-1

I read:

Anderson, who resumed the running of the Conch Republic souvenir business and the official Conch Republic Days festival until his death in 2014, was subjected to an FBI inquiry after reports surfaced that one of the 9/11 hijackers, Mohammad Atta, might have used a Conch Republic passport to enter the United States.

The Conch Republic is a "tongue-in-cheek" micronation in Florida.

Did one of the 9/11 hijackers use a Conch Republic passport to enter the United States?

Improve this question
3
  • 5
    The weasel-word "might have used" is of course true. He might have. What may be questionable is if he was ever subject to an FBI inquiry. Either way, the title and your question does not really match the claim made.
    – pipe
    Jan 16 at 19:57
  • N.B. Wikipedia says the FBI also thought Atta got such a document (Conch Rep. passport), but of course that would not have been of much help to him in entering the US.
    – Fizz
    Jan 16 at 20:02
  • Would an average American know what "Conch Republic" means? As an average European I thought it was a grotesque misspelling of "Czech Republic".
    – gnasher729
    Jan 29 at 1:37

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
6

No. The Conch Republic is a self-declared microstate in Florida. As such, their passports would not really help enter the US. The US would not recognize them, or else they'd be admitting some other country has sovereignty over a part of Florida.

According to the OIG, Atta entered the US multiple times, the first time using an Egyptian passport with a "B-1/B-2 "(business) visa issued by the US consulate in Berlin. He then re-entered with some kind of student visa, before entering for a 3rd time with a business visa. There's not much discussion of his passport there (in the lengthy OIG appraisal, unlike of his visas), so it seems likely he kept using the same Egyptian passport [valid through 2007].

Improve this answer
3
  • 1
    Is "would not" the same as "did not"?
    – komodosp
    Jan 17 at 11:48
  • From the article: "Anderson says he has used his Conch Republic passport to enter the United States five times, and enter Caribbean countries multiple times."
    – Avery
    Jan 17 at 18:38
  • @Avery: I'm not sure which article you're quoting. If Anderson is the Conch Republic guy, Peter Anderson (their "late secretary general" according to Wikipedia), I'm not too convinced we should take his claims at face value. He was selling those passports, basically, so had some vested interest in hyping their value/usefulness.
    – Fizz
    Jan 17 at 23:55

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .