After being pulled over for a traffic citation in Florida on April 26, 2001, lead 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta was scheduled for a court appearance a month later. He skipped, and “Now his name was entered into the computer for all Florida police precincts.” When he was pulled over again, on July 5, 2001, the officer looked up his personal data. “For mysterious reasons, the computer withheld…the fact that Atta was wanted in Broward County. Atta got off with a simple fine. ‘There is maybe a small percent chance of the computer being out of order at such a moment,’ stated John Williams of the Broward County Police Department. He added, ‘Damn it, in a way we already had him.’ ”
– Der Spiegel, Inside 9-11, Pages 23-24