They're Alive, They're Alive!

This is the next in a long list of strange claims made in Loose Change, that some of the Arabs alleged to have participated in the 9/11 hijackings are still alive. Even in its face this theory makes no sense. If the evil conspirators wanted to get the US into a war with Afghanistan and Iraq, why would they pick 19 apparently random Arabs, 15 of them Saudis, and leave them completely alive and able to make press appearences and call in to Larry King Live? Even the people who believe Lee Harvey Oswald was framed only say so because he was killed by Jack Ruby and never got a chance to testify. Are these conspirators really that stupid?

Well our filmmakers are, so lets look at their claims:

On September 14th, 2001, the Department of Justice released the names of the alleged 19 hijackers. But on September 23rd, the BBC reported that Waleed Al Shehri was alive and well in Casablanca, Morrocco.

OK, so there is some guy named Waleed Al Shehri, who is still alive. He must be the alleged hijacker. There is just one problem with this theory. Waleed had a brother, Wael, who was also a hijacker. Their father said both of them disappeared a year before the attack.

The brothers' pictures matched those released by the FBI, the Arab News reported. Their father, Mohammed Ali Asgley Al Shehri, a businessman, told Al Watan that his son Wael, 25, had psychological problems and had gone to Medina in December with his brother Waleed, 21, to seek help from religious officials for this problem. He said that they did not return from the trip and that he had not heard from them since.

You would think dear old dad would know. OK, so on to our next living hijacker:

They also tracked down Abdulaziz Alomari, who is an engineer with Saudi Telecoms, and lost his passport while studying in Denver.

Loose Change provides the following FBI picture of Mr. Alomari:














The Loose Change website also conveniently provides a link to the BBC story claiming this. The story even has a picture of the Alomari claiming to be the accused hijacker. Now why didn't Loose Change include this picture? This is a MOVIE after all.












Hmm, could it be because he looks absolutely nothing like the Alomari in the FBI photo?

Skipping ahead 15 seconds or so, they continue:

Wael M. Al Shehri is alive and well.

He is? Well I just told you up above how his dad said that both of his sons were missing. Let me check... yup, both still missing.

But wait, there is more:

Mohand Al Shehri is alive in Saudi Arabia.

For this claim they reference our old anti-Semitic neo-Nazi friends at the American Free Press, which says some site called Information Times, which says that Saudi Prince Al-Faisal says (why do I feel like I am in junior high) that he told President Bush that Mohand was alive.

Of course only 3 months later USA Today, not relying on third hand information, reported that Saudi Arabia admitted that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi, and that their families had been notified. Somehow this was cut from the final version of the film. Maybe it will be in Loose Change Version 3?

Next...

Khalid Almihdhar is a computer programmer in Mecca.

Oh really. How do they know that? The BBC article mentioned above tells us:

And there are suggestions that another suspect, Khalid Al Midhar, may also be alive.

Well that settles it, definitive proof! Who could argue with that?

The FBI has a different opinion, Al Mihdhar is not a computer programmer, but one of the ringleaders of the attack who was traced back to other Al Qaeda operatives.

The new information about al-Midhar and Alhazmi was contained in broader testimony that Mueller delivered in June detailing what the FBI had learned about the movements of the 19 hijackers and how they carried out their plans. An FBI spokesman declined to comment on whether the bureau's assessment of al-Midhar's and Alhazmi's roles had changed since Mueller delivered his testimony.

Al-Midhar and Alhazmi initially entered the United States on Jan. 15, 2000, after attending a top-level al-Qaeda summit in Malaysia.

OK, next claim, hurry up, I am getting tired:

Salem Alhazmi works at a chemical plant in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.

OK, well the Guardian reports this.

"The Salem Al-Hamzi we have is 26 years old and has never been to the United States," Gaafar Allagany told the Washington Post. "He has said he is willing to come to the United States if anyone wants to see him."

But Salem is kind of missing something. The Salem Al Hamzi who was a hijacker had a brother, Nawaf, who was also on the flight. Do you think the Guardian bothered to ask him if he was missing a brother?

Going on...

Saeed Alghamdi is training to be a pilot in Tunis.

Their website links to the aforementioned September 23rd, BBC article, which states:

Meanwhile, Asharq Al Awsat newspaper, a London-based Arabic daily, says it has interviewed Saeed Alghamdi.

However, if our intrepid filmmakers had bothered to search beyond September 2001 (It has been nearly 5 years after all), they would have discovered that Der Spiegel found out that this was a case of mistaken identity.

The photographs quickly resolved the nonsense about surviving terrorists. According to Bradley, "all of this is attributable to the chaos that prevailed during the first few days following the attack. What we're dealing with are coincidentally identical names." In Saudi Arabia, says Bradley, the names of two of the allegedly surviving attackers, Said al-Ghamdi and Walid al-Shari, are "as common as John Smith in the United States or Great Britain."

They continue (don't worry it is almost over)

Ahmed Alnami is an administrative supervisor for Saudi Airlines.

That is funny, why didn't anyone tell his family, they seem to think he has disappeared!

Alnami has been missing since December, and his family did not know his whereabouts, according to Al Watan, another Saudi newspaper. It reported that Alnami, who became very religious about 2 1/2 years ago, had been the prayer leader at a mosque in Asir's capital of Abha and had studied Islamic law at King
Khaled University there.

Al Watan quoted Alnami's father as saying that his son never returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca 15 months ago and had last called his family four months ago.

And finally, for those of you who managed to get this far, the ringleader Mohammed Atta:

And last but not least, Mohammed Atta's father claimed to receive a phone call from his son on September 12th.

Maybe he was really confused by that whole time zone thing? Regardless, daddy Atta seems to have changed his mind since then.

Displayed prominently in the apartment were pictures of el-Amir's son, Mohamed Atta, the man who is believed to have piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the north tower of the World Trade Center as part of the attacks on the United States.

El-Amir said the attacks in the United States and the July 7 attacks in London were the beginning of what would be a 50-year religious war, in which there would be many more fighters like his son.

So that is the proof, a bunch of cases of mistaken identity. Not a single "alive" hijacker has shown up on Al Jazeera, CNN, or even Air America. Although if they were on Air America, would anyone notice?

For more on this check out the excellent 911 Myths post on this subject.