
Earlier this year, quite by happenstance, I read a book written by Pulitzer  Prize-winning reporter James B. Stewart.
"Heart of a Soldier" tells the  story of two men who, well before it happened, foretold not only of the  terrorist attack of 9/11 but also the 1993 bombing in the World Trade Center  parking garage that preceded it.
One of the men, Rick Rescorla, was chief  of security for Morgan Stanley with an office in the World Trade Center. He died  on 9/11, but not before he shepherded all but six of Morgan Stanley's 2,700  employees to safety because of a well-prepared and well-executed evacuation  plan. He'd have made it out, too, had he not gone back in the building looking  for those six.
The other man, Daniel J. Hill, is still alive.
With  another Sept. 11 approaching I wanted to talk to The Man Who Predicted  9/11.
Although the primary focus in Stewart's book is on Rescorla — a  bona fide hero for his actions on 9/11 — I found Hill to be an even more  fascinating character.
It was Hill who converted to Islam as a young U.S.  Army paratrooper stationed in Beirut in 1958. It was Hill who learned fluent  Arabic. It was Hill who joined the Mujahedeen Freedom Fighters in Afghanistan  and fought the Soviet invasion there in the 1980s. It was Hill who personally  met Osama bin Laden. It was Hill who used information from Islamic extremists to  warn Rescorla that terrorists would use the underground parking garage for a car  bomb attack on the World Trade Center. It was Hill who asked the U.S. government  to assist him in an assassination attempt on bin Laden in 1998 (the request was  rejected). And it was Hill who warned the FBI just weeks before Sept. 11, 2001,  that his Mideast contacts told him "something big" was about to happen in the  United States, in New York, Washington, D.C., or Philadelphia — maybe all  three.
Through the Internet I managed to contact Hill at his home in  Florida. He's 71 now. I asked him if his reputation as a terrorism  prognosticator without parallel has changed his life much.
"Oh, that blew  over pretty fast," he said. "Most of the people even in my hometown don't know  any of that stuff."
He didn't want to talk about the past. He wanted to  talk about the future.
The very near future.
The man who predicted  9/11 is worried that its sequel is imminent.
"Muslims that I talk to say  things like, 'America thinks they're safe now. They've forgotten about 9/11. But  watch, Daniel. Stay near your TV. It's going to be bigger than 9/11,'" he  said.
Hill said the next terrorist attack will involve suitcase nuclear  bombs that will be detonated in small, low-flying two-seater private airplanes  manned by men hanging onto the belief that, like the 9/11 hijackers, they are  about to die as martyrs and enter paradise.
He is not alone in suggesting  such a scenario. A 2007 book, "The Day of Islam," spells out the details, as do  any number of Internet sites about a plot called "American  Hiroshima."
The nukes, he said, will be detonated over New York,  Washington, D.C., Chicago, Miami, Houston, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
I  asked Hill, "Why now?"
"Eight years from 1993 to 2001, eight years from  that 9/11 to this 9/11," he said. "Symbolism. They're big on  symbolism."
"Ramadan started two weeks ago Saturday," he said, referring  to the Muslim holy month of fasting. "It always hits around  Ramadan."
Eight years ago, Hill predicted the attack would come on Oct.  16 — almost in the middle of that year's Ramadan (the timing of Ramadan varies  from year to year). He was about a month off.
"I don't know the second,  hour or day. I just know they have the means, will, motivation and desire to do  it," he said, noting that it's believed that years ago the suitcase nukes,  acquired from former USSR operatives, were smuggled into America across the  Mexican border.
Hill said he has warned the FBI, the CIA and others in  government. For the past two years, he's sent out proposals for a book on the  subject. All he's gotten back are rejections.
"To most people, I am a  deviant personality," he said.
But there's no arguing his  credentials.
"I'm a Muslim," he says. "I'm a special ops expert, I'm a  terrorist and I've lived among Muslims. I fought the Russians with the same guys  we're now fighting in Afghanistan. I met Osama. I volunteered to assassinate  him. I know (the enemy) so well because I've worked, slept and prayed alongside  them for years. I've become one of them. I know their nature, I know their  culture, I know how they think. I can quote the Koran like a Southern Baptist  minister can quote the New Testament. I know these are people who do not tire,  who do not quit. There are odds this won't happen, but they aren't big  odds."
"I hope you're wrong," I told him.
"Yeah. I hope so, too,"  he said.