HIJACKER IN THE FAMILY
September 2001 622
(ABC Australia Reporter Tim Palmer)
KERRY O'BRIEN: The FBI has identified 19 men - or 19 people - as the suspected hijackers - none of whom appear to fit the normal stereotype of the terrorist. They didn't come from desperate or impoverished circumstances. Nor did they seem like religious fanatics.
They came from comfortable middle class backgrounds with a good education, which makes the threat they represent all the more frightening. One of them, Ziad Samir Jarrah was on Flight 93 which crashed in Pennsylvania. ABC correspondent Tim Palmer has just visited his family home in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
TIM PALMER: Ziad Samir Jarrah's family hasn't heard from him for a week. They hope he's alive, but fear he's dead - an innocent victim, they say, in the 757 jet that crashed in Pennsylvania last Tuesday. What they can't accept is the very thing the FBI has suggested, that Ziad Jarrah was part of a conspiracy to murder thousands.
JAMAL JARRAH, UNCLE: The last time he called, talking to his father as usual, laughing, making jokes on the phone. We are living in the hope that our Ziad Jarrah, is not the one who was on the plane.
TIM PALMER: But you haven't heard from him?
JAMAL JARRAH: We haven't heard from him.
TIM PALMER: Even at the height of the Lebanese civil war, the Sunni Muslim villagers of Maj, say their town escaped the influence of extremists Hezbollah guerillas and the Bekaa valley's then famous drug trade. But now, after a decade of peace, one of the town's sons stands accused of the worst terror attack of all.
(FOOTAGE -- SEPTEMBER 11) The FBI lists Ziad Samir Jarrah as one of 19 hijackers, putting him on United Airlines flight 93 from New Jersey last Tuesday. For the past two days, the Jarrah family has been receiving guests, not in mourning, they insist, believing it may still be, that Ziad wasn't aboard the hijacked plane.
They simply dismiss the suggestion that he was involved in the hijacking conspiracy.
TIM PALMER: It's not the typical picture of someone - JAMAL JARRAH: Not the typical picture of a religious person.
TIM PALMER: Or of a religious terrorist in this case.
JAMAL JARRAH: If he's not a religious person, then he couldn't be in any way a religious terrorist.
TIM PALMER: Certainly Ziad Samir Jarrah's background from his family's description, suggests nothing sinister, from a well-off middle class family with relatively Liberal views, educated at Christian schools, pursuing a career in aviation at a German university and lately, at a Miami flight school.
He planned to marry. The family has railed at suggestions he was connected to other hijackers in Germany or in Miami, that he'd stopped paying his university fees or travelled to Afghanistan.
TIM PALMER: Could Ziad fly a plane?
JAMAL JARRAH: No. I don't think so.
TIM PALMER: Was he a religious extremist?
JAMAL JARRAH: No, no. He was living a very, very normal life.
TIM PALMER: Had he ever been to Afghanistan, as has been suggested?
JAMAL JARRAH: No. No. The rumour as I understand, sticks to Ziad, just to complete the story.
TIM PALMER: Ziad Jarrah's father sent him money just days ago. Perhaps he was planning to take a holiday in Los Angeles, it's suggested, but the family concedes he'd said nothing of any trip.
TIM PALMER: Can you explain why he's flying from New Jersey?
JAMAL JARRAH: I have no explanation for that.
TIM PALMER: So fearful are the people of Mjarrs, that at many of the shops that carry the family name of Jarrah, we were accused of spying for potential American reprisal attacks.
MAN: If there is an attack to Lebanon or something like that, they should be afraid of this and we all are scared of something.
TIM PALMER: Struggling with fear and confusion, the people of Mjarrs say that the FBI has a lot left to do to convince them that Ziad Jarrah should be considered a suspect.
He's no neat fit into any conspiracy puzzle, with no clear motivation or any obvious ties to an identifiable organisation, that Washington may want to strike with its antiterrorist coalition. Veteran observer of Middle East politics Sarid Khazen says while Ziad Jarrah's background differs greatly from the model of the terrorist of the past, this attack destroyed that model.
SARID KHAZEN, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY, BEIRUT: There's nothing classical in all this. Most of these people lived in the US or in western countries, had access to a good education, some of them. Some were pilots. I think they were well to do people.
They were well off. They come from well-off families. We're not talking about destitute, poor individuals.
TIM PALMER: Dr Khazen says the mystery over Ziad Jarrah shows how slowly the US may be forced to move in response. The biggest question of all, he says, is the lack of any demand or claim of responsibility following the attack.
SARID KHAZEN: The fact that you can have 19 people who are willing to die for a cause they believed in, but a cause that we as observers are unable to identify and understand.
TIM PALMER: And while the world and investigators struggle with that question of why, Mjarrs in the Bekaa Valley waits to hear what happened to an only son, with everything to live for.
