Reply #7: Various issues

[KJF]

(1) First source.
You write

The Times of India was the first source

Please could you tell me the date of the Times of India article you were referring to?

(2) Date of transfer in summer of 2001
The alleged date of transfer is sometimes said to be "just before the attacks" or whatever. My understanding, however, is that it actually supposed to be around early August (it is supposed to have come from the ransom of an Indian shoe magnet). The way I see it is that the hijackers were broke (there are reports of them not being able to make ATM withdrawals around this time), so Atta called KSM, KSM called Saeed Sheikh (note: they were associates, for example collaborated on the kidnap and murder of Daniel Pearl), so Sheikh (who is previously said to have provided funding for AQ) sent USD 100,000 where KSM told him to. The hijackers then used the money to buy plane tickets for 9/11 (about USD 37,000), support themselves for a month, and sent some money back to Dubai.

(3) Transfer in summer 2000
According to the 9/11 Commission, the Florida hijackers received only USD 115,000 in transfers from abroad, in the summer-autumn of 2000 (mostly to a joint Atta-Alshehhi account). However, I found three sources (NYT, FT, PBS - see June-August 2000 in the Atta timeline) that put the number at USD 200,000. One of the NYT accounts even says Atta had an account with the "Century Bank of Florida," a bank account I have never seen mentioned in any official documents (Dennis Lormel told the NYT the hijackers had 35 bank accounts, but only about 25 have been disclosed). I checked, and the Century Bank has a branch round the corner from Huffman Aviation. All this makes me pretty suspicious. It seems odd that the three news outlets would all make the same mistake. It looks to me that this is what somebody (probably from the FBI, maybe Lormel) told them.

In any case, the 9/11 Commission missed out some transfers, for example one from Egypt at the end of August 2001 and one from Germany in May 2001, but both of these were small.

btw, there was a guy in Red House arrested with a box cutter just after 9/11 - weird, huh?

btw2, did you see the thing with Pistole in 2004 and the 2006 Lee Hamilton interview:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a073103pistole#a073103pistole

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a082106hamiltoncantremember#a082106hamiltoncantremember

btw3, check this too:
http://web.archive.org/web/20021231182956/http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/021002/new_0210020108.shtml
More confirmation from AP writer Kathy Gannon.