Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2001 | 9:48 a.m.
FBI agents have obtained solid evidence that shows Mohamed Atta, the suspected ringleader of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, spent long hours at a local Internet surfing hub during two trips to Las Vegas this summer.
Beyond that agents have little documentation of the Las Vegas movements of Atta and five other hijackers who passed through the city in the weeks before the attacks in New York and Washington, investigators told the Sun.
Agents know the flights the hijackers used to come to Las Vegas, and in some cases, hotels or motels where they stayed. But their activities for the most part remain a mystery and the subject of much speculation.
The New York Times reported this week that senior investigators said the terrorists did most of their crucial American planning in Las Vegas. But the local FBI agents said there was no hard evidence to back that up.
Records obtained by Las Vegas agents, however, show that Atta spent a great deal of his time here at the CyberZone, 4440 S. Maryland Parkway, a small business where customers can pay to work on computers, play games or surf the Internet.
Investigators have theorized that the hijackers may have used the Internet to send hidden messages to each other. They also could have been using flight simulator programs to get familiar with the instrument panels of the jetliners they planned to commandeer.
During his first Las Vegas visit on June 28, Atta went to the CyberZone before checking into a local motel the next day, records show.
Agents have no records that show Atta paid for any lodging on June 28, but they have documented that he spent time that afternoon and evening at the CyberZone.
Atta, a 33-year-old urban planner from Egypt, arrived in Las Vegas about 2:41 p.m. on June 28 on a United Airlines flight from San Francisco. He had flown first class from Boston to San Francisco that morning.
On June 29 prior to 1 p.m., Atta checked into the Econo Lodge, a low-budget motel at 1150 Las Vegas Blvd. South. Afterwards, records show, he went to the CyberZone and stayed there into the early evening.
The next day, investigators have learned, Atta went to the CyberZone, which opens at noon, in the early afternoon and left late in the evening. He flew back to Boston first class through Denver on United Airlines early the morning of July 1.
Atta went back to the CyberZone during his second visit to Las Vegas on Aug. 13.
He arrived in the city in the morning on a direct America West flight from Washington and checked into the Econo Lodge by mid-afternoon. Once again he was flying first class.
Records place him at the CyberZone late in the evening that day and leaving after midnight on Aug. 14.
Atta left Las Vegas for the second time in the early afternoon on Aug. 14 on a Continental flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., through Houston. This time he flew coach.
Agents can't account for Atta's whereabouts during both of his trips other than the hours he spent at the CyberZone.
And there is said to be no evidence that any of the other hijackers who visited Las Vegas this summer -- Marwan Al-Shehhi, Ziad Samir Jarrah, Hani Hanjour and Nawaf Alhazmi -- spent time at the CyberZone. All but Alhazmi are believed to have been at the controls of the American jetliners that crashed in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Both Hanjour and Alhazmi were in Las Vegas on Aug. 13, but investigators haven't pinned down their movements.
The FBI in Washington, meanwhile, continues to examine 10 CyberZone hard drives copied just days after the Sept. 11 attacks in an effort to obtain more clues about their activities here.
The New York Times reported this week that agents so far have found no "smoking gun" evidence on the hard drives.
Last week Las Vegas FBI chief Grant Ashley told reporters the FBI may never know what the hijackers were doing here.
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