan on August 1, 2005 02:27 PM

If it was a Cingular or T-Mobile phone (GSM) the phone could work from Prague. I've used mine in Kuwait, Bahrain, Italy and England.

Just my 2 cents.

Posted by: Kevin on August 1, 2005 02:48 PM

Steyn's recounting isn't the first place I heard this story. I remember hearing it at least two years ago, and perhaps not that long after 9/11...for whatever that's worth.

Posted by: Ken Hall on August 1, 2005 03:24 PM

Hmm...don't you think this story has a resonance? Does to me. Case closed.

Posted by: bobonthebellbuoy on August 1, 2005 05:28 PM

Ken Hall, I too heard the story first about two years ago, but it wasn't quite as wild as the story that Steyn related. As I heard it Atta was still somewhat gynophobic but after that the stories diverged. In the story I heard he presented as straight-forward business plan to open up a crop dusting business and seemed quite rational about the whole thing. Frankly, as a civil service employee, anyone acting like he was proported to in the article would have been escorted off the premises and possibly under guard. We're not that stupid.

Posted by: rabidfox on August 2, 2005 11:50 AM
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