In February 1998, the 40-year-old Saudi exile Usama Bin Laden and a fugitive Egyptian physician, Ayman al Zawahiri, arranged from their Afghan headquarters for an Arabic newspaper in London to publish what they termed a fatwa issued in the name of a "World Islamic Front." A fatwa is normally an interpretation of Islamic law by a respected Islamic authority, but neither Bin Laden, Zawahiri, nor the three others who signed this statement were scholars of Islamic law. Claiming that America had declared war against God and his messenger, they called for the murder of any American, anywhere on earth, as the "individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it." Three months later, when interviewed in Afghanistan by ABC-TV, Bin Laden enlarged on these themes. He claimed it was more important for Muslims to kill Americans than to kill other infidels." It is far better for anyone to kill a single American soldier than to squander his efforts on other activities," he said. Asked whether he approved of terrorism and of attacks on civilians, he replied:"We believe that the worst thieves in the world today and the worst terrorists are the Americans. Nothing could stop you except perhaps retaliation in kind. We do not have to differentiate between military or civilian. As far as we are concerned, they are all targets." Note: Islamic names often do not follow the Western practice of the consistent use of surnames. Given the variety of names we mention, we chose to refer to individuals by the last word in the names by which they are known: Nawaf al Hazmi as Hazmi, for instance, omitting the article "al" that would be part of their name in their own societies. We generally make an exception for the more familiar English usage of "Bin" as part of a last name, as in Bin Laden. Further, there is no universally accepted way to transliterate Arabic words and names into English. We have relied on a mix of common sense, the sound of the name in Arabic, and common usage in source materials, the press, or government documents. When we quote from a source document, we use its transliteration, e.g.,"al Qida" instead of al Qaeda. Though novel for its open endorsement of indiscriminate killing, Bin Laden's 1998 declaration was only the latest in the long series of his public and private calls since 1992 that singled out the United States for attack. In August 1996, Bin Laden had issued his own self-styled fatwa calling on Muslims to drive American soldiers out of Saudi Arabia.

Why do we use " Bin Laden" to refer to Usama Bin Laden and only "Hazmi" to refer to Nawaf al Hazmi?

We do not know exactly how the hijackers gained access to the cockpit; FAA rules required that the doors remain closed and locked during flight. Ong speculated that they had "jammed their way" in. Perhaps the terrorists stabbed the flight attendants to get a cockpit key, to force one of them to open the cockpit door, or to lure the captain or first officer out of the cockpit. Or the flight attendants may just have been in their way. At the same time or shortly thereafter, Atta-the only terrorist on board trained to fly a jet-would have moved to the cockpit from his business-class seat, possibly accompanied by Omari. As this was happening, passenger Daniel Lewin, who was seated in the row just behind Atta and Omari, was stabbed by one of the hijackers-probably Satam al Suqami, who was seated directly behind Lewin. Lewin had served four years as an officer in the Israeli military. He may have made an attempt to stop the hijackers in front of him, not realizing that another was sitting behind him. The hijackers quickly gained control and sprayed Mace, pepper spray, or some other irritant in the first-class cabin, in order to force the passengers and flight attendants toward the rear of the plane. They claimed they had a bomb. About five minutes after the hijacking began, Betty Ong contacted the American Airlines Southeastern Reservations Office in Cary, North Carolina, via an AT&T airphone to report an emergency aboard the flight. This was the first of several occasions on 9/11 when flight attendants took action outside the scope of their training, which emphasized that in a hijacking, they were to communicate with the cockpit crew. The emergency call lasted approximately 25 minutes, as Ong calmly and professionally relayed information about events taking place aboard the airplane to authorities on the ground. At 8:19, Ong reported:"The cockpit is not answering, somebody's stabbed in business class-and I think there's Mace-that we can't breathe-I don't know, I think we're getting hijacked." She then told of the stabbings of the two flight attendants. At 8:21, one of the American employees receiving Ong's call in North Carolina, Nydia Gonzalez, alerted the American Airlines operations center in Fort Worth, Texas, reaching Craig Marquis, the manager on duty. Marquis soon realized this was an emergency and instructed the airline's dispatcher responsible for the flight to contact the cockpit. At 8:23, the dispatcher tried unsuccessfully to contact the aircraft.

Who may have attempted to confront the highjackers and stop them?

Catherine V. "Ginny" Kilgore of Oxford, an attorney with North Mississippi Rural Legal Services, has been recognized for her dedication to serving the indigent. Kilgore - who oversees delivering legal services to the disabled and elderly in 39 north Mississippi counties - is recipient of the University of Mississippi School of Law's 2002 Public Service Award. The award was announced recently at a dinne r, held in Kilgore's honor and hosted by law school Dean Samuel M. Davis, who presented her with an engraved plaque. "Ginny Kilgore is a public servant in the truest sense," said Davis. "Her selection continues the tradition of this award in recognizing those who have labored in the trenches, with little or no compensation but with great professional and personal satisfaction in helping to bring justice and equality to those who need it most." "This award means a great deal to me," Kilgore said, pointing to others so honored. "The work of those who received the award before me has been so important; I feel very honored." After earning bachelor's and master's degrees in education and a few years teaching, Kilgore enrolled at the UM law school. Upon graduation in 1975, she entered private law practice in Oxford, joining NMRLS in 1978. Since then, she has earned promotions from managing attorney, senior attorney, then director of the Council on Aging project. Since 1990, she has worked in the Administrative Law Unit and Resource Development, and directed the Elder Law Project, serving the northern half of the state. She also is an adjunct professor in the UM law school's Civil Law Clinic. She held a similar post a few years ago in the school's Elder Law Clinic. Kilgore says she's found her niche. "I've always thought it was important to do work to help people. I really enjoy it. The issues I've dealt with through the years have been on the side of helping people maintain the basics of life - home, healt h care, jobs and family." She says her desire to serve others was sparked early, growing up in a single-parent home, aware that her widowed mother faced certain challenges as she supported her four children through public school and college.
At the time of the presentation, how many years had Ginny worked for the NMRLS?