Copied from the Herald-Dispatch, a Huntington newspaper owned by Marshall Reynolds, a big Marshall supporter and owner of Champion Industries, yes the same Champion Industries that paid Marshall athletes $20/hour to sweep floors. I copied so you don't have to give his web sight views.
HUNTINGTON - A book authored by three local people alleges 33 individuals involved in various deadly attacks on Americans - including several involved in the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington - were spotted in Cabell and Putnam counties for a period of time around the turn of the century.
The book, "Al Qaeda Pivot," relies primarily on accounts given by Larry Maynard, a former salesman at a Barboursville auto dealership, and interviews and signed affidavits from six other witnesses who worked with Maynard.
Maynard collaborated with local publisher John Patrick Grace and Grace's assistant, Rosalie Ash, on the book, which was released this week.
The basic questions it poses are whether a terrorist cell was centered in Hurricane, West Virginia, before the 9/11 attacks and whether the FBI was aggressive enough in investigating Maynard's claims after he brought them to the FBI's attention.
The book, and Grace in an interview, both stress that authorities had urged the public to report suspicious activities - "See something, say something," as Grace put it. Maynard said he contacted the FBI after he realized he had seen perpetrators in the area, but little or nothing came of it, the book contends.
Scott Bernazzoli, a spokesperson for the FBI, said Wednesday the bureau could not comment on the possibility of an opened or closed investigation into the reported sightings of terrorists in the region.
Claimed sightings
Maynard, now a teacher in Cabell County, alleges he is able to connect to the Cabell and Putnam County area several Al-Qaeda leaders and recruiters, eight of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers, the 2002 D.C. Beltway snipers, the 2001 shoe bomber, the 2009 Fort Hood shooter and the soldier responsible in the 2003 grenade attack at a 101st Airborne Division base in Kuwait.
Both Grace and Maynard said West Virginia would be a centralized ideal location for a sleeper cell to live, citing the clear interstate and railroad systems as a perfect trail to follow to major cities where an attack might be effective.
Grace said the point of the book was not to incite panic, but rather shine a light on the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, which he said is under-trained and under-staffed.
"We have the illusion in this country that the FBI is somehow protecting us from terrorism. I think they're really doing a poor job. I think it shows in the Orlando case," he said, referring to the June 12 killing of 49 people in an Orlando night club.
David Thabet, a former Air Force intelligence officer and finance manager at the car dealership where Maynard worked during the time his sightings were made in 1999, said the allegations have been ignored by federal officials.
"Anything that has to do with terrorism is going to sound unbelievable until it happens," he said. "They need to take more of the customer complaints and deal with them instead of blowing them off."
First encounters
On the days following the 9/11 attacks, Maynard, like many Americans, spent his time glued to the television. When pictures of the hijackers appeared, he said he realized he had encountered some while he was a car salesman at the now-closed Superior Cadillac and Oldsmobile along U.S. 60 in Barboursville near the Huntington Mall.
Two days after 9/11, Maynard said he was at the FBI, reporting what he saw. As attacks continued throughout the years, Maynard continued to contact the FBI with no response as he continued putting pieces together.
"Our purpose is not to change anybody's politics," Maynard said. "We are trying to make America safer. If they want us to 'see something, tell something' then this is what (we) saw."
One of the things Maynard said he experienced was "eight minutes with the devil."
On Oct. 7, 1999, six men emerged from two cars at the dealership asking for a Cadillac vehicle, he wrote.
Maynard said he took the men on a test drive for eight minutes after photocopying the driver's license of Wail Al Shehri - one of the hijackers of a plane flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center.
The other men were later identified by Maynard as Abdulaziz Alomari, Waleed Al Sherhri, Marwan Al Shehhi - all 9/11 hijackers - and Abu Musab Al Zarqawi and Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who have known ties to Al-Qaeda.
With Wail Al Shehri at the wheel, the test drive began westbound on U.S. 60. During the trip Maynard said the individuals said they would be headed to Lackawanna, New York, after sightseeing.
"I said 'Oh you're sight-seeing,'" Maynard recounted. "They said 'Yeah, we want to see four things - the Pentagon, the towers in New York, Disney World and a nuclear facility.'"
