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DEDICATED TO THE VICTIMS OF
9-11....Lest we forget...
 Sept |
| Front entrance to
Tara Gardens. Atta's room was in the front on the
right side of the building. |
Updated Coral Springs FL. Sept
11 2007.
At 8:50 am on September 11, 2001 I
was at home. Being late as usual in getting out of the
house, I was listening to the Howard Stern show on the radio
when he announced that the a plane had crashed into the World
Trade Center in New York. I immediately turned on the
television and glued my eyes to the screen. The shape of
the hole in the building was unmistakably caused by an airplane,
and being a structural engineer I knew what that meant. The odds
of a plane that large hitting the building by accident was
impossible to calculate. Then while watching further,
after 9 am I witnessed the 2nd plane hitting the other tower.
We were under attack.
All of our lives changed on 9/11.
Incredibly, the guy that masterminded all of the murders turned
out to be living in South Florida. 6 blocks from my
house in Tara Gardens at 10001 Atlantic Boulevard. I know the address
well. I was the builder for Tara II, 10101 Atlantic Boulevard, the development right beside it.
Our city was terrorized knowing
that he had lived amongst us. No one suspected. No one would
even think that anyone would be capable of such destruction.
From right under our noses, the unthinkable became a reality.
On April 11, 2001 Mohammed Atta
rented unit # 122 a lower floor condo-apartment at
Tara Gardens for $840 per month from Simon Cayouette, the manager. The specific owner of the condominium
was ,Jean-Luc Sambault of Mercier
Quebec, Canada.
One of the other terrorists Malwan Al
Shahahhi was staying with Atta and was seen often in the laundry
room of the condo washing his clothes.
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|
Record of Citation |
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Drivers License
Picture From Wikipedia |
Tara Gardens , a 38 Condominium
rental complex, was and still is commonly used as a temporary
home for Coral Springs residents. Many residents at that
time used it while their new home was under construction and
late as usual. Tara Gardens was ( and could still be)
the only place in Coral Springs allowing you to rent by the week
or month at a time. Cash counts. No questions asked.
The perfect place in a bedroom sleepy community like ours.
The perfect place for a terrorist to blend in. Everyone renting
was in transit.
Atta was a chain smoker. He
was often seen by the tenants smoking in the parking lot. I
might have seen him there as well. I would often tell one
particular tenant to move their car off of the Tara II parking
area near the swimming pool. Maybe it was him. Maybe I
towed his car. A Malibu.
Some time in April, Atta was
stopped by a Broward County Sheriff deputy and given a
ticket for operating without a valid license. He was supposed to
show up in court on April 26. He didn't. On May 1 a
criminal citation was
issued for his failure to appear(
shown on the right_click).
Despite the recorded criminal
offense, on May 2 Atta went to
the Lauderdale Lakes office of the Florida Department of Highway
Safety and Vehicles on Oakland Park boulevard. He was
able to get a Florida Drivers
License
( Shown on the right_click ). Quite interestingly, he
could not have had
the proper documentation to receive a Florida License, since he
did not possess a green card. Only his student visa
existed. It was renewed by INS on March 2002. Our FDHSV gave him
a license anyway. Who else has our state government given
drivers licenses to? Who is minding the store?
 |
Carmen talking to
reporters on the scene
( photo by Coralsprings.com
all rights reserved) |
The timeline indicates that he
moved into his apartment in Coral Springs sometime in mid-June. From
June to September, while he crossed
the country and the ocean planning out the attack, he
spent some time in the apartment. We might have even
showed him our 'Coral Springs Hospitality', as he was here
on July 4th no doubt hearing and seeing our fireworks display.
After all, this is the "Best Place to Live, Work and Raise a
Family", according to our City officials.
Other Coral Springs
residents claim to have seen him exercising at L.A.
Fitness. He made friends with his neighbors who
described him to reporters afterwards as being 'a nice guy'.
Carmen Paddila lived on the 2nd floor directly above him.
She
said a few weeks before 9/11 she attended a party with
Atta at Lakeview Village,
an apartment complex adjacent to Tara Gardens. On September 7 Atta went to Hollywood and had drinks with the other hijackers
at Schukum's Bar. He returned to sleep in Coral Springs.
On September 8th, he woke up and headed out to Fort Lauderdale Airport and
flew to Maryland to meet the other hijackers. As he
drove down Atlantic Boulevard in either direction, I
wonder if he was smiling at the fact that no one noticed him. He
left our city untouched. He had bigger plans.
September 11 2001 , at the Worlds Trade Center in New York and more than 1,067 miles from Coral Springs, he
murdered 3000 people.
 Since then, our city officials have
never really talked about the fact that Atta lived here.
Our police did not set up special forces to deal with
terrorism. In fact, nothing any different has been
done since Atta lived here. I am sure you can still get a
drivers license pretty quickly, even if you have a record
against you.
No one in Coral Springs talks about
Atta living here. They are all living in a world of
denial. The magnitude of 9/11 cannot be understood by us.
There is no plaque on the
apartment at Tara Gardens, and no flowers to remember the
victims of 9/11 there. Our memorials are carefully planned
by the city and staged in a way that government likes to do
things. Full of speeches. 'Lest we forget' they will say.
The Case against Atta for not
appearing in Broward County court is still "OPEN" as of this
day. Why has Broward County Courts not closed this file? Are
they expecting him to suddenly appear at the court house and pay
the fine? Perhaps they decided that they can still collect the
fine by serving him in Hell. Can someone just close
this case, get it off the records? I am quite sure that every
once in a while, some bureaucrat is sitting in their office
reviewing it. Hmmm....Mohamed Atta. Where have I heard
that name before. No sense closing this file. Maybe we'll catch him
when a police officer pulls him over for a speeding ticket'.
Bureaucracy at its best I suppose. Our judicial
system let him get away. If only we were that smart.
The terrorists certainly are.
I
haven't forgotten the events of 9/11. Mohamed Atta. Coral
Springs resident.
May he continue to rot in hell.
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