[GeoSTL] 911 and GPS's

Did everyone see this in todays Post dispatch?

Atta visited NY days before attack to set coordinates, officials believe 

New York Daily News


NEW YORK - The leader of the Sept. 11 hijackers visited the World Trade Center 
days before the attack to obtain coordinates for a navigation device, law 
enforcement officials now believe.

Mohamed Atta, who led the 19 hijackers that morning, was in New York on Sept. 
10 and perhaps Sept. 9, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the 
investigation.

The FBI found transactions that show Atta used a credit card in Manhattan the 
day before the planes crashed into the World Trade Center. Until recently, law 
enforcement officials could not figure out why he was there.

New evidence has emerged that leads investigators to believe that Atta made a 
last-minute visit to double-check coordinates of the twin towers and plug them 
into a sophisticated Global Positioning System device bought by the hijackers, 
the source said.

Investigators suspect Atta's trip to the trade center was necessary because, 
they believe, the hijackers were too inexperienced to handle the jumbo jets 
without help. They know the hijackers bought GPS devices in the months leading 
up to the attack.

The FBI's New York office declined to comment on what the bureau knows about 
Atta's final hours.

The unusual flight paths of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines 
Flight 175 - which traveled from Boston and into the twin towers - indicates 
the hijackers used the devices to guide them as they flew across the country 
toward what was about to become known as ground zero, the source said.

Federal prosecutors say that on Aug. 25 - 17 days before the attack - one of 
Atta's co-conspirators, hijacker Ziad Jarrah, bought GPS components.

Atta himself bought flight deck videos for jumbo jets and several unnamed items 
from Sporty's Pilot Shop in Ohio in November 2000. Sporty's owners said FBI 
agents investigating the attacks asked about a Garmin GPS III Pilot, a 
hand-held device that simplifies aeronautical navigation.

And Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged "20th hijacker" now indicted on terrorism 
charges in the Sept. 11 plot, also tried to buy a GPS receiver, prosecutors 
have said.

With the coordinates of the twin towers entered as the desired destination, the 
devices would tell the hijackers when they were off course as they flew 
thousands of feet above the ground.

Experts noted that the hijackers could have obtained coordinates of the towers 
from available maps, but visiting the site with the device would ensure that 
the specific data were pinpoint accurate.

It's not clear how long Atta was in Manhattan before the attack. The source 
would not discuss the credit card transactions in the city except to say they 
took place in Manhattan.


Published in A-section on Wednesday, May 22, 2002.

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