Report sheds no new light on terrorists' Georgia connections

<p>The connection between the Sept. 11 hijackers and Georgia remains a mystery even after the 9/11 Commission Report.</p><p>The report Thursday conceded that investigators were unable to determine why three of the four terrorists at the controls of the commandeered airliners were in the Atlanta area while preparing for the attacks.</p><p>Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, believed to be the two who piloted the airliners that were crashed into the World Trade Center towers, spent time in Norcross and Decatur and rented a single-engine airplane at Gwinnett County Airport-Briscoe Field in Lawrenceville about eight months before the 2001 attacks.</p><p>Ziad Jarrah, who crashed a hijacked plane into a rural Pennsylvania field, came to Decatur at roughly the same time.</p><p>"Atta and Shehhi visited Georgia, staying briefly in Norcross and Decatur, and renting a single-engine plane to fly with an instructor in Lawrenceville," the report said.</p><p>"By Feb. 19, Atta and Shehhi were in Virginia. They rented a mailbox in Virginia Beach, cashed a check, and then promptly returned to Georgia, staying in Stone Mountain. We have no explanation for these travels.</p><p>"In mid-March, Jarrah was in Georgia as well, staying in Decatur. There is no evidence that the three pilots met, although Jarrah and Atta apparently spoke on the phone."</p><p>The report's authors gave no indication the suicide pilots visited anyone in Georgia or planned to target Atlanta's airport or other high-profile locations in the state.</p><p>Jarrah flew to Atlanta from Germany in June 2000, and he bought an airline ticket from a Decatur travel agent for a flight to Germany nine months later. Atta and al-Shehhi stayed at the Suburban Lodge in Decatur for several weeks and bought a 30-day health club membership at a nearby gym, according to published reports.</p><p>Atta, the Egyptian leader of the suicide terrorists, also flew aboard an airliner from Madrid, Spain, to Atlanta less than two months before the attacks.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2866404)</p>