One of the suspected hijackers of a US airliner that crashed into New York's World Trade Center made several trips to Syria, the weekly Die Zeit reported in its edition to be published Monday.
Egyptian-born Mohamed Atta, 33, who also lived eight years in Germany, had visited Syria several times from 1994-1999, Die Zeit said in a communiqué released Sunday.
Atta is believed to be the hijacker who piloted one of the planes that crashed into New York's World Trade Center last Tuesday. The same day, another hijacked plane crashed into the other tower of the World Trade Center, while a third hit the Pentagon and the fourth crashed in Pennsylvania.
Atta was registered as a student at the Hamburg-Harburg Technical University from 1992 until March of this year.
He visited Syria as part of work for his diploma, investigating urban development in the north Syrian town of Aleppo, Die Zeit said.
His professor supervising this work, Dittmar Machule, described Atta as a diligent, clever, modest, disciplined and unbiased student, the weekly said.
Machule said that during his seven years of work with him, he had never seen Atta drink or seen him with a woman.
Atta identified himself to German police in his residency application as being from the United Arab Emirates.
Machule said Atta had not invited him to his house, despite their long association.
"Certain things would seem to indicate that Mohamed had a second life," Machule said.
Die Zeit quoted a fellow student saying that Atta was "very skeptical about the achievements of the western world" and that "the ever accelerating Americanization of his homeland [and] the entry of modernization into the Arab world did not please him” -- HAMBURG, Germany (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
