Sun, Sep 16, 2001 page7

• World: FBI suspect said to be a model student

  KEY FIGURE To friends and teachers, Mohamed Atta seemed to be polite, intelligent and tolerant, but some noticed his long absences and a refusal to be seen with women

  • GUARDIAN
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  The man identified by the FBI as one of the key figures in this week's terror offensive on the US was Friday described by his university as an outstanding student who had a keen interest in developing understanding between religions.

  The picture which is starting to emerge of Mohamed Atta could scarcely be further from that of a stereotypical figure of an ignorant and violent fanatic.

  Atta's name featured on the list of 19 men released by the FBI Friday and he is accused of being the man who plunged American Airlines flight 11 into the north tower of the World Trade Center at the start of Tuesday's slaughter in Manhattan.

  But university administrators said that he had been a dedicated student of town planning and urban development who had specialized in urban renewal.

  Professor Dittmar Machule told Britain's Guardian newspaper Friday that the man he knew as Mohamed al-Amir was a "very good student." He added: "He was a very nice young man -- polite, very religious and with a highly developed critical faculty.

  He was alert and observant.

  "That was not just my impression but that of many of those who came into contact with him. There are people who knew him well who are still saying that it couldn't have been Mohamed, it just couldn't have been him."

  However, accounts from several sources point to an elusive figure who changed his appearance frequently, went missing for long periods and left those who knew him confused about his nationality.

  Professor Machule, dean of the faculty of construction engineering, at the technical university at Harburg on the outskirts of Hamburg, has held the chair of town planning since 1982. He has a special interest in the Arab world, having led an excavation in northern Syria.

  German police have said that his student, whose full name was registered as Mohamed Mohamed Al-Amir Awad Eldsayed Atta, is the man identified by the FBI as one of the men responsible for the New York attack.

  The professor personally supervised Mohamed al-Amir's 1999 masters' thesis.

  "I used to see him every couple of weeks. Since we had only a few students in the faculty in those days -- about 40 -- we saw them a lot."

  He added: "At the beginning we spoke often about how religions can live together. It was my feeling that he was very religious but that he accepted everybody else's religion."

  But he said that thinking back on the thesis, there were some phrases and passages which could indicate that the writer might have been susceptible to exploitation by others because of his religious views.

  He declined to elaborate, saying he had been asked by police not to be specific.

  Professor Machule also recalled that there were sometimes long gaps during which Mohamed al-Amir did not attend lectures. "He explained to me that he had family problems and that he had to go back to his family in Cairo. That is often the way with Arab students. I did not think it was at all suspicious."

  The FBI said Friday that Atta had been carrying a United Arab Emirates passport, but they believe this was false and suspect that he may be from North Africa.

  Machule said he understood that Mohammed al-Amir came from Egypt and not the United Arab Emirates as had been reported.

  Asked if that would have helped him target a plane more effectively against the World Trade Center, Machule said: "If he studied architecture then he must have understood the inner construction and workings of a building, but he would have needed to study skyscrapers specially."
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