MANATEE -- The former owner of the now-defunct flight school where two 9/11 terrorists received commercial flight training in Venice says there was never any indication his two most infamous students planned to use the skills he provided to murder nearly 3,000 Americans.

Rudi Dekkers owned Huffman Aviation, a flight school and aviation firm based in Venice where 9/11 terrorists Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi obtained commercial pilot instruction during the months leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Dekkers, who is heavily involved in a publicity tour for his book “Guilt by Association,” talked candidly Tuesday about his two students.

Even though he provided Atta and al-Shehhi with flight training, Dekkers has no sense of personal responsibility.

“I did my business. I had a flight school. I had two students walk in. I’m not responsible for letting them into the country,” he said. “I don’t have a force of people that checks people like the government should do.”

Atta and al-Shehhi arrived at Huffman Aviation in July 2000 and left about six months later. They came from another flight school. They were happy one of Dekker’s staff provided room and board, in addition to the instruction.

During their time at his school, Dekkers is adamant he saw no “red flags” that would have indicated their ultimate intent.

“For 10 years I ask myself: Was there anything? There was nothing,” he said. “He didn’t pray to the east, Atta. He was very rude to female employees. Does that make him a terrorist? No. There was nothing we could see.”

Atta arrived with a private pilot license, and al-Shehhi had only nine of the 200 hours needed for a commercial license.

Dekkers said the pair came at what is traditionally a slow time for flight schools. The tens of thousands of dollars the pair would be spending were welcome.

Atta, Dekkers said, was the odder of the two.

“Al-Shehhi was a follower, but Atta was the opposite,” Dekker said. “He was a little nerd with a white face. He was nasty to everyone. He was very un-respectful, especially to women. He had some problems with airplanes starting. He went to my director of maintenance and he was nasty to him, too. He was just nasty.”

Dekkers believes only Atta knew what lay in store for the pair once they completed their training.

“My feeling about Atta -- he knew what he was going to do. He was going to kill a lot of people,” Dekkers said. “Al-Shehhi didn’t know.”

During one conversation, Dekkers asked Atta why he wanted to become a pilot. Dekkers knew the man had an engineering degree from a German university.

“I said you are an engineer. You can have a fantastic income there,” he said. “He said he loved flying, and he had a job lined up in the United Arab Emirates.”

Dekkers said the U.S. intelligence community bears collective responsibility for “not listening to their own people.”

“I don’t know if they knew Atta was a threat, but I do know he was in their database,” Dekkers said. “I do know the government makes mistakes, whatever department. They should blame themselves. That, I do know.”

Dekker also blames al-Qaida and its former leader Osama bin Laden, whom Dekkers said he would have killed if given the opportunity.

“He destroyed me,” Dekkers said Tuesday. “I lost my marriage, my health, had to sell everything and lost my name. I still feel mad.”

Dekkers said after his name surfaced he received death threats; bank loans were called in; he lost his business; his health suffered; and his 22-year marriage came to an end.

He documented his struggles in his book, which has already been published in his native Holland, partly to clear his reputation, which he said is still being besmirched on the Internet.

“People still think I only had them steer left and right, and that they didn’t have to land,” he said. “They took all the lessons needed to become professional pilots.”

Dekker’s book was positioned near 4,000,000 on Amazon’s best seller/most ordered list before his book tour began. It jumped to about 32,000 after he appeared on a national news program. He’s not sure if it’s available locally.

As to his future, Decker said he has a “10-year plan.”

“I’m going to be a motivational speaker,” he said. “It’s a niche market.”