By Jenny Booth and agencies
Times Online

The man alleged to be the real 20th hijacker of the September 11 terror attacks is imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, it has emerged.

Muhammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi, was arrested after US immigration authorities refused to allow him to enter the country at Orlando airport in Florida, before the suicide hijackings.

Testimony in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui quoted Khalid Shaikh Muhammad, the mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks who has been in US custody for several years, describing al-Qahtani as the last hijacker for the mission who would “complete the group”.

Nineteen hijackers boarded four planes on the morning of September 11, 2001. Three planes each with five terrorists on board struck their intended targets, but the fourth, United Airlines flight 93, only had four hijackers. They were forced to dive the aircraft into the ground short of their target - probably the White House - after a counter-attack by the passengers.

Claims by Moussaoui himself at his trial that he was intended to be one of the 9/11 hijackers have been discounted by intelligence sources, although he may still be condemned to death for failing to tell the security services what he knew about the plot.

Although al-Qahtani’s presence at the prison camp in Cuba had been reported, the military had previously declined to confirm it.

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“As everyone knows, on September 11, less than an hour after the attack on the Pentagon, an airplane crashed in an empty field in rural Pennsylvania. The Associated Press first reported that the plane that crashed there had first made an emergency landing at a Cleveland international airport. The news network quickly retracted the story. The official US government version of events still holds. Here’s a little game for you: Take a look at these photographs and try to find evidence to corroborate the official version. It’s up to you to Hunt the Boeing! . . . again!”

(Hunt the Boeing II)

By Andy Prutsok
Wednesday, April 19, 2006 8:57 AM CDT
Virtual Suffolk - Editors Blog

You’ve noticed a little bit of back and forth in the pages of the News-Herald in the past few editions over the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Managing Editor Douglas Grant started it with a column on Friday critical of actor Charlie Sheen who said on the Jimmy Kimmel show that the U.S. government was responsible for terrorist attacks n apparently not via incompetence but actually planning and perpetrating it.

A letter appeared in Tuesday’s paper from John Sharpe taking Grant to task for his attack on Sheen.

It’s prompted some discussion in the office lately.

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