‘Troubled’ Florida teenager left note with a nod at Bin Laden

JOHN-THOR DAHLBURG

TAMPA (FLORIDA), JANUARY 7: It was a lonely and despondent 15-year-old, feeling sympathy for accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, who stole a private plane and slammed it into a Tampa skyscraper, authorities said on Sunday.

A brief handwritten note found in the pocket of Charles J. Bishop, who died in the Saturday crash, strongly implied the high school freshman was inspired by the terrorist attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon. ‘‘He made a statement expressing sympathy with Osama bin Laden and the events of September 11,’’ Tampa Police chief Bennie R. Holder said.

Despite the contents of the note, authorities said they were treating the incident as the suicide of a desperate teen and not as an attack against a US target. ‘‘He had acted alone, without any help from anyone,’’ Holder said. ‘‘This was a young man who had few friends and was a loner. From this action, we can assume he was a troubled young man.’’

No one else was hurt when the single-engine Cessna, which may have been travelling about 100 miles an hour, punched a 10-foot-wide gap in the side of the 42-storey Bank of America Plaza building only minutes after taking off from the nearby St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. Unwittingly, the boy may have revealed holes in the aerial safety net that many Americans believe protects the country’s cities.

Neighbours in Palm Harbor, the middle-class development where Bishop lived with his mother for at least three months, said the curly brown-haired boy often appeared sad and withdrawn. ‘‘When I’d walk my dog, and he’d walk by, I always had the sense he was depressed,’’ said Linda Wolf, an airline sales employee whose son rode the same school bus as Bishop.

Lindsey Knott, 18, a classmate of Bishop’s at East Lake High School, described him as friendly, but said he was usually alone. ‘‘He was kind of quiet most of the time, but you’d hear him telling about where he had moved from, or how he was new here.’’ Some neighbors said he came to Florida from Boston.

On Sunday, FBI agents and forensic investigators of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department searched through the gray-and-white, two-storey townhouse where Bishop lived, looking for clues about his mood and motivations. Holder said the boy’s computer would be searched. The police chief declined to provide further information from the note written by the boy, saying the investigation was on.

Officials said there was little room for doubt Bishop had been in control of the plane at all times. He had been taking lessons since March at the airport, on the west of Tampa Bay. He was not a frequent student and would wash the airplanes belonging to the school, National Aviation Holding Inc., to get a break on the fees.

For some Tampa residents, Saturday’s incident — and the scream of police and fire rescue sirens — triggered fears terrorism had struck their city. Mary Geraci, a camerawoman for a local television station, was playing scrabble with friends about a quarter-mile from the Bank of America building at the time. ‘‘I just said, ‘‘Oh my God, they’re here. It’s happening in my own back yard,’’’ she recalled.

Early on Sunday, wreckage from the Cessna’s fuselage, jutting from the high-rise 300 ft above the ground, was lowered. It was taken to Tampa International Airport, where they will be reassembled for NTSB’s investigation. The Plaza building reopened on Monday, though access to the 28th and 29th floors was restricted. (LATWP)

Sharon claimed the captured material showed that Arafat is a ‘‘liar’’ who talks about peace while at the same time buying ammunition. Israeli Gen. Dan Harel told reporters the ship’s captain and five of its crew members were Palestinians and the ship was purchased by a high-ranking Palestinian official. Israeli officials, said their claims were based on interrogation of the ship’s captain, details of which were not disclosed.

Giving detailed information on the discovered weapons Harel said they were found in the front hold, buried under a mound of domestic goods-boxes of toys, plastic bins, flip-flops and a pink gauzy material. They were packed in wooden crates marked fragile. Inside each crate was a mint green canister, about 12 feet long, filled with weaponry held together with foam. The canisters acted like miniature submarines. Each was equipped with an oxygen gauge which allowed a diver to adjust is depth under the water.

‘‘In time, these allegations will prove to be unfounded,’’ said Nabil Shaath, Palestinian minister of international cooperation. In a statement, the Palestinian Authority said it is ‘‘not involved in this incident and such steps are not part of its policies and it cannot be involved in any such operations of this sort at a time it is fighting to end violence.’’

Israel earlier claimed the arms smuggling operation originated in Iran, was aided by Hezbollah and was intended for the Palestinian Authority. Harel claimed that certain of the weapons, such as the long-range Katyusha rockets, some anti-tank rockets, mines, as well as the canisters used for smuggling the weapons under the ocean, were known to be manufactured only in Iran. Again no evidence of the Hezbollah connection was offered.

Although most Palestinian leaders maintained they had nothing to do with the ship, one high-ranking official hinted at a different explanation. ‘‘I am not saying we bought these weapons,’’ said the official, who did not want to be named, ‘‘but in view of Sharon’s decision to try and destroy the Palestinian Authority and invade territories supposedly under our control, I would not be surprised if Arafat would choose to rearm in order to defend himself.’’ This official also pointed out that the weapons involved were more of the type owned by armies than terrorists. He said the Israeli insistence that any future Palestinian state be unarmed is ‘‘unreasonable.’’ (LATWP)