Satam Al Suqami's remarkably undamaged passport, marked and wrapped in plastic is shown below as it appears after surviving the complete destruction of American Airlines flight 11. It was shown as evidence in the 2006 Zacarias Moussaoui trial. [Source: FBI]

It is reported that the passport of hijacker Satam Al Suqami has been found a few blocks from the WTC. [ABC NEWS, 9/12/2001; ASSOCIATED PRESS, 9/16/2001; ABC NEWS, 9/16/2001] Barry Mawn, the director of the FBI's New York office, says police and FBI found it during a "grid search" of the area. [CNN, 9/18/2001] However a senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission later claims it was actually discovered by a passerby and given to an NYPD detective, "shortly before the World Trade Center towers collapsed." [9/11 COMMISSION, 1/26/2004] The Guardian says, "The idea that Mohamed Atta's passport had escaped from that inferno unsinged [tests] the credulity of the staunchest supporter of the FBI's crackdown on terrorism." [GUARDIAN, 3/19/2002] (Note that, as in this Guardian account, the passport is frequently mistakenly referred to as Atta's passport.)

Who was this "passerby"?