The individuals asked Maynard questions he did not find strange until after the attacks. He said they asked how they could learn to fly a plane, where a mosque was located and asking whether the John Amos Plant in Nitro, West Virginia, was a nuclear facility.
They also asked if he knew Ramzi Yousef - one of the perpetrators in a 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Maynard called him a "nut," causing Wail Al Shehri anger.
"Wail cut in front of a tractor trailer, playing chicken, within a few feet, and it really scared me. I thought we were going to hit this car head on," he said. "When he cut back, he said 'This is silky smooth, like flying a plane.'"
The men left shortly after arriving back at the dealership, unable to reach a deal.
Maynard says he then saw Ziah Jarrah, the pilot of the plane that crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and his girlfriend, Aysel Sengun, who said they were just shopping nearby.
Grace said on first glance, Maynard's memory of the interactions seem strange, but not to those who know him.
"He does have a reputation for having a great memory of recall," Grace said. "That has been noted by his colleagues that he remembers things in great detail, to a highly unusual degree, beyond what a normal person can do."
Subsequent interactions
Subsequent to the first interaction, 25 more individuals involved in attacks on Americans would be sighted at the car lot and at various locations throughout the Barboursville area, Maynard contends.
Most notable were Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Williams, also known as John Allen Muhammad, the two men convicted of the October 2002 Beltway sniper attacks in the Washington area that left 10 people dead.
Maynard noted Williams was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m. on Nov. 10, 2009, after being lethally injected for the crimes.
According to an affidavit signed by a former salesman at the auto dealership, two other men linked to terrorist attacks showed up at the dealership in 2001 looking for a van to purchase. One was Jose Padilla, a man serving 21 years in federal prison for aiding terrorists; the other was Richard Reid, the Shoe Bomber who attempted to detonate bombs stored in shoes on a flight in 2001, according to the book.
Maynard said they arrived in a Chevrolet Caprice, but were unable to find a van to purchase. Upon their departure, Maynard and his co-worker both said they noted an unusual hole cut out in the trunk of the car.
Thabet confirmed he saw the licenses of several of those people in a record book that was lost after the dealership closed. Some of the licenses also were destroyed weeks after the visits, he said, as part of a regular routine.
It wasn't until 2005 while at a new job that Maynard said he realized the attackers could have lived along U.S. 60 in Hurricane.
According to Maynard, while on lunch break in 1999, he saw one of his new co-workers at a pizza restaurant with the Al Ghamdi brothers, who would later be named as hijackers of the plane that crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center.
The co-worker said he was there with several individuals trying to make the sale of two trailers, which were later purchased and placed at a business lot in the 2400 block of U.S. 60 in Hurricane. His affidavit is in the book.
Hoping for response
Grace said copies of "Al-Qaeda Pivot" had been supplied to offices of U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va., in hopes they would look into the FBI's handling of suspected terrorist activity.
Messages left with those offices were not returned Wednesday.
In 2008, with no response from the FBI, Maynard sent an account of his experience to then West Virginia Sens. Robert Byrd and John D. Rockefeller IV.
A letter from Byrd's office said they never received the information. Rockefeller commended Maynard for contacting the FBI, citing the importance of remaining aware of surroundings with the real threat of terrorist attacks.
This month's attack at the Orlando night club has put a spotlight on the FBI's handling of terror suspects. According to The Associated Press, the shooter, Omar Mateen, was under federal investigation at one point after he made provocative remarks about women, Jews and the Fort Hood shooting.
Thabet said he believes the shooting and others that preceded it show the FBI and Department of Homeland Security should be better trained on how to handle civilian complaints.
"Basically it seems all over the country, not just with this incident, (federal agencies) cry out for the public's help, but yet again, they don't go the extra yard to try to investigate it," he said.
"It appears to me that they will hear a story and if it is in any way, shape or form unbelievable, they won't investigate it."
"Al-Qaeda Pivot" is available for purchase at Empire Books, the Healthy Life Market at the Huntington Mall, the Marshall University Bookstore and soon on Amazon.com, Grace said.
