Terrorists Lived Amongst Us Before Sept. 11th Attacks
DEERFIELD BEACH (CBS4) – A stunned nation watched in silence as terrorists launched an attack several locations in the U.S. on September 11th.
South Florida was horrified when it was learned that many of those same terrorists, who murdered nearly 3,000 people, had been walking among us while they finalized their plans.
"They were right here with their plans, some kind of paper work," said Panther Motel co-owner Richard Surma as he stood inside one of the rooms. "They were sitting around here."
Some of the terrorists stayed at the Panther Motel in Deerfield Beach. The guys who rented room 10 would crash into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York that Tuesday morning along with Muhammad Atta who lived in Hollywood. Surma's wife Diane remembered them as being well behaved.
"They were very young, very polite, very nice," said Diane Surma. "I couldn't imagine they could do such a big damage to our country."
Two days before the attack the last one, Marwan Al Shehhi, checked out. Authorities say he helped hijack the plane that crashed into the South Tower. Diane Surma said will never forget when evil stared her in the face.
"When he said bye, he looked straight in my eye like, ya know, something he wanted to say," she remembered.
Brad Warrick faced evil too. He rented cars to two of the terrorists in Pompano Beach. Warrick remembered Atta as a polite business man, he never suspected a thing.
"It's just amazing that they could have brainstormed such an evil thing that could do harm to so many thousands of people on one strike," said Warrick.
Bert Rodriguez owned a gym in Dania Beach at the time. He probably had the closest relationship with any of the terrorists. He was the personal trainer for Zaid Jarrah who helped bring down United 93 in a Pennsylvania field while battling passengers who fought back.
"First I couldn't believe it," said Rodriguez, "First I thought maybe he was a passenger because it just didn't dawn on me that this person would be capable of this."
Rodriguez, who trained Jarrah in hand to hand combat, said he sickened to learn that the training he provided helped him pull off the murderous plan. Jarrah, just like the rest, was not only a 'master at terror' but also expert at blending in and gaining trust.
"You think you know people, but you don't. You don't know what people are capable to doing," warned Warrick.
