Let us all be thankful for this very lucky break.

[JohnyCanuck]

Without it the Federales would have been at a loss for some time as to the identities of the 9/11 hijackers. Luckily they were able to identify the plotters right away.

An untold story of 9/11

BY MICHAEL DORMAN | Newsday Staff Writer

Former federal terrorism investigators say a piece of luggage hastily checked in at the Portland, Maine, airport by a World Trade Center hijacker on the morning of Sept. 11 provided the Rosetta stone enabling FBI agents to swiftly unravel the mystery of who carried out the suicide attacks and what motivated them.

A mix-up in Boston prevented the luggage from connecting with the plane that hijackers crashed into the north tower of the trade center. Seized by FBI agents at Boston's Logan Airport, investigators said, it contained Arab-language papers revealing the identities of all 19 hijackers involved in the four hijackings, as well as information on their plans, backgrounds and motives.

The luggage saga represents what the former federal authorities describe as an untold story of 9/11 -- offering explanations for questions long unanswered about the investigation of the tragedy, such as how authorities were able to identify the hijackers so soon after the attacks.

SNIP

A former FBI agent and a former federal prosecutor who helped direct the New England investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks told Newsday that one bag found in Boston contained far more than what the commission report cited, including the names of the hijackers, their assignments and their al-Qaida connections.

"It had all these Arab-language papers that amounted to the Rosetta stone of the investigation," former FBI agent Warren Flagg said. The former federal prosecutor, who declined to be identified publicly, supported Flagg's account.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uslugg0417,0,3743892.story

I guess we really have to be thankful the hijacker going on a suicide mission decided to pack a suitcase with so much vital information and then the airlines screwed up the transfer of the bag to the correct flight.

[Captain Angry]

1. We're luckier than that!

How much lost luggage ends up on the auction block?

These days that luggage would have been sold on eBay, the contents sold, and the stuff with the funny writing would have been tossed.

[Merlot]

2. Yes, there is a certain irony to that, isn't there?

And tonight the tooth fairy will put a quarter under my pillow...

[Art_from_Ark]

3. Only a quarter?

She's made an adjustment for inflation for me-- I get a dollar!

[DearAbby]

8. All I got was a nickel

a buck a tooth?

Tooth fairy was cheapskate when I was growing up...come to think of it, so was my father. He had asked me to dig up all the dandelions in the front lawn, said he would pay me...I worked and sweated my ass off...came in and told him I was finished after 2 1/2 hours...he reached into that cracked old leather wallet and dug out a dollar, and handed it to me. That my frienz, was the last time I worked for my father...I made it a point to make myself scarse when it was time for yardwork.

[babylonsister]

6. That's so sixties...

when I was getting quarters. :D

[merh]

4. I thought it was that amazing passport that was found intact

when all other forms of paper and furniture and computers and phones, etc were rendered to dust.

:shrug:

[EbenezerMcIntosh]

5. What a coinky-dink.

:crazy:

[Contrary1]

7. And I have to ask this question:

Why would anyone who was intent on killing thousands of Americans, along with himself, check luggage containing papers "revealing the identities of all 19 hijackers involved in the four hijackings, as well as information on their plans, backgrounds and motives"?

That makes no sense. But it does play into being able to identify them so quickly, doesn't it? I wonder who played the part of the Muslim bad guy checking in the baggage?

[Liberal Gramma]

9. And I wonder who REALLY packed that suitcase

The smart money bets that it wasn't the hijackers.

[Rageneau]

12. And why would anyone pack such information only to be destroyed?

I'm surprised the government didn't blame 9/11 on Lee Harvey Oswald. The national media cwertainly would have bought that line, just as they buy every line given them by the right wing.

[spag68]

10. The more they try to explain it

the more I become convinced that they actually did it. Way to many coincidences for me.

[PDJane]

11. I can't believe that there were hijackers......

i watched those things come down, and they looked and sounded like a demolition to me..........