Maryland state trooper: Hijacker's traffic stop two days before terror attacks 'routine'

PIKESVILLE, Md. - A Maryland state trooper who pulled over one of the Sept. 11 hijackers for speeding two days before the attacks says nothing about the stop would have justified detaining the man. <br> <br> &#34;No red flags at all,&#34; said Trooper Joseph Catalano, who stopped Ziad S. Jarrah on an interstate highway in Maryland. &#34;It was a routine traffic stop.&#34; <br> <br> A videotape of the Maryland traffic stop was released Tuesday by Maryland State Police. Col. David B. Mitchell, the superintendent of state police, said Jarrah was &#34;extremely calm and cooperative.&#34; <br> <br> &#34;There were no circumstances to question the gentleman more than we did,&#34; he said. <br> <br> FBI agent Michael Clemens said Jarrah had a valid visa and was not on any federal lists of suspected terrorists at the time of the stop. <br> <br> Jarrah was later identified as one of the four hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, <br> <br> The tape of Jarrah, taken from a camera mounted on the officer&#39;s dashboard, is fuzzy and focuses on the rear of Jarrah&#39;s rental car. Jarrah is never seen in the tape. <br> <br> Catalano can be seen telling Jarrah he was pulled over for going 90 mph in a 65 mph zone. After a few minutes, Catalano returns and tells Jarrah the fine is $270, gives him a few instructions on how to pay and tells him he is free to go. <br> <br> Mitchell said Jarrah had a valid Virginia driver&#39;s license indicating that he lived in Springfield, Va. <br> <br> In their only verbal exchange, Catalano asked Jarrah if he still lived at the address. State police said Jarrah answered yes, though his response cannot be heard on the tape. <br> <br> After the attacks, FBI found the speeding citation in the car that Jarrah had rented, which was parked at the Newark, N.J., airport. <br> <br> Jarrah spent some time in Maryland before the attacks. Credit card records show Jarrah stayed at a Laurel hotel in August. <br> <br> Jarrah, a Lebanese citizen, had been detained and questioned in the United Arab Emirates in January 2001 after spending two months in Afghanistan and Pakistan. <br> <br> A United Arab Emirates official, who would not say why Jarrah was questioned, told The Associated Press last month that Jarrah left the next day for Germany. <br> <br> Another Sept. 11 hijacker, Hani Hanjour, received a traffic summons for speeding Aug. 1 in Arlington, Va., Arlington County police detective Jim Page said. <br> <br> Hanjour was stopped while driving a van with New Jersey plates. Page said Tuesday that Hanjour, who has been identified as one of the hijackers aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon, had a Florida driver&#39;s license and told an officer he lived in New York City. <br> <br> Police gave him a ticket, which Hanjour later paid. <br> <br> <br>