Only in America - $5m reward for failed 9/11 tip-off

[Minder]

$5m reward for failed 9/11 tip-off James Bone, New York
A flight instructor who raised the alarm about the so-called "20th hijacker" has been given a $5 million (£2.5 million) reward by the US government even though his tip failed to prevent the September 11 terror attacks.

Clarence "Clancy" Prevost, a former US Navy pilot who taught at the Pan Am International Flight Academy outside Minneapolis, became suspicious of Zacarias Moussaoui when he wanted to learn to fly a jumbo jet without showing any interest in take-off or landing.

The French national - the only person ever convicted in the United States for the September 11 attacks - was arrested on immigration charges but Minneapolis FBI agents were unable to persuade their superiors to seek a national security warrant to search his belongings and laptop computer.

He sat in jail for 3 and a half weeks saying nothing until 19 hijackers seized control of four airliners in the coordinated 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.


Moussaoui later confessed to being the "20th hijacker" and told jurors he was to have piloted a fifth plane into the White House. After he was sentenced to life in prison, however, he recanted his testimony and denied any role in the attacks.

Mr Prevost, 69, a retired Northwest Airlines pilot, testified that he learned by the second day of teaching Moussaoui that he had paid the bulk of his $8,300 tuition for the flight simulator course in cash with $100 bills.

Although he described Moussaoui as a "pretty genial guy", his concerns were heightened when the would-be pilot raised his voice when asked about Moslems' Hajj pilgrimage. "Are you Muslim?" Mr Prevost asked. "I am nothing!" Moussaoui angrily replied.

Moussaoui's stated goal was to learn to fly from London's Heathrow airport to John F. Kennedy airport in New York. But he had no pilot's licence and only about 50 hours flight time on a single-engine propeller plane - a fraction of the 600 hours of most students.

Mr Prevost testified that Moussaoui "had no frame of reference whatsoever with a commercial airliner. After 15 minutes I said, 'Let's get lunch.'"

He told his managers: "We don't know anything about this guy, and we're teaching him how to throw the switches on a 747." The managers initially responded that Moussaoui had paid his money and they did not care. Mr Prevost responded: "We'll care when there's a hijacking and the lawsuits come in." Mr Prevost received a pay-out at a private ceremony yesterday under the US government's "Rewards for Justice" programme after the award was secretly authorised last autumn - even though Moussaoui was never named as a wanted suspect by the programme.

The reward shocked two other Pan Am flight instructors - Tim Nelson and Hugh Sims - who have also been lauded for tipping off the FBI about Moussaoui.

"He was certainly there but he didn't call the FBI. I have no idea why he received the reward," Mr Sims said.

Mr Nelson's wife Jodie said the reward "was given out to the wrong person" and described her husband as "dumbfounded".

[Gabriel_Hurl]

Of course it would only happen in America - it wouldn't happen in Australia, would it?

[Minder]

Of course it would only happen in America - it wouldn't happen in Australia, would it?

Shit i better change the title thread

[muppet]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080125/ap_on_re_us/moussaoui_reward

By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jan 25, 2:37 PM ET



WASHINGTON - The two senators who honored flight instructors for alerting authorities to Zacarias Moussaoui before the Sept. 11 attacks are asking why the men were left off a $5 million government reward given to another tipster.

       
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Clarence Prevost, 69, got the payout Thursday in a private ceremony as part of the State Department's "Rewards for Justice" program, which mainly seeks information about perpetrators or planners of terrorist acts against U.S. interests and citizens abroad.

But two of Prevost's former colleagues at the Pan Am International Flight Academy outside Minneapolis are questioning the reward, especially after a 2005 Senate resolution commended their "bravery" and "heroism" for alerting the FBI about a month before the attacks.

The Minnesota senators who sponsored that resolution, Republican Norm Coleman and now-retired Democrat Mark Dayton want answers from the State Department.

"There is no question that both Tim Nelson and Hugh Sims are American heroes," Coleman said in a statement Friday, adding that any honor given by the government should go to those two men as well. "I have contacted the State Department to determine why these heroic men were not recognized for their roles, and see what can be done to ensure they receive the credit they are due."

In a telephone interview Friday from Minneapolis, Dayton said, "I don't know what Mr. Prevost did, but I know what the other two did, and if there's an award, it ought to be equitably distributed. This is typical of this administration. They do something in secret and don't discuss it. An explanation is warranted."

State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters Friday that the Rewards for Justice program is based on nominations, and the recipient would have been nominated by a U.S. law enforcement agency. He said he didn't know if others were nominated for this award.

"If there's some reason to re-examine this issue, or facts that haven't come to light, I'm sure the appropriate people involved will do so," he added.

The State Department hasn't identified the recipient, in keeping with the policy of the program. But two Bush administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk publicly about the matter, said the reward went to Prevost.

Prevost, a former Navy pilot who goes by the nickname "Clancy," became a key witness at Moussaoui's trial and eventual conviction as a Sept. 11 conspirator. Prevost testified that he urged his bosses at the Pan Am International Flight Academy outside Minneapolis to call the FBI in August 2001 because he was suspicious of Moussaoui, an inexperienced pilot seeking commercial jetliner training.

Prevost said during the trial that he urged flight school officials to call the FBI and one day an agent showed up to ask him questions about Moussaoui.

News of the reward came as a surprise to Nelson and Sims.

"It was never done for the reward, but when you give $5 million to a person who didn't call the FBI and didn't put his job on the line, are they rewarding someone for calling the FBI or for testifying?" asked Nelson, 47, of St. Paul, Minn. "And the only reason he was testifying was because he was the instructor."

Sims, in a phone interview from Fort Myers, Fla., said he didn't want to comment "till we get a few things straightened out." Sims recounted meeting Moussaoui at Pan Am on a Monday, and said that two days later he and Nelson each called the FBI separately.

"He was certainly there but he didn't call the FBI. I have no idea why he received the reward," Sims said.

No one answered the phone or door at Prevost's apartment Thursday and Friday. A concierge at the residential hotel where he lives in the upscale Miami suburb of Coral Gables described him as an unassuming man who enjoyed golf. The apartment manager, Ed Perez, said he had not seen Prevost since last week.

After his arrest, Moussaoui sat in jail for 3 1/2 weeks on an immigration violation, saying little to investigators before hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or crashed in a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11.

The Minneapolis FBI agents who responded to the tips were unable to persuade their superiors in Washington to seek a national security warrant to search Moussaoui's belongings and laptop computer.

Moussaoui later confessed to being the "20th hijacker" and was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2006 after a trial marked by numerous outbursts, conflicts with his lawyers and questions about his status, if any, within Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

He told jurors he was to have piloted a fifth plane on Sept. 11 and fly it into the White House. But after the jury decided against sentencing him to death, Moussaoui recanted his testimony and denied any role in 9/11, saying he lied on the stand because he assumed he had no chance of getting a fair trial.

Rewards for Justice, which was created in 1984, has paid about $77 million in rewards to more than 50 people. The State Department says its policy is to withhold the names of the people who receive rewards, though it sometimes announces payments in high-profile cases. The largest payment the program has made was $30 million to a person whose information led to Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay Hussein, according to its Web site.

The award to Prevost is the first to a U.S. citizen related to the Sept. 11 attacks, the administration officials said.

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Click on the link and tell me if there are certain words underlined.

Big brother Dubya is watching.

[Bogball XV]

there are piles of words underlined - but as they're links to other info on those words, I'm not too worried - should I be??