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Old Dear Interviewed by the Yard

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Old 24th Sep 2001, 14:30
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Post Old Dear Interviewed by the Yard

Why did she spend 6 months training in the States, thats what I want to know? Sure they don't mean 6 weeks (Journo's doing their usual thing...) - Six weeks is more in line with a PPL... unless of course she's a tad slow..

'I flew with a terrorist'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1560000/1 560305.stm


Anne Greaves: "He had a cold steeliness about him"

A British woman who learned to fly with suspected terrorist Mohammad Atta is helping the FBI in its investigation into the terrorist attacks on the US.
Anne Greaves, from Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands, spent six months at a flying school in Florida with Atta.

She told the BBC he was "fixated" with a "cold steely determination".

Mrs Greaves said Atta showed no sign of emotion throughout the six months she trained with him and at times appeared to be in a trance.

I was very distraught knowing I was so close to people like them

Anne Greaves
The 56-year-old former osteopath attended the Huffman Aviation School in Florida just over a year ago to fulfil her lifetime ambiton of learning to how to fly.

"I was told by my instructor that he was an Arab prince and his companion was his bodyguard. But I didn't believe it," she said.

She thought if he was royalty he would be training at a military establishment.

"I noticed his determination. He had a cold steeliness about him. Sadly, that did not tie in with love of aviation or anything like it.

"He was fixated on achieving something but without the pride and pleasure of doing something you enjoy."

Working with FBI

Mrs Greaves said she had daily contact with Atta as they trained in their Piper Cherokee Warrior.

"I never saw them talking to anybody. They kept very much to themselves.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Scotland Yard have both talked to Mrs Greaves already about her encounter.

She is apparently helping them to try to establish psychological profiles of the terrorists who carried out the attack on the World Trade Center.

She said she felt utter disbelief when she found she had been training amongst terrorists.

"I was very distraught knowing I was so close to people like them."

[ 24 September 2001: Message edited by: rustbucket732 ]
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Old 24th Sep 2001, 17:52
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I like the way she's sitting in the CP seat!
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Old 24th Sep 2001, 19:18
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Search for terrorists extended to Scottish flying schools

by Andrew Black. Aberdeen Press and Journal

HIGHLAND CID officers visited a Caithness flying school as part of ongoing investigations into the US terrorist attacks.

Andrew Bruce, owner of Far North Flight Training, said yesterday he had received unusual e-mails from "areas in middle Europe", inquiring about his training school.

He said detectives wanted to know if anyone of "unusual origin" had asked about flight training in Wick, with a view to learning to fly in the North.

"I'm not surprised at all that I got a visit from the police," he said.

"These pilots (terrorists) have trained at similar schools in America, so the police coming here to make inquiries seems like a very good place to start."

Details of the visit emerged as a British defence analyst claimed members of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organisation may have been trained in the Highlands, during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

It was reported yesterday that checks were made at other Scottish airfields including Glasgow, Cumbernauld, Prestwick, Perth, Edinburgh and Fife.

A spokesman for Tayside Police confirmed there had been an increased police presence at Dundee Airport following the terrorist attacks in America but he denied any investigation into flight training had been carried out by CID officers.

He said: "There has been high-profile police activity with officers attending the airport for public reassurance. There has been no inquiry made about people learning to fly, the police presence is just a show of strength to reassure the public who are still using aircraft."

However, officers from Wick Police Station visited Far North Flight Training, based at the town's airport. The company was started in 1991 and also supplies aviation fuel.

Wick CID officer Detective Sergeant Duncan Fraser yesterday confirmed general inquiries had taken place at the flight school with regard to the terrorist attacks, although he would not comment on reports that Special Branch had been involved in the visit.

Mr Bruce said: "You can go into a computer store and buy a program to put on your desktop computer that will show you how to fly a 767. The standards that flight simulators are at now are incredible.

"They (the terrorists) could have trained on a simulator and then just gone up in the real things. They are very realistic.

"These people would not even have had to have training in light aircraft.

"There were a couple of strange queries on e-mail, from areas in middle Europe, asking for all the information I had on learning to fly. The police wanted to know if anyone of unusual origin had asked about flight training in Wick, with a view to coming to the North of Scotland to learn to fly."

Defence analyst John Nichols said members of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organisation may have been trained in the Highlands.

Mr Nichols, a former RAF pilot who was taken hostage during the Gulf War, said his interrogators in Iraq had been trained in Britain.

He said it illustrated the difficulties in building "coalitions" with countries which may become enemies at a later date.

He said: "When the mujahidin were fighting their war against the Soviet Union, our special forces flew them into Luton Airport and transported them up to the Highlands of Scotland to train them in the use of terrorist activities against the Soviet Union.

"This is the whole problem with all of this – if you look at Iraq in the 1970s and 1980s during the war against Iran, we supported Iraq, trained Iraqi pilots in our air force and the Government was more than happy to export the basics of chemical weapons to Iraq. These things are well-known.

"One of the officers that interrogated me went to one of our joint services defence schools in the South of England. If you have a foreign policy, you are getting involved in other countries' affairs and once you are involving yourself in other people's affairs your foreign policy is not ethical.

"Whatever we do in the coming weeks, months and even years, something will come back to bite us in further years."

Mr Nichols said current intelligence efforts should concentrate on preventing another devastating attack such as the World Trade Centre attack.
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Old 24th Sep 2001, 19:57
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Wht is it they always trawl this guy John Nichols up? didn't realise he is now calling himself a defence analyst, and, to the best of my knowledge he used to sit behind the pilot.

It's a sad state of affairs when the general public is subjected to this drivel. Don't they have anything better to report??
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Old 26th Sep 2001, 21:32
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SWEDE-BASHER
You must remember that the press always try to get expert views forgeting that an EX is a Has-Been nbd a spurt is a Drip under pressure hence the press version of an EXPERT??? :
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Old 27th Sep 2001, 01:40
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Hey guys - unfair. Perhaps it is justpossible that they do occasionallly ask people who do know what they're talking about?

Makes a change from asking the usual numpty at an air display incident to give his ex-spurt opinion which results in "...looked to me like the pilot was showing-off...". Tw@ts.
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Old 27th Sep 2001, 14:43
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How long is it befor we get reports of arab terrorists parachuting in dressed as nuns ?

This paranoia has gone too far.
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