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The hijack suspects: ordinary neighbours -- and terrorist "moles"?

WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (AFP) -

Friendly neighbors, serious students and model dads: the men suspected of hijacking the jets that carried out history's deadliest terror strikes looked a lot more like the guy next door than the incarnation of the devil.

The most disturbing common element that has emerged from the FBI investigation into the 19 men who are now believed to have cold-bloodedly rained destruction on the US political and economic capitals is how ordinary their behaviour was.

They were aged between 21 and 40. They were of Arab extraction. Many had lived for years in the United States without raising suspicion.

In contrast with the hastily trained "kamikaze" Muslim suicide bombers in Israel and the Palestinian territories, the suspected hijackers apparently took time to become part of their peaceful communities, like spy "moles".

Perhaps they also had instruction manuals in Arab like one found after the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Africa, which told the plotters: "When you're in the outer world, you have to act like them, dress like them, behave like them."

That thesis is why, says Professor Clark McCauley, a terrorism expert at Pennsylvania's Bryn Mawr College, "we don't talk about these people as fanatics, as crazy."

One of the suspects, Mohamed Atta, considered by FBI chief Robert Mueller as one of the main actors in the devastation, was typical of what investigators have found.

Known as a polite student to acquantainces who got to know him over the past few years, Atta, aged around 33, had taken the care to shave his beard and put away his long kaftan, changing his appearance from when he previously lived in Hamburg, Germany.

It seems he first came to the United States in 1989. He stayed several times in Florida, notably in a charming small pink house close to Daytona Beach, where he sometimes received a neighbour or Elaine Brinkley, the real estate agent looking after the property.

"How can you suspect someone like that of being a terrorist?" Brinkley asked, recalling how he offered her biscuits or coffee. "They are not like you see in the movies."

Still, this polite tenant and attentive host was aboard the doomed American Airlines Boeing 767 that slammed into the first tower of the World Trade Center on Tuesday.

Abdulaziz al-Omari, who was with him on the same flight, was described at an affable father of four children who was often seen walking dressed unremarkably in jeans, a shirt and sneakers.

The day before the horrific string of attacks, he dropped his children off at school. As usual.

If anything now seems suspicious in hindsight, it's the fact that the alleged hijackers changed address frequently but the seven among them training to be pilots kept up with their courses. Some, like Atta, are believed to have used Boeing 727 flight simulators, according to US media reports.

But generally, the suspects couldn't seem further from the image of zealous and devout Muslims ready to sacrifice their lives -- and the lives of many, many others -- for Allah.

At the end of the day they would kick back, sipping vodka in a bar or playing video games.

Neighbors of the suspects who lived at Delray Beach, a tranquil seaside town in Florida, spoke of the men often leaving their garage doors wide open, giving an impression they had nothing to hide.

If anything it's this banality, their ordinariness that has bewildered Americans as they contemplate the aftermath of Tuesday, September 11.

If such model residents, family men, polite students can be held responsible for so much atrocity, what else hides behind the bland face of a smiling neighbor or a friendly stranger in a bar?

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), September 16, 2001

Answers

satan can appear as an angel of light,=bible.

-- al-d. (dogs@zianet.com), September 16, 2001.