Maynard, Thabet and Grace will be available for public comment on the book at a town hall meeting starting at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, June 28, at the Cabell County Library, 455 9th St., Huntington.
HUNTINGTON - A book authored by three local people alleges 33 individuals involved in various deadly attacks on Americans - including several involved in the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington - were spotted in Cabell and Putnam counties for a period of time around the turn of the century.
The book, "Al Qaeda Pivot," relies primarily on accounts given by Larry Maynard, a former salesman at a Barboursville auto dealership, and interviews and signed affidavits from six other witnesses who worked with Maynard.
Maynard collaborated with local publisher John Patrick Grace and Grace's assistant, Rosalie Ash, on the book, which was released this week.
The basic questions it poses are whether a terrorist cell was centered in Hurricane, West Virginia, before the 9/11 attacks and whether the FBI was aggressive enough in investigating Maynard's claims after he brought them to the FBI's attention.
The book, and Grace in an interview, both stress that authorities had urged the public to report suspicious activities - "See something, say something," as Grace put it. Maynard said he contacted the FBI after he realized he had seen perpetrators in the area, but little or nothing came of it, the book contends.
Scott Bernazzoli, a spokesperson for the FBI, said Wednesday the bureau could not comment on the possibility of an opened or closed investigation into the reported sightings of terrorists in the region.
Claimed sightings
Maynard, now a teacher in Cabell County, alleges he is able to connect to the Cabell and Putnam County area several Al-Qaeda leaders and recruiters, eight of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers, the 2002 D.C. Beltway snipers, the 2001 shoe bomber, the 2009 Fort Hood shooter and the soldier responsible in the 2003 grenade attack at a 101st Airborne Division base in Kuwait.
Both Grace and Maynard said West Virginia would be a centralized ideal location for a sleeper cell to live, citing the clear interstate and railroad systems as a perfect trail to follow to major cities where an attack might be effective.
Grace said the point of the book was not to incite panic, but rather shine a light on the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, which he said is under-trained and under-staffed.
"We have the illusion in this country that the FBI is somehow protecting us from terrorism. I think they're really doing a poor job. I think it shows in the Orlando case," he said, referring to the June 12 killing of 49 people in an Orlando night club.
David Thabet, a former Air Force intelligence officer and finance manager at the car dealership where Maynard worked during the time his sightings were made in 1999, said the allegations have been ignored by federal officials.
"Anything that has to do with terrorism is going to sound unbelievable until it happens," he said. "They need to take more of the customer complaints and deal with them instead of blowing them off."
First encounters
On the days following the 9/11 attacks, Maynard, like many Americans, spent his time glued to the television. When pictures of the hijackers appeared, he said he realized he had encountered some while he was a car salesman at the now-closed Superior Cadillac and Oldsmobile along U.S. 60 in Barboursville near the Huntington Mall.
Two days after 9/11, Maynard said he was at the FBI, reporting what he saw. As attacks continued throughout the years, Maynard continued to contact the FBI with no response as he continued putting pieces together.
"Our purpose is not to change anybody's politics," Maynard said. "We are trying to make America safer. If they want us to 'see something, tell something' then this is what (we) saw."
One of the things Maynard said he experienced was "eight minutes with the devil."
On Oct. 7, 1999, six men emerged from two cars at the dealership asking for a Cadillac vehicle, he wrote.
Maynard said he took the men on a test drive for eight minutes after photocopying the driver's license of Wail Al Shehri - one of the hijackers of a plane flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center.
The other men were later identified by Maynard as Abdulaziz Alomari, Waleed Al Sherhri, Marwan Al Shehhi - all 9/11 hijackers - and Abu Musab Al Zarqawi and Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who have known ties to Al-Qaeda.
With Wail Al Shehri at the wheel, the test drive began westbound on U.S. 60. During the trip Maynard said the individuals said they would be headed to Lackawanna, New York, after sightseeing.
"I said 'Oh you're sight-seeing,'" Maynard recounted. "They said 'Yeah, we want to see four things - the Pentagon, the towers in New York, Disney World and a nuclear facility.'"
