by Selwyn Manning
USA Intelligence reportedly intercepted communications that link Osama bin Laden to the worst terrorist attack in United
States history.
Investigators this afternoon [New Zealand time] have identified intercepted communications between bin Laden supporters
and cell phone calls from victims aboard the jetliners before they were driven into civilian targets in New York City
and Washington DC this morning.
The communications show calls between bin Laden supporters discussing the attacks on the World Trade Center and
Pentagon. That is according to the USA's Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, who is a top Republican on the Senate Judiciary
Committee.
Hatch is reported told Associated Press: "They have an intercept of some information that included people associated
with bin Laden who acknowledged a couple of targets were hit." He declined to be more specific.
Data has also been identified as "possibly linking" one person on one of the four ill-fated flights to bin Laden's
organization.
As the planes were forced down in New York and Washington, one flight attendant and two passengers called from three of
the planes. They each described similar circumstances.
The callers indicated hijackers were armed with knives and had stabbed flight attendants. They then took control of the
planes before diving them into their targets.
Passengers were forced to the back of the jets.
One man has confirmed his wife made the calls before dying. He is reported as saying: "She called from the plane while
it was being hijacked. I wish it wasn't so but it is," he said.
Associated Press reports that another businessman aboard a United flight, that left Boston and crashed into the World
Trade Center, twice called his father as his plane was being hijacked.
"An official, speaking off the record, said the victim's father was interviewed by the FBI. The father indicated his son
made two calls -- both times the phone cut off. In the first call, the businessman said a stewardess had been stabbed.
In the second call, the son said his plane was "going down."," Associated Press reports.
Another flight attendant aboard the second jetliner that struck the World Trade Center managed called an emergency
number from the back of the airplane. The flight attendant said her fellow attendants had been stabbed, the cabin had
been taken over, and they were going down in New York.
Bin Laden has been linked to terrorist attacks on American embassies. He is believed to be living in Afghanistan under
the protection of the Taliban. US officials have cautioned it is too early to definitively assign blame.
The Taliban has denied any involvement in the terrorists attacks and states that bin Laden lacks the resources for such
a terrorist attack.
The US Government has set unprecedented numbers of intelligence and investigators to begin piecing together how this
horrific tragedy and extremist terrorist attack was made possible.
The devastation is extreme - especially in and around Manhatten in New York where two hijacked planes plowed into the
World Trade Center towers.
A third aircraft crashed into the Pentagon near Washington. One side of the building collapsed in the impact. A fourth
airliner crashed in a field 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
Investigators are searching the Pittsburgh site for the aircraft's black box recorder.