Hijackers Spent Days in Suburban D.C.

By STEPHEN MANNING
Associated Press Writer

LAUREL, Md. - Several suspected hijackers in last week's terror attacks stayed at motels in suburban Washington in the days just before the attack, some working out in a gym and eating at a pizzeria, residents and employees told the FBI.

Business owners throughout Laurel's commercial corridor said that in recent days FBI agents questioned them and showed photos of suspects. FBI spokesman Peter Gulotta would not comment on the agency's investigation in the Laurel area.

Laurel is the home of Moataz Al-Hallak, a Muslim cleric who is under scrutiny by investigators and was questioned by prosecutors in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa. Al-Hallak left the Northeast the day before last week's attacks and traveled to Texas, according to authorities and his lawyer, Stanley Cohen.

Cohen has said his client had nothing to do with the attacks and is willing to testify before a grand jury.

Laurel police spokesman Jim Collins said news of the hijackers' presence was a surprise. "It's floored us that something like this could happen here," he told the Washington Post. "You might have passed them on the street or seen them in the shopping center, maybe even waved to them."

Records from a Laurel motel show two of the 19 suspected hijackers stayed there in late August and early September. FBI agents seized records from a second motel where residents say five men matching the hijackers' descriptions stayed for several weeks, checking out the day before the attacks.

Five suspected hijackers from American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon, bought weeklong memberships and signed the club register at Gold's Gym in Greenbelt, another Washington suburb.

Records from the Pin Del Motel in Laurel also link a suspected hijacker from the United Airlines Flight 93 to the Laurel area. That flight left Newark, N.J., and crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

Ziad Jarrah, identified as one of Flight 93's hijackers, paid for three nights with a Visa card when he checked in August 27, but left late the next day and was refunded $44, according to motel records obtained by The Associated Press. He gave a Florida address and driver's license number.

A man who signed the register Nawaq Alhzmi also stayed at the motel on the night of Sept. 1, giving a New York address and driver's license.

Federal authorities say Nawaq Alhamzi was one of five terrorists who crashed Flight 77 into the Pentagon shortly after it took off from Dulles International Airport.

Pin Del owner Suresh Patel said FBI agents took registration forms for both men.

The FBI also took registration records from the Valencia Motel, about a mile from the Pin Del Motel, according to manager R.C. Shah.

Investigators focused on one suite in the 80-room motel. Shah says agents asked about the people who rented the suite for a week sometime between Aug. 23 and Sept. 11, paying the $308 bill with a credit card.

Shah says he doesn't remember the names of the people in the room, but that hotel staff recognized a photo of one of the men when questioned by investigators.

Charmain Mungo, 21, lives at the Valencia Motel in a room next to where five men stayed from late August through Monday, Sept. 10.

FBI agents showed Mungo seven or eight photos, from which she said she was able to identify three men, including Mohamed Atta, who allegedly helped fly one of the hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center.

On several mornings, the men went across the street to a pizzeria in a shopping center, Mungo said. The manager of the pizzeria, Ullah Farman, said any of the photos shown him by FBI agents.

Mungo said the five men drove an older model blue Toyota Corolla with California license plates, didn't speak much or attract much attention.

"They stayed to themselves, basically," Mungo said.

FBI agents searched the room Friday night, she said.

An employee of an adult bookstore next door to the motel said he identified one of the suspects, Khalid Moqed, from photographs shown to him by FBI agents.

In August, Moqed came into another adult bookstore, in Beltsville, where the same employee also works. When he first saw Moqed, he thought he was a police officer because of his short haircut and muscular build, said the employee, who refused to give his name.

The man looked nervous and "he didn't say anything, he just looked around at magazines and movies and left," the employee saId.

FBI agents have visited the Laurel and Beltsville shops, showing employees photographs of several men.

Hanjour, Majed Moqed, Khalid Al-Midhar, Nawaq Alhamzi and Salem Alhamzi all worked out at a Gold's Gym in Greenbelt between Sept. 2 and Sept. 6.

The men purchased weeklong memberships, according to Gene LaMott, president and CEO of the workout chain. Federal authorities say the men hijacked Flight 77.