Mohammed Atta, one of the September 11th hijackers who flew a plane into the World Trade Center, blew up a bus in Israel in 1986 and was released from prison at the urgings of President Ronald Reagan and Secretary of State George Shultz.

More recent versions claim that Atta was released at the urging of President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

See the email here.

No.

It's a case of mistaken identity.

In April 1986, Jordanian native and naturalized U.S. citizen Mahmoud Atta threw a firebomb at a bus in the West Bank, boarded it and opened fire with a submachine gun. The driver was killed and three passengers were wounded.

Mahmoud Atta fled to Venezuala and was arrested a year later. As Venezuela had no extradition treaty with Israel, Mahmoud Atta was deported to the U.S. where he was arrested by the FBI. Three years later Atta was extradited to Israel where he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Mohammed Atta, one of the September 11th hijackers, was Egyptian and thirteen years younger than Mahmoud Atta. By all reports Mohammed Atta's involvement with terrorism began only two years ago.

That didn't stop some journalists and law enforcement officials from confusing the two. Reports from NBC, the Boston Globe and others reported that Mohammed Atta was involved in the bus attack in 1986.

The Urban Legend Zeitgeist also notes that Ronald Reagan and George Shultz had been out of office for two years when Mahmoud Atta was deported to Israel and five years when the Oslo peace accords where signed.

Bill Clinton and Warren Christopher are equally blameless since this is a case of mistaken identity.

In a rapidly developing story like the events of September 11th, it should not come as a surprise that news organizations and even law enforcement agencies should make some mistakes like the confusion of Mahmoud Atta with Mohammed Atta. Other factors, such as the wide variety of ways Arabic can be transliterated and the identity theft apparently used by the terrorists, could have contributed to the confusion.

• "An Unobtrusive Man's Odyssey: Polite Student to Suicide Hijacker" from the New York Times
• "Father, friends paint different portrait of Atta" from the Miami Herald
• "Atta does not fit terrorist mold" from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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