Moreover, the FBI knew about the U.S. visit of Cairo attorney Mohammed El-Amir almost immediately after the attack, when, after seeing him on television denying that his son had anything to do with the terrorist hijackings, a number of credible witnesses called the Sarasota office of the FBI to report they had seen Atta’s father in Venice with his son ten days to two weeks before the attack.

In addition, closed circuit videotape provided to the FBI as evidence of Atta Senior’s presence appears to have been intentionally erased.

"Remember where you heard it first."

The revelation is yet another major contradiction of the FBI’s official account of the 911 attack, and it comes hard on the heels of news that a military intelligence unit called Able Danger was tracking Atta’s movements in America in 1999 and early 2000. at a time when the FBI steadfastly maintains Atta was not yet in the U.S.

Atta first arrived in the U.S. on June 3, 2000, according to the FBI. The glaring “discrepancy” has begun fueling urgent calls for an reappraisal of the Bureau’s entire 9.11 investigation.

When the FBI’s official story about Mohamed Atta’s timeline, activities, and numerous close non-Arab associates in the U.S. is finally shown to be riddled with untruths and deliberate deception, it will come as no surprise to readers of the MadCowMorningNews and “Welcome to TerrorLand.”

Could things get any worse for the beleaguered FBI?

The answer appears to be an emphatic yes. In addition to not informing either the 9.11 Commission or the Congressional Intelligence probe which preceded it about Mohamed Atta Senior’s U.S. visit, closed circuit videotape provided to the FBI with evidence of his presence has apparently been erased.

When a pharmacy in Venice provided the Bureau with videotapes from the store’s closed circuit cameras as proof of the visit of Atta, his father, and Marwan Al-Shehhi to the store, it was returned 10 days later, minus “excisions” in the tape from the afternoon of August 28, 2001, the date of the three men’s visit to the store.

Sending a fax to--where else?--New Jersey

We first learned of Atta Senior’s presence in Venice in a casual conversation with a Venice pharmacist who has been known to us for over 25 years, since my parents bought a retirement home here after my father suffered a series of heart attacks.

Accompanied by Mohamed Atta and his bodyguard Marwan Al-Shehhi, the pharmacist stated that Mohamed Atta Senior had been in his pharmacy several weeks before the attack, to send a fax.

“We have just about the only public fax in town,” the pharmacist stated. “The fax went to a number in New Jersey.”

Why is this man being protected by the FBI?

While Atta’s father stood at the counter supervising the sending of the fax, he related, Atta and Marwan took chairs in the pharmacy waiting area. When Mohamed Atta impatiently got up out of his chair while the fax was being sent, Atta Senior spoke to him in a loud commanding voice.

“And the son sat right back down,” said the pharmacist. “He (Atta Senior) was clearly in charge.”

After recognizing Atta’s father on television, the pharmacist called the FBI...

“I recognized him immediately. He was very imperious, arrogant almost, big hand gestures, and an air of authority. I also remember that when he paid for the fax, he had a wallet that was larger in size than any I’ve ever seen. It sort of unfolded on the counter.”

“The FBI sent two young agents over to see me, but they already knew about Atta Senior’s visit, and so didn’t consider what we had to tell them to be any big deal,” he stated.

“They told me he (Atta Senior) used an alias to get into the U.S.,” he said. “We gave them the videotape from our closed circuit surveillance cameras, and that was it.”

The videotape was returned two weeks later. And it sat on a shelf in the pharmacy until we requested to watch it. After screening the (six weeks worth) of videotape, we discovered that the tape had been altered before being returned to the pharmacist.

In television interviews after the attack Atta’s father had strenuously contended that his son had nothing to do with the 9.11 attack, even stating his son had phoned home on September 12th to assure him he was alive.

Now the news of his visit to the U.S. would clearly seem to have rendered that statement “inoperative.”

"He never even flew a kite."

Describing himself to reporters as “one of the most important lawyers in Cairo,” he portrayed his son as a mama’s boy prone to airsickness, a dedicated architecture student who rarely mentioned politics, and a victim of a intricate framing by the Israeli intelligence agency. Atta Senior also said his son didn’t know anything about flying, telling Newsweek, “He never even had a kite”

“The Mossad kidnapped my son,” Atta Senior asserted at the time to reporters. “He is the easiest person to kidnap, very surrendering, no physical power, no money for bodyguards. They used his name and identity.”

“He was still alive after the attack,” Atta Senior claimed vociferously. “He called me twenty-four hours and forty-eight hours after the attack. That was the last time. Because after that, they indeed killed him."

But after the recent London bombings he had changed his tune. He condemned Arab leaders and Muslims who denounced the London attacks, and praised the bombers.

Mohammed Atta's father told CNN "Muslims are like nuclear bombs which have been activated." And he offered to finance future suicide bombings himself by charging the CNN crew a $5,000 fee for an interview, then giving the money to terrorist groups. (The crew told him that the channel did not pay for interviews.)

At the very least, Mohamed Atta Senior’s visit to his soon-to-be-dead son bespeaks foreknowledge of the 9.11 attack. It also would seem to confirm the persistent rumors of his involvement with the Muslim Brotherhood, outlawed in Egypt.

Answering to the Family...but whose?

Is this “the family” which Marwan Al-Shehhi was referring to in his heated argument—“we’re talking $200,000! We have to answer to the Family!”—with Atta in a restaurant a week before the attack over the return of unspent funds before the suicide mission?

Questions we would like to ask the FBI, which has not returned calls seeking comment, include:

Why have they concealed Atta Senior’s visit from the 9.11 Commission and the Congressional Intelligence Investigation into 9.11? Do they know the purpose of the visit?

What do they know about Atta Senior’s role, if any, in the 9.11 attack?

And, most importantly... Why has someone with clear foreknowledge of an attack which murdered almost 3000 civilians not been brought to justice?

Stay tuned.