By CATHY ARONSON
The Security Intelligence Service is investigating a visit by two men believed to be Arabs to a Hamilton photocopying centre months before the terrorism in the United States.
The shop owners say the men made copies of an aircraft manual in Arabic. The owners noticed the numbers 757 and 767 and drawings of planes and instruments.
The hijacked airliners flown into the World Trade Center and Pentagon were Boeing 757s and 767s.
After the September 11 atrocities, FBI agents found an Arabic-language flight manual in a car left at Logan Airport in Boston, where two of the planes took off.
The men, aged about 30, spoke in a foreign language - the shop owner thought it was Arabic - as they waited about 45 minutes for the photocopying.
The manual, about 100 pages long, was in book form and had to be photocopied by hand.
One of the shop owners said he thought it was strange that the men had a manual for planes that did not fly out of Hamilton and said to them, "We don't fly those sort of planes in these parts". He could not remember their response.
The men paid $40 to $60 in cash.
It was not until two weeks after the attacks that the shop owner realised the significance of the manual.
He did not want himself or his business identified after the SIS told him that his security and that of the nation were at risk.
SIS director Richard Woods would not comment on the case.
The police national crime manager, Detective Superintendent Bill Bishop, also would not comment.
He asked the Herald to reveal its sources and threatened to issue a search warrant. "I have some very serious concerns that you should even have that information."
The head of the National Bureau of Criminal Intelligence, Detective Inspector Gary Knowles, acknowledged that the police had investigated the incident.
He confirmed that two men of "eastern extraction" did enter the photocopy centre and have the flight manual copied.
He would not say whether the SIS or the FBI were involved.
Mr Knowles said the police had completed their investigation but the file remained open.
Story archives:
Links: Terror in America - the Sept 11 attacks
Timeline: Major events since the Sept 11 attacks
NZ security agents checking claim 'Arabs' photocopied aircraft manuals
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