Johnelle’s Meeting with Mohamed Atta by Elias Davidsson, November 2010 Johnelle Bryant, a former loan official at the Florida Department of Agriculture, was interviewed on June 6, 2002 by top journalist Brian Ross on the national program Face To Face (ABC News), and told an incredible story about her meeting with one Mohamed Atta.1 According to her, a person who presented himself as Mohamed Atta visited her office between the end of April and middle of May 2000 to seek a loan of $650,000 in order to finance a crop-dusting plane.2 According to the official account by the U.S. government, Mohamed Atta entered the United States only later, that is on June 3, 2000.3 Ms. Bryant recalled that Atta told her he was originally from Egypt but had moved to Afghanistan due to poliltical pressure. He also mentioned that he had an engineering degree and had gone to school in Germany. After explaining what kind of security he had in his country, he asked would prevent him from going behind the desk and cutting Ms. Bryant’s throat, and making off with the millions of dollars of cash in the safe. He also mentioned to her his admiration for Osama bin Laden and that Al Qaeda needed American members. Excerpts from the interview’s transcript (italics by E.D.) JOHNELLE BRYANT: I'm a formal manager at, for a farm service agency. It's a agency, part of the United States Department of Agriculture. And my main office is located in Homestead, Florida. But my servicing area includes: Dade County, Broward County, and Palm Beach County, and, and Monroe County. BRIAN ROSS: And, and what is it you do actually. Is it like a, a bank sort of, or? JOHNELLE BRYANT: It's similar. Only, it's guaranteed, it's government financed loans for agriculture, for farming, type operations. We make real estate operating loans. BRIAN ROSS: And how long have you been at the office in, in Homestead? JOHNELLE BRYANT: Two years. I started in Homestead, January of 2000. But I have been with my agency for 16 years. BRIAN ROSS: And, when did you first meet someone who you say is Mohamed Atta? What happened? JOHNELLE BRYANT: I met him somewhere between the end of April, around the third week of April to the third week of May of 2000. (...) BRIAN ROSS: And tell me what happened? JOHNELLE BRYANT: He came to my agency to finance an aircraft. A, a crop- duster. 1 Part I: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130304&page;=1; Part II: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130305&page;=1 ; The entire interview is cached here: http://www.aldeilis.net/english/index.php?option=com_content&view;=article&id;=2269:the-entire-johnelle-bryant- interview-by-abc-news&catid;=264:hijackers-living-style&Itemid;=333 2BBC News, 7 June 2002 3Final Report of the 9/11 Commission, Chapter 7.2, p. 224

BRIAN ROSS: That's what he told you. JOHNELLE BRYANT: That's what he told me. Yes, sir. BRIAN ROSS: What, what'd he say? JOHNELLE BRYANT: It, it wasn't actually a crop-duster in itself that he was wanting to finance. He wanted to finance a twin-engine, six-passenger aircraft, that he could use as both a charter flights, and remove the, the seats. And he said he was an engineer, and he wanted to build a chemical tank that would fit inside the aircraft, and take up every available square inch of the aircraft, except for where the pilot would be sitting. And run the spray nozzles along the wind span. And use it as both a crop-duster plane, and as a charter plane. BRIAN ROSS: And when he came, did he, what name did he give you? JOHNELLE BRYANT: Mohamed Atta. And I was taking notes. We typically take notes of a, it's considered an initial applicant interview. And while taking notes, I, I wrote his name down. And I spelled it A-T-T-A-H, and he told me, "No, A-T-T-A, as in 'Atta boy!'" (...) JOHNELLE BRYANT: And he told me that he was originally from Egypt, I believe. But that he had actually moved here from Afghanistan. And, I believe, he told me that he moved from Egypt to Afghanistan, having to do with some kind of political pressure. But I don't, I don't remember exactly what it was. He also mentioned that he had an engineering degree and had gone to school in Germany. Because when we were talking about the aircraft, and the chemical tank, he was wanting to put in the aircraft, I, I mentioned that a tank of that size wouldn't fit through the door. And he said that he was a, an engineer, and that he knew how to solve those problems. He told me that he had sold all of his belongings at home, to move to the United States to start his dream, which was to go to flight school, and, and get his pilot's license, and work both as a charter pilot, and a, a crop duster, too. (...) JOHNELLE BRYANT: (...) He actually believed that he could walk into the office and say that he needed $650,000 to purchase an aircraft with. And that I would give him $650,000 in cash. BRIAN ROSS: So he must have been very disappointed. JOHNELLE BRYANT: Yes, sir. He was. What, what kind of compounded that was the fact that our agency, we have a very large, very old safe. A great big black safe. And it happened to be in my office. Yes. And he, he asked me what would, and he asked this in a rhetorically. After explaining what kind of security they had in his, in his country, he asked me what would prevent him without the, with any visual, audio security equipment, behind my desk and in my office with that safe sitting there. He asked me what would prevent 2

