FBI Checking Novelty Passport, Library Computers

FBI Checking Novelty Passport, Library Computers

by Ken Thomas
The Associated Press
October 3, 2001

The FBI is investigating whether one of the suspected suicide hijackers received a novelty passport from the Conch Republic, a quirky Key West group that espouses "the mitigation of world tension through the exercise of humor."

Peter Anderson, the group's secretary general, said Wednesday that a man named Mohamed Atta was issued a passport in September 2000. Anderson said he met with investigators last Wednesday. The FBI believes a man named Mohamed Atta was the pilot of one of the planes that toppled the World Trade Center in New York.

A Republic registration book also lists an "Atta" in September 2000 but Anderson said he's unsure whether it was signed by the suspected hijacker.

"It has not yet been confirmed to me that the Mohamed Atta to which we issued a passport is the Mohamed Atta that committed the heinous act on the United States," Anderson said.

Atta was a flight student at Huffman Aviation in Venice on Florida's Gulf Coast during the summer and fall of 2000.

FBI spokesman Judy Orihuela in Miami declined to comment on the report.

The Keys group issues about 5,000 red and blue passports embossed with the Republic's seal every year, Anderson said.

The passport has been used to travel through some Caribbean countries and Canada but it is not a legal travel document, he said. Anyone trying to use them while traveling overseas would draw attention to themselves, he said.

The Republic describes itself on its Web site as "the world's first "Fifth World" country," a "State of Mind" that aspires "only to bring more warmth, humor and respect to a planet we find in sore need of all three."

Anderson declined to say what documents he turned over to investigators. He said anyone who applies for the passport must complete an application and submit three passport photos, sign an affidavit, and provide a notarized copy of a photo identification from their country of origin.

Searching for traces of the hijackers, investigators revisited Broward County's main library in Fort Lauderdale and a regional library in Coral Springs on Tuesday, library director Sam Morrison said Wednesday. He declined further comment.

The FBI subpoenaed Morrison to provide information on the possible use of computer terminals by some of the suspected terrorists in the Hollywood area.

Internet surfers leave records on computer hard drives that can be recovered long after the user logs off, said Kristin Nimsger, a legal consultant for Minneapolis-based Ontrack Data International.

Nimsger said computer forensic analysts can recover entire e-mail messages and addresses. She said, however, that e-mail messages are the most difficult to recover because they are not often stored on hard drives.

She said the easiest information to find are cookies - files stored on a hard drive that show what Web sites have been visited. It's also easy to recover graphics from Web pages that were viewed, giving investigators a hint to the kind of pages that were opened, she said.

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