Attackers Had 'Cookbook' for Terror

N E W   Y O R K, Sept. 27, 2001 -- Perhaps hijack ringleader Mohammed Atta just loved the gambling and the glitz of Las Vegas. But one leading terrorism expert believes his two trips to the Strip this summer are not so innocently explained.

Atta stayed in a $55 a night room in a rundown part of Las Vegas .

"All I've heard is some of the morons who are involved in this activity may have stopped by here to have a little bit of vacation," says Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. "That happens in Las Vegas."

But Atta may have been casing the town in preparation for a terrorist attack.

"Las Vegas possibly was one of the main targets," says Dr. Magnus Ranstorp, deputy director of Scotland's Center for the Study of Terrorism at St. Andrews University. "When you're dealing with someone I think who had such an instrumental role in pulling this operation off, it is entirely plausible that there would have been reconnaissance missions on other targets that would represent the symbol of what would be considered, by Muslims, American decadence."

Ranstorp says that based in a large part on an incredible intelligence discovery: an 18-chapter, 179-page terrorist training manual — a kind of terrorism cookbook — allegedly paid for and distributed by terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. It was found on a computer disk during a raid on a suspected terrorist's apartment in England two years ago.

There may be more than one version of the manual, which according to Ranstorp contains, "all you want to know of how to infiltrate Western societies, if you are a Muslim, to avoid detection."

Chapter One, Lesson One, outlines "The Mission": "The overthrow of the godless governments and their replacement with an Islamic regime." Among the targets listed: embassies and vital economic centers, bridges leading into and out of cites.

"Blasting and destroying places of amusement, immorality, and sin" is cited, but are described as "not vital targets." Given Atta's two mysterious visits to Las Vegas, however, their mention in the manual remains a cause of great concern there.

Chapter and Verse

The manual covers an array of topics, including how prospective terrorists should establish safe houses — something we now know many the 19 suicide hijackers of Sept. 11, did very well.

In Lesson Four, on apartments and hiding places, terrorists are instructed: "It is preferable to rent apartments on the ground floor to facilitate escape, preferably in newly developed areas where people do not know one another."

That's what Atta did. His apartment in a new complex in Coral Springs, Fla., was number 122, a ground floor apartment.

"You know, it's that kind of environment in this building," observed one of his former neighbors, "It's temporary living, so you don't really know who these people are."

As per the manual, Atta and every single one of the other terrorists appear to have shaved their traditional beards — usually a sign of devoutness — and did not wear traditional clothes either.

"They dressed casually," recalls a Laurel, Md. neighbor of some of the suspects. "They wore shorts and t-shirts and flip-flops."

Ranstorp says the manual provides an excellent guide to what terrorists need to know to conduct themselves without raising red flags with neighbors or the police.

The manual also explains how to be cool under scrutiny, as Atta discovered himself briefly during a routine traffic stop in Florida this April. He got a ticket for driving without a license; but the officer believed his story that he had simply left it at home and Atta was not detained. He apparently played it by the book.

Some Rules Broken

But there were some deviations from the terrorists' handbook, based on reports Atta and at least two others who joined him at Shuckems, a bar in Hollywood, Fla., on Sept. 7 — just three days before the suicide attacks.

Atta played video poker, another hijacker drank rum and coke, and another drank vodka — activities specifically forbidden in the book.

One of the suicide terrorists, Ziad Jarrahi, doesn't fit the profile at all. In a videotape from a wedding last year he is seen dancing. He was known to have a fiancé. And he was one of the men drinking at Shuckems that final Friday night.

Ranstorp believes some of the terrorists may not have known their mission was to be a suicide mission.

"It doesn't fit the pattern, of leaving all of that behind then going and killing yourself the next day," he says. "I'm sure that there were individuals on that plane who were not aware exactly what was going to happen, that this was just a hijacking."

Again by the book — which is one of the few clues authorities now have in trying to figure out what's next.