The individuals asked Maynard questions he did not find strange until after the attacks. He said they asked how they could learn to fly a plane, where a mosque was located and asking whether the John Amos Plant in Nitro, West Virginia, was a nuclear facility.
They also asked if he knew Ramzi Yousef - one of the perpetrators in a 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Maynard called him a "nut," causing Wail Al Shehri anger.
"Wail cut in front of a tractor trailer, playing chicken, within a few feet, and it really scared me. I thought we were going to hit this car head on," he said. "When he cut back, he said 'This is silky smooth, like flying a plane.'"
The men left shortly after arriving back at the dealership, unable to reach a deal.
Maynard says he then saw Ziah Jarrah, the pilot of the plane that crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and his girlfriend, Aysel Sengun, who said they were just shopping nearby.
Grace said on first glance, Maynard's memory of the interactions seem strange, but not to those who know him.
"He does have a reputation for having a great memory of recall," Grace said. "That has been noted by his colleagues that he remembers things in great detail, to a highly unusual degree, beyond what a normal person can do."
Subsequent interactions
Subsequent to the first interaction, 25 more individuals involved in attacks on Americans would be sighted at the car lot and at various locations throughout the Barboursville area, Maynard contends.
Most notable were Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Williams, also known as John Allen Muhammad, the two men convicted of the October 2002 Beltway sniper attacks in the Washington area that left 10 people dead.
Maynard noted Williams was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m. on Nov. 10, 2009, after being lethally injected for the crimes.
According to an affidavit signed by a former salesman at the auto dealership, two other men linked to terrorist attacks showed up at the dealership in 2001 looking for a van to purchase. One was Jose Padilla, a man serving 21 years in federal prison for aiding terrorists; the other was Richard Reid, the Shoe Bomber who attempted to detonate bombs stored in shoes on a flight in 2001, according to the book.
Maynard said they arrived in a Chevrolet Caprice, but were unable to find a van to purchase. Upon their departure, Maynard and his co-worker both said they noted an unusual hole cut out in the trunk of the car.
Thabet confirmed he saw the licenses of several of those people in a record book that was lost after the dealership closed. Some of the licenses also were destroyed weeks after the visits, he said, as part of a regular routine.
It wasn't until 2005 while at a new job that Maynard said he realized the attackers could have lived along U.S. 60 in Hurricane.
According to Maynard, while on lunch break in 1999, he saw one of his new co-workers at a pizza restaurant with the Al Ghamdi brothers, who would later be named as hijackers of the plane that crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center.
The co-worker said he was there with several individuals trying to make the sale of two trailers, which were later purchased and placed at a business lot in the 2400 block of U.S. 60 in Hurricane. His affidavit is in the book.
Hoping for response
Grace said copies of "Al-Qaeda Pivot" had been supplied to offices of U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va., in hopes they would look into the FBI's handling of suspected terrorist activity.
Messages left with those offices were not returned Wednesday.
In 2008, with no response from the FBI, Maynard sent an account of his experience to then West Virginia Sens. Robert Byrd and John D. Rockefeller IV.
A letter from Byrd's office said they never received the information. Rockefeller commended Maynard for contacting the FBI, citing the importance of remaining aware of surroundings with the real threat of terrorist attacks.
This month's attack at the Orlando night club has put a spotlight on the FBI's handling of terror suspects. According to The Associated Press, the shooter, Omar Mateen, was under federal investigation at one point after he made provocative remarks about women, Jews and the Fort Hood shooting.
Thabet said he believes the shooting and others that preceded it show the FBI and Department of Homeland Security should be better trained on how to handle civilian complaints.
"Basically it seems all over the country, not just with this incident, (federal agencies) cry out for the public's help, but yet again, they don't go the extra yard to try to investigate it," he said.
"It appears to me that they will hear a story and if it is in any way, shape or form unbelievable, they won't investigate it."
"Al-Qaeda Pivot" is available for purchase at Empire Books, the Healthy Life Market at the Huntington Mall, the Marshall University Bookstore and soon on Amazon.com, Grace said.
Maynard, Thabet and Grace will be available for public comment on the book at a town hall meeting starting at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, June 28, at the Cabell County Library, 455 9th St., Huntington.