US Attacks: How They Did It http://www.sky.com/skynews/storytemplate/storymultipic/0,,0-1029170,00.h tml How could a handful of people board four passenger planes, seize control of them and fly them into specially targeted buildings? The answer may not be fully known unless the aircrafts' black-box flight recorders are found in the rubble. But a picture is emerging from victims' frantic mobile phone calls, made to loved ones seconds before their death: Stabbings The hijackers attacked stewardesses with knives to draw pilots from their locked cockpits. Businessman Peter Hanson, who was with his wife and young son on board the United Airlines flight that plunged into the World Trade Centre, called his father in Connecticut and managed to say a stewardess had been stabbed, before being cut off. It also appears the hijackers may have used the threat of a bomb. Alice Hoglan in San Francisco said her 31-year-old son Mark Bingham phoned her from aboard the Pennsylvania crash flight to say: "We've been taken over. There are three men that say they have a bomb." The weapons Mike Yardley, a former British army officer, says the choice of simple knives was very deliberate. "The reason that knives have been chosen is because it would have reduced their security risks," he said. "Remember, they are trying to pull this off four times - if they had risked firearms, if one person had been seized, the whole operation could have been compromised. Unfortunately, terrorism is easy, once you cross the boundary of deciding to do it. Aviation experts say catching a domestic flight in the US is "like hopping on a bus", with passengers often not required to have their hand-luggage X-rayed or to walk through metal detectors. Amazingly, Federal Aviation Administration rules allow "knives with blades up to 4 inches", although local laws often ban the carrying of knives in airports. The training Having gained entry to the cockpit, most experts now believe the pilots were murdered; few believe a professional pilot would willingly fly their plane into a building full of people, even with a gun at their head. The phone calls suggested each plane was seized by a team of three hijackers. In each case, at least one of them is likely to have been a trained pilot who took over the controls to steer the planes on their lethal flight paths. In Boston, from where two of the doomed aircraft took off, five Arab men have apparently already been identified as suspects. According to the Boston Globe newspaper, police seized a rented car containing Arabic-language flight training manuals at Logan International Airport. Anyone with about $50,000 can learn to fly a plane. But experts have said simple and readily available computer simulator flight programmes would be enough to provide someone with the knowledge to complete a kamikaze attack. Why did US spy agencies not have warning? And if they did, why didn't they act? There are still no real answers to these questions. One Arab journalist claims he was warned three weeks ago by followers of Osama bin Laden of a "huge and unprecedented attack" on US interests but did not take the threats seriously. The US itself issued a warning about an increased terror threat from Islamic fundamentalist groups only four days before the attacks. But there is no evidence of any warning of the specific attacks against the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. There is speculation "sleepers" may have been involved - terrorists who infiltrated airline companies. But in America, people are pointing a finger of blame at the country's multi-billion dollar intelligence network. Senator Pat Roberts said the Senate Intelligence Committee had no indication the attacks were coming: "In my view, this has been an intelligence failure." Last Updated: 12:08 UK, Wednesday September 12, 2001 Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