September 2001 622
(ABC Australia Reporter Tim Palmer)
KERRY O'BRIEN: The FBI has identified 19 men - or 19 people - as the suspected hijackers - none of whom appear to fit the normal stereotype of the terrorist. They didn't come from desperate or impoverished circumstances. Nor did they seem like religious fanatics.
They came from comfortable middle class backgrounds with a good education, which makes the threat they represent all the more frightening. One of them, Ziad Samir Jarrah was on Flight 93 which crashed in Pennsylvania. ABC correspondent Tim Palmer has just visited his family home in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
TIM PALMER: Ziad Samir Jarrah's family hasn't heard from him for a week. They hope he's alive, but fear he's dead - an innocent victim, they say, in the 757 jet that crashed in Pennsylvania last Tuesday. What they can't accept is the very thing the FBI has suggested, that Ziad Jarrah was part of a conspiracy to murder thousands.
JAMAL JARRAH, UNCLE: The last time he called, talking to his father as usual, laughing, making jokes on the phone. We are living in the hope that our Ziad Jarrah, is not the one who was on the plane.
TIM PALMER: But you haven't heard from him?
JAMAL JARRAH: We haven't heard from him.
TIM PALMER: Even at the height of the Lebanese civil war, the Sunni Muslim villagers of Maj, say their town escaped the influence of extremists Hezbollah guerillas and the Bekaa valley's then famous drug trade. But now, after a decade of peace, one of the town's sons stands accused of the worst terror attack of all.
(FOOTAGE -- SEPTEMBER 11) The FBI lists Ziad Samir Jarrah as one of 19 hijackers, putting him on United Airlines flight 93 from New Jersey last Tuesday. For the past two days, the Jarrah family has been receiving guests, not in mourning, they insist, believing it may still be, that Ziad wasn't aboard the hijacked plane.
They simply dismiss the suggestion that he was involved in the hijacking conspiracy.
TIM PALMER: It's not the typical picture of someone - JAMAL JARRAH: Not the typical picture of a religious person.
TIM PALMER: Or of a religious terrorist in this case.
JAMAL JARRAH: If he's not a religious person, then he couldn't be in any way a religious terrorist.
TIM PALMER: Certainly Ziad Samir Jarrah's background from his family's description, suggests nothing sinister, from a well-off middle class family with relatively Liberal views, educated at Christian schools, pursuing a career in aviation at a German university and lately, at a Miami flight school.
He planned to marry. The family has railed at suggestions he was connected to other hijackers in Germany or in Miami, that he'd stopped paying his university fees or travelled to Afghanistan.
TIM PALMER: Could Ziad fly a plane?
JAMAL JARRAH: No. I don't think so.
TIM PALMER: Was he a religious extremist?
JAMAL JARRAH: No, no. He was living a very, very normal life.
TIM PALMER: Had he ever been to Afghanistan, as has been suggested?
JAMAL JARRAH: No. No. The rumour as I understand, sticks to Ziad, just to complete the story.
TIM PALMER: Ziad Jarrah's father sent him money just days ago. Perhaps he was planning to take a holiday in Los Angeles, it's suggested, but the family concedes he'd said nothing of any trip.
TIM PALMER: Can you explain why he's flying from New Jersey?
JAMAL JARRAH: I have no explanation for that.
TIM PALMER: So fearful are the people of Mjarrs, that at many of the shops that carry the family name of Jarrah, we were accused of spying for potential American reprisal attacks.
MAN: If there is an attack to Lebanon or something like that, they should be afraid of this and we all are scared of something.
TIM PALMER: Struggling with fear and confusion, the people of Mjarrs say that the FBI has a lot left to do to convince them that Ziad Jarrah should be considered a suspect.
He's no neat fit into any conspiracy puzzle, with no clear motivation or any obvious ties to an identifiable organisation, that Washington may want to strike with its antiterrorist coalition. Veteran observer of Middle East politics Sarid Khazen says while Ziad Jarrah's background differs greatly from the model of the terrorist of the past, this attack destroyed that model.
SARID KHAZEN, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY, BEIRUT: There's nothing classical in all this. Most of these people lived in the US or in western countries, had access to a good education, some of them. Some were pilots. I think they were well to do people.
They were well off. They come from well-off families. We're not talking about destitute, poor individuals.
TIM PALMER: Dr Khazen says the mystery over Ziad Jarrah shows how slowly the US may be forced to move in response. The biggest question of all, he says, is the lack of any demand or claim of responsibility following the attack.
SARID KHAZEN: The fact that you can have 19 people who are willing to die for a cause they believed in, but a cause that we as observers are unable to identify and understand.
TIM PALMER: And while the world and investigators struggle with that question of why, Mjarrs in the Bekaa Valley waits to hear what happened to an only son, with everything to live for.