Copyright 2001
The Detroit News.
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Law enforcement
Clues to attackers lie in wreckage, computer systems
By John Hanchette / Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON -- Federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies are trying to track down the hijacking terrorists who destroyed New York City's tallest towers Tuesday and wrecked a big slice of the Pentagon.
Question: What sort of things are investigators doing?
Answer: For one, painstakingly trying to reconstruct the manifest of each of the four hijacked flights. How did each person pay for the ticket? What was each passenger's phone number? How did they access the airport? Who sat where? Interviewing airline crews, cleaning people, terminal workers.
Q: What else?
A: The FBI is reaching out to bereaved families, asking about unreported last-minute cell phone calls, many of which have already been publicized and were very useful to agents trying to reconstruct the events leading up to the terrorism. "There were a number of calls made from these planes," said New York City special agent-in-charge Barry Mawn. "We want to get ahold of them, so we can tell the number of hijackers."
Q: Is there a prized piece of evidence they desire?
A:At this point, the most useful might be the so-called black boxes from the aircraft, which record cockpit conversations among other things, and could possibly shed light on the terrorist takeovers of each plane. They're hard to find. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said searchers at the World Trade Center site were given photos of what they look like.
Q: How about electronic surveillance?
A:Immense. Snippets of congratulatory conversation about "two targets" between alleged followers of suspected mastermind Osama bin Laden have already been captured. The National Security Agency's global satellite system of listening posts called "Echelon" is humming.
Q: How is that working?
A:Echelon intercepts e-mail, microwave, cell phone, telephone, faxes and other messages at a capacity of about 3 million per minute. These are stored in mammoth computer systems capable of holding the equivalent of 5 trillion pages of text. Key words and phrases like "World Trade Center" or "Pentagon" are programed into lightning-fast data sorters to track origin. The FBI's Carnivore program that monitors Internet communication is also under use.
Q: Why is bin Laden the prime suspect?
A:A Saudi expatriate millionaire, bin Laden has shown in previous terrorist incidents he's a brilliant organizer with a large network of multinational supporters. Investigators believe it took his kind of skill to pull off a disaster of this magnitude.
Q: Like what?
A:Conceiving of a plan that would result in four virtually simultaneous airliner hijackings of cross-country flights with at least 50 tons of jet fuel in each, which combusts at 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit -- turning the aircraft into flying petrol bombs. The World Trade Center towers were designed to take a hit from planes as big as a Boeing 707, but the FBI thinks the terrorists intentionally commandeered much heavier, wide-body 757s and 767s, which weigh about 185 tons when fully fueled and loaded.
Q: How could terrorists fly these? Were they trained?
A:Whoever flew at least three of the death planes seemed very skilled. Investigators are impressed that they were schooled enough to turn off flight transponders -- which provide tower control with flight ID, altitude and location. Investigators are particularly impressed with the pilot who slammed into the Pentagon and, just before impact, performed a tightly banked 270-degree turn at low altitude with almost military precision.
Q: Where would they get these skills?
A:Boeing and Airbus both sell flight simulators and there are several training schools on the East Coast. You can qualify for a 757 or 767 for about $15,000. Investigators think a south Florida school may have inadvertently trained one terrorist pilot, and other simulator locations are being checked.
Q: Any arrests?
A:The FBI has taken several people into custody in Boston and Florida but won't call them suspects, merely potential providers of information. It is also looking for others, such as two who rented expensive homes in Vero Beach, billing themselves as "Saudi commercial pilots."
Q: The Pentagon makes sense, but why the World Trade Center?
A:First, the twin towers were icons of capitalism, smack in the middle of the Western world's key financial district and housing several of its most important firms. Second, the title was emblematic of globalization and America's long, powerful reach. Third, terrorists probably wanted to finish a job that was bungled by previous attackers who tried to bring them down in 1993 with a demolition device in a parked rental van.
Q: Weren't there warnings of these new attacks?
A:American officials insist publicly there were none. But for two years the respected British-based Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor, read assiduously by U.S. intelligence personnel, has been reporting that law enforcement agencies have been fearful bin Laden's group was "preparing for a series of new attacks on U.S. targets, especially financial targets in New York." BBC radio in London, just three weeks ago, warned there would be an attack on New York in retaliation for American support of Israel in its fight with Palestinians.
Q: Wouldn't it have been even worse if the World Trade Center towers had toppled sideways instead of collapsing straight down inside their own perimeters? Why did they drop vertically?
A:Countless lives and Manhattan buildings were obviously saved when the 110-story buildings slid down around themselves instead of tipping over. According to Richard Behr, head of the architectural engineering department at Penn State, "the vertical support system was around the exterior of each tower, giving them lots of stability. Much of the contributing factor to why each tower fell straight down was that the fire extended fully through the floors at the levels of impact, and all the columns were softened uniformly by the tremendous heat. The fuel load was very significant to the collapse. Gravity is relentless, so the tremendous, uniform weight of the stories above kept it from failing in a lopsided mode."
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