Hopsicker, Daniel. Welcome to Terrorland: Mohamed Atta and the 9-11 Cover-up in Florida. Eugene, OR: MadCow Press, 2004. 400 pages. (www.madcowprod.com)

The two basic assumptions of this book are that the feds are trying to hide something about the events leading to 9/11, and that some clues can be found by following leads in Venice, Florida, where three of the four pilots learned to fly. Huffman Aviation plays a central role, and two flight-school entrepreneurs active in Venice, Wallace J. Hilliard and Rudi Dekkers, have curious connections and are always out of money, but never worry about it. Narcotics, perhaps, or the CIA, or both? It seems that you can't poke around any small aviation company in the U.S. without finding CIA connections sooner or later. Hopsicker's previous book was about Barry Seal and the CIA at the Mena, Arkansas airfield during Iran-contra.

The FBI was running around Venice after 9/11, telling people to keep their mouths shut. Does this mean anything? The 9/11 Commission report, issued after this book appeared, traces the key terrorists well enough to make this book seem too narrow in its focus. Nevertheless, interesting questions are raised by Hopsicker that no one else has investigated. It's possible that the feds wanted to cover up patterns of activity that should have set off alarms, but didn't. Why not? Probably for reasons unrelated to 9/11 -- bureaucratic turf wars, protecting sources and methods, drug profiteering, or whatever. Chances are that 9/11 was a complete surprise.
ISBN 0-9706591-6-4

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