him from going behind my desk and cutting my throat, and making off with the millions of dollars of cash in that safe. And, I told him that, well I kind of laughed. I mean I didn't laugh at him. But I chuckled a little bit about it. And I thought well, for one thing. I told him for one thing, there's, there's no cash in that safe. And then I explained to him about the evidence of indebtedness. And then, and he asked about, well, when you get a loan, you get cash. You get money. And you make loans so you have money. And I said, well, we do make loans, sir. (...) But we never handle cash. There's absolutely no cash in that safe. And so then he asked me what the second thing was that would prevent him from coming behind my desk. And you've got to understand that when he said this, he said it in a rhetorical manner, as compared to the lack of security in my office, versus what he was accustomed to, at, at home. And? BRIAN ROSS: But, he said, "What would prevent me from cutting your throat?" JOHNELLE BRYANT: "Coming behind your desk and cutting your throat and making, and making off with all the cash in that safe because you don't have any security in your office." And so I told him, "No, there's no cash in, in the safe, number one. And I told him number two, my, my training would prevent him from coming behind the desk and cutting my throat." And he asked me, and he kind of, he kind of, stepped back. And he said, "So you've had military training?" I said, "Oh, no, sir, I've never been in the military." And he, he mentioned something about that he understood that the United States allowed women in the armed forces now. But that he didn't understand, he didn't actually realize that, that they, they were given combat training. I said, "No, no I've never been in the military." And so then he asked me what kind of training that I had. And I told him that I took about six months of karate training. Koname Ru, karate training. And he asked what karate was. He asked if that was similar to tae kwon do. I said yes, it is, it's just a type of martial arts training. And he was very surprised that a woman would have that kind of training. And he was very interested in that kind of training. And he wanted to know how, once he became settled down, in, in the United States, how he could take that kind of training. And I told him that, just look it up in the Yellow Pages. (...) JOHNELLE BRYANT: He, he, the entire time he was in my office, his, his emotions kept going up and down, and up and down. At one point in time, when I told him that he, we were unable to finance the type of operation he was interested in, he, he kind of jumped back in his chair, and he started accusing me of discriminating against him because he was not a United States citizen. And he was from a foreign country. And so I tried to talk to him very nicely, and calm him back down. (...) BRIAN ROSS: So he asked you about the picture over your wall? JOHNELLE BRYANT: Yes (...) I told him that I, I used to work in Washington, D.C., in the national office as well, and um, he, he saw this picture, which was a going-away gift to me from uh, the people that I worked with in Washington, and he asked me if the autograph at the bottom of it were famous members of parliament. I told him that actually they're really close friends of mine that I worked with while in Washington, D.C., and I explained to him that we don't actually have a parliament, that uh, we have a House of Representatives and senators. 3

He actually tried to purchase the picture from me and he, he pulled out a wad of cash about that thick around and started throwing money on my desk. He wanted that picture really bad. He said that it was a beautiful picture of Washington, D.C., and um, I explained to him that it was a gift and that it was not for sale. And at that point he just more money down on the desk. And, I, I, I told him that, I said, "You don't understand. It's a gift. Thi-this picture is not for sale, not for anything." And so then he said that um,? BRIAN ROSS: Why did he want it so badly did he say? JOHNELLE BRYANT: He just said that it was one of the prettiest, one of the, the best he'd ever see of Washington. Ah, with the panoramic view, it does catch all the buildings and um, all the monuments in, in one photograph. (...) BRIAN ROSS: When he, when he looked at this aerial view, did he ask about any specific buildings or where things were? JOHNELLE BRYANT: Mm-hmm. Uh-huh, he asked about the Pentagon and the White House and I pointed them out. Um. BRIAN ROSS: