No, HE Couldn't Fly Either

The fact that Hani Hanjour -- the alleged pilot of the Boeing airplane which crashed into the Pentagon -- could not fly at all is now being challenged by apparent CIA informant Louai al-Sakka, who says that it was actually Nawaf al-Hazmi who piloted the plane. Al-Sakka explains that al-Hamzi was a "a veteran operative".

However, al-Hamzi was also a terrible pilot.

According to the New York Times, al-Hamzi's flight instructor, Rick Garza, said:

''They had zero training before they got here, so I told them they had to learn a lot of other things first,'' Mr. Garza said.

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Mr. Garza said that their aptitude for flying was poor from the start, and that it never improved.

''It was like Dumb and Dumber,'' Mr. Garza said. ''I mean, they were clueless. It was clear to me they weren't going to make it as pilots.''

Similarly, according to the CBC:

The two men [Khalid al Mihdhar and Nawaf al Hazmi] signed up for lessons at a local flight school, but they were completely lacking in natural abilities. After a few sessions their instructor, Rick Garza, told them there was just no point in continuing, "They seemed to have a very strong interest in flying larger aircraft and that's when they brought up the subject of flying Boeings. 'Where can we learn to fly Boeings?' I just kind of chuckled a little bit and said -'It's a long road before you get to Boeings. Several years from now, but you have to start out in a smaller aircraft. If you can't fly the little four-seat aircraft, there is no way you are going to be able to fly a Boeing.'"

The two men reported back to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that learning to fly was a lot more difficult than expected. He was surprised, "Bin Laden and I never considered whether any special skills or talents were needed to pilot an aircraft. We thought that learning to fly an airplane was much like learning to drive a car; it was easily accomplished with the correct instruction. It was a mistake in judgment."

So the official story cannot be rescued by this "new" information from a CIA operative.