FBI says strategy session in Las Vegas only theory

Monday, Nov. 5, 2001 | 9:50 a.m.

The Las Vegas FBI said this morning it has no hard evidence to support the conclusion that the hijackers in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks did most of their crucial American planning here.

"The planning theory is one that we're looking at, but there has been no evidence uncovered as of yet to support that," Las Vegas FBI spokesman Daron Borst said.

The New York Times reported Sunday that senior investigators believe Las Vegas was the site of most of the important strategy sessions in this country.

Five of the 19 hijackers passed through Las Vegas in the weeks before the attacks in New York and Washington.

The Times also reported that most of the planning took place at the Econo Lodge, a low-budget motel at 1150 Las Vegas Blvd. South.

Mohamed Atta, one of the five hijackers who passed through Las Vegas in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, stayed at the Econo Lodge in June and August of this year.

"We have evidence that Atta sayed twice at the Econo Lodge, but there is no evidence that any of the other hijackers stayed there," Borst said.

Borst said the FBI also has no solid information that any meetings took place at the Econo Lodge.

Last week Las Vegas FBI chief Grant Ashley told reporters the FBI may never know what the hijackers were doing here.

Agents believe four of the men who visited Las Vegas -- Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi, Ziad Samir Jarrah and Hani Hanjour -- were at the controls of the American jetliners that crashed in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Atta, 33, an urban planner from Egypt, is reported to have piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center's north tower.

Agents suspect Al-Shehhi, 23, a native of a poverty stricken town in the United Arab Emirates, flew United Airlines Flight 175 into the the trade center's south tower.

Jarrah, 24, who came from a middle-class family in Lebanon, reportedly commandeered United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania.

And Hanjour, 29, an Islamic extremist from Saudi Arabia, is said to have been at the helm of American Airlines Flight 77 when it slammed into the Pentagon.

Nawaf Alhazmi, a Saudi native and the fifth suspected hijacker to visit Las Vegas, was on Flight 77 with Hanjour.