He asked about the Pentagon? JOHNELLE BRYANT: Yes, sir, he did. And he asked about the White House and, and the Capital (sic), um, which this, the photograph encompasses all that as well as all the Smithsonians and the monuments too. BRIAN ROSS: And you showed them. JOHNELLE BRYANT: Right, in fact, he picked out where the Pentagon was, himself. BRIAN ROSS: In addition to his interest in Washington, Pentagon, the White House, the Capitol, were there other areas of the United States he seemed interested in? JOHNELLE BRYANT: Yes, sir. When he told me that um, he was more excited about moving to the United States and that he, there were places he wanted to see such as Washington, D.C. He also told me he wanted to go to New York and visit the World Trade Center. BRIAN ROSS: That's what he said? JOHNELLE BRYANT: Yes, sir. And he asked me if I'd ever been there. And I told him that I had, it had been a couple of years, but yes, I had been there and that, um, if he goes to uh, to New York that I recommend him going to the top to the obs-, observing deck and, if he went, to be sure and go right at sunset because you can take pictures off the top of it at sunset and it's beautiful pictures because that's, that's what I had done. And he asked me again if he would have any problems getting there. Um, and he would say, "Yeah, in his country ah, someone such as myself while I was 4

visiting the country, I wouldn't be allowed to something like that." And, I told him again that I, to my knowledge he as a visitor, um, as long as he had an ID with him that he could go just about anywhere he wanted to. And he asked about the security to get it and I told him it was like at an airport, it was uh, uh, metal detector and most likely they search bags and that's, that's what he would, he would come across in the United States. (...) BRIAN ROSS: Right. Did he talk about his own political beliefs, heroes? JOHNELLE BRYANT: Uh, yes he did. When he, when he asked me about leaving Washington, D.C., and asked if I'd been banished, um, and I tried to tell him that I hadn't, he, he started talking about um, an organization that uh, back in his country, and he kept referring to his country and I can only assume now that he was referring to Afghanistan. At the time I didn't know if he meant Egypt or Afghanistan, um, that [SIGH] uh, they had an organization in, and he, I couldn't understand, he got really emotional when he talked about it, like really excited about it. And, um, he said that they, they could use people. In other words, that they could use people, um, as, as members. They could use memberships from Americans, um. ? BRIAN ROSS: In his ... [OVERLAP] [INAUDIBLE] JOHNELLE BRYANT: In this organization, um. With, with the type of background that I, that I had, working with Washington and all this stuff, and he, and when he would mention it, he, his accent came out and I didn't have a clue what he was talking about prior to Sept. 11. I'd never heard of Osama bin Laden. I'd never heard of al Qaeda. I'm sure I'd read about it at one point or time in the paper, but it, it wasn't something that I discussed. BRIAN ROSS: Did he give you a name? JOHNELLE BRYANT: Yes, he um, I know now that he talking about al Qaeda, but the way pronounced it, it sounded like he was talking about a woman's name. He kept saying uh, it sound like, Akeda, Akeda, "Surely you've heard. Surely you know, Akeda." And I went, "Oh yeah, yeah, yeah right." [LAUGHS] I mean, I didn't know what he was talking about. BRIAN ROSS: But he mentioned. JOHNELLE BRYANT: Yes, he mentioned it. BRIAN ROSS: Al Qaeda. JOHNELLE BRYANT: He, he mentioned Al Qaeda. He mentioned Osama bin Laden. And ? BRIAN ROSS: He mentioned Osama bin Laden? JOHNELLE BRYANT: Yes, sir. And when he, when he mentioned it. I didn't have a clue what he was talking about and, and? 5

BRIAN ROSS: You'd never heard of Osama bin Laden at that point? JOHNELLE BRYANT: Not that I'd re-, remember. This was prior, this was nearly 18 months give or take prior to Sept. 11, so no, I didn't know who Osama bin Laden was. Um, to me, it was, you know, he could have been a character on Star Wars for all I knew. ... BRIAN ROSS: But he mentioned Osama bin Laden to you. JOHNELLE BRYANT: Yeah, he said, he mentioned that um, this man would someday be known as the world's greatest leader. I didn't know who he was talking about. (...) The interview with Ms. Bryant was not the first time her name appeared in the media. On September 25, 2001, the Washington Post wrote about a “man who the FBI believes flew an American Airlines plane into the World Trade Center Sept. 11 [and] apparently walked into a U.S. Department of Agriculture office in Florida last year” to ask about a loan to buy a crop-duster plane.4 At a reporter’s request, Kevin Kelley, state executive director for the USDA’s Florida Farm Service Agency, contacted Johnell (sic) Bryant to ask what had happened. Kelley said Bryant refused to comment: "She said she was told by authorities