An Algerian pilot arrested in London was "a lead instructor" of the hijackers who crashed an airliner into the Pentagon, a prosecutor acting on a US warrant said Friday.
Lotfi Raissi, 27, made several trips to the US this summer, and flew with one of the suspected hijackers on June 23 from Las Vegas to Arizona, prosecuting attorney Arvinda Sambir said.
"He was a lead instructor of four of the pilots that were responsible for the hijackings," Sambir said in Bow Street Magistrates Court in central London. "The one that we are concerned about is the one that went into the Pentagon."
Raissi was arrested Friday, after a week in custody, under a warrant from a federal court in Arizona alleging that he gave false information on a Federal Aviation Administration application for a pilot's license. He has not been formally charged with any offense.
Further allegations were expected, Sambir said. "It is no secret that conspiracy to murder is being looked at."
Richard Egan, Raissi's defense lawyer, said his client rejected the allegations.
"He adamantly denies any involvement in the recent appalling tragedies," Egan said outside the court.
Raissi remained in custody pending a further hearing on Oct. 5. US authorities have 60 days to file an extradition request, the Home Office said.
Since the terrorist strikes in Washington and New York City on Sept. 11, 20 people have been arrested in a European sweep for suspected confederates of Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect in the attacks.
Raissi was one of four people detained by British police on Sept. 21. Three were released without charge.
They were identified in news reports as Raissi's 25-year-old wife, Sonia; his 29-year-old brother, Mohamed, and Abu Imard, 44. Imard, who was arrested in Birmingham, was released Friday evening.
Raissi started training for a US commercial pilot's license in 1997, Sambir said. It was unclear where Raissi allegedly attended flight school with the hijackers -- Sambir said he had been at several flight schools, including one in Arizona.
Former employees of the Sawyer School of Aviation in Phoenix said they remembered Raissi using the school's flight simulator at least as recently as 1999 to instruct others.
He often came in late at night with a group of men who huddled around the simulator with him, the employees said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
TAIWAN ISSUE: US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on the first day of meetings that ‘it wouldn’t be a US-China summit without the Taiwan issue coming up’ There were no surprises on the first day of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, as the government reiterated that cross-strait stability is crucial to the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the world. As the two presidents met for a highly anticipated summit yesterday, Chinese state media reported that Xi warned Trump that missteps regarding Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict.” Trump arrived in China with accolades for his host, calling Xi a “great leader” and “friend,” and extending an invitation to visit the White House
RSS