As the United States continues to recover from the acts of terrorism, the will of one of the terrorists reveals that the acts were years in the works.
Mohamed Atta, the suspected leader of the Sept. 11 plane hijackings in the United States, left behind a will that said he wanted to be buried “next to good Muslims” and that he wanted one-third of his money “donated to the poor and needy.”
The will, obtained by German magazine Der Spiegel was translated into English. The magazine, according to CNN investigative sources, was found in a bag at Logan Airport. The bag cointaining never made it on American Airlines Flight 11.
“Those who will sit beside my body must remember Allah, God, and pray for me to be with the angels,” the will said.
“I don’t want pregnant women or a person who is not clean to come and say goodbye to me because I don’t approve of it,” the will continued.
Law-enforcement sources have said that Atta piloted Flight 11, the first jet to strike on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
The plane slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center, killing the 92 people aboard the plane.
Atta is believed to have been the ringleader of the attacks in the United States and that he had at least $100,000 from Pakistan wired to him in the last year, according to sources.
Atta’s will was written in 1996 and demonstrates that he had planned for years to die in the name of Islam.
World
The United States gave NATO “clear and compelling” evidence Tuesday that holds Osama bin Laden responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, a NATO leader said in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Other news reports said that a strike against bin Laden was avoided due to key allies pulling out support.
The United States and Britain were close to launching military strikes against bin Laden in Afghanistan until three key allies, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Oman, suddenly expressed reservations, senior U.S. officials said.
National
President George W. Bush met on Wednesday with a group of national business leaders and assured them his administration would help shore up the economy in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Bush said Wednesday his administration will seek a package of measures worth as much as $75 billion to help boost the U.S. economy after last month’s terrorist attacks.
Both American and United Airlines said they plan to place reinforcement bars on all of its cockpit doors within 30 days to prevent hijackings similar to those on Sept. 11 that destroyed the World Trade Center and heavily damaged the Pentagon.
Two of the four hijacked planes used in the attacks were American Airlines planes. American Airlines Flight 11 was the first jet to slam into the World Trade Center; American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.
Plans to attack bin Laden are not anything new for the U.S. government.
Working with other countries, the Clinton administration had two plans in the mid to late 1990s, to either kill or capture bin Laden, but neither came to fruition, sources confirmed to CNN Wednesday. Details of both plans were first reported in The Washington Post.
There had been signs of impending attacks coming from the Middle East when U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell took office this year, and one of the first briefings he requested was on counter-terrorism, a U.S. official in the Middle East said Wednesday.