not to speak about it.” FBI officials also declined to comment5 and refused a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request by this author to release a summary of their interview with Johnelle Bryant. Robert Epling, president of Community Bank of Florida, said he received a call from the FBI between the 15th and the 18th of September (2001) saying that Mohamed Atta had gone into a USDA office that until then was located in the bank’s building. The Washington Post added that “several USDA employees had (...) identified Atta to the FBI, and recalled that he wore Tommy Hilfiger clothes and a lot of cologne, according to the FBI version of events provided to the bank.”6 According to Brian Ross, Johnelle “went to the FBI once she recognized Atta's pictures after September 11th, and hours after she passed a polygraph test, they grounded all crop dusters and began to investigate general aviation. She decided to talk to us to despite an order from the Department of Agriculture that she could lose her job if she did. She feels it's important for people to know that terrorists could show up, they don't have a 'T' on their forehead."7 The BBC published a report about Johnelle Bryant’s meeting with Mohamed Atta on June 7, 2002.8 According to the Guardian, “Ms Bryant said she never reported the incident before September 11, saying there was no way she or anyone else could have detected Atta was a terrorist. Shortly after September 11, Ms Bryant recognised Atta's photo and alerted authorities. A federal law enforcement official told the Associated Press that Ms Bryant's information had contributed to an 4Rick Weiss and Justin Blum, Suspect May Have Wanted to Buy Plane; Inquiries Reported On Crop-Duster Loan, The Washington Post, September 25, 2001 5Ibid. 6Ibid. Note that pious Muslims do not use perfume or bear jewels. 7USDA Employee Says Atta Sought Government Loan To Finance Terror Plot, Bulletin Frontrunner, June 7, 2002, http://www.bulletinnews.com/frontrunner.aspx 8Twin towers hijacker ‘sought US loan’, BBC, 7 June 2002, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2031563.stm 6

FBI warning about possible terrorist use of crop dusters.”9 Robert Epling of Community Bank of Florida, cited by Associated Press of September 25, 2001, said he was told that Mohamed Atta, one of the suspected hijackers, sought a USDA loan for a crop duster. The USDA was a tenant in the bank, which checked its files about Atta at the request of the FBI.10 * * * * * Johnelle Bryant’s account shows unmistakenly that her visitor wanted to leave the impression of being a rather sinister person by the name of Mohamed Atta, who admired Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, studied in Germany, lived in Egypt and Afghanistan, was interested in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and wanted to use an aircraft in a suspicious manner. He certainly expected that she would report their meeting to her colleagues and superiors, which she apparently did. What are we to make of this story? The following explanations spring to mind: (a) Johnelle Bryant invented a story This explanation can be rejected out of hand because ABC News would certainly check Bryant’s credentials and credibility before putting her on a national programme. The FBI acted in fact on Bryant’s story. (b) Johnelle Bryant was hired to tell a fake story In order to accept this explanation, one would have to believe that Ms. Bryant would accept to lie on national television and expose herself to ridicule for the rest of her life. One would also have to believe that some undisclosed agency would prepare here for his role, with the risk that she will reveal her superiors. Such an explanation is extremely tenuous. (c) The meetings between Bryant and Atta took place after June 3, 2000 Even if the interview took place after June 3, 2000, this fact would not prove that Bryant’s visitor was Mohamed El-Amir Atta who studied in Hamburg, Germany. It would remain necessary to explain why such a person would wish to tell an American federal employee all what he did. (d) The person who visited Johnelle Bryant was a hired impersonator of Mohamed Atta (a doubleganger) It defies common sense that a person planning to commit a terrorist act in the United States would voluntarily tell a federal employee how he admires Osama bin Laden, that Al Qaeda needs American members and ask her about the security in the World Trade Center. It defies common sense that such a person would voluntarily promote suspicion about his plans and about his inclinations, as Bryant tells us her visitor did. It should be further noted that Bryant did go “public” against the wishes of the FBI and of her agency. We note, for example, that the 9/11 Commission did not mention in one word Johnelle Bryant’s meeting with Mohamed Atta and mass media, apart from a few reports one day after the 9Hijacker ‘applied for US plane loan’, The Guardian (UK), June 7, 2002, Doc.021-Bryant3.pdf 10 Doc.038-AP.pdf 7