Planning of the September 11, 2001 attacks
Encyclopedia
On September 11, 2001, 19 hijackers took control of four airplanes and were targeting The World Trade Center in New York, The Pentagon near Washington, D.C., and the United States Capitol Building. Two planes hit the World Trade Center. One hit the Pentagon, however one plane never arrived at its target, the Capitol Building. Almost 3,000 people died, making it the most deadly terrorist attack in U.S. History. It was carefully planned by Al-Qaeda, who sent 19 terrorists to take over Boeing 757
and Boeing 767
aircraft, operated by American Airlines
and United Airlines
.
's origins date back to 1979 when the Soviet Union
invaded Afghanistan
. Soon after the invasion, Osama bin Laden
traveled to Afghanistan and helped organize Arab mujahadeen, using financial and military assistance from the United States
. Together with Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian-Jordanian who influenced bin Laden, they formed Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK) in 1984, to provide support for Arab mujahadeen who came to join the jihad
in Afghanistan.
Towards the end of the 1980s, the Soviets were retreating in defeat. Bin Laden and Azzam had discussions about the future of MAK and what to do with the mujahadeen force that had built up. Bin Laden and Azzam both wanted to use the force as a "rapid reaction force" to defend oppressed Muslims around the world. Bin Laden wanted to train the mujahadeen in terrorist tactics, while Azzam strongly disagreed with this approach, issuing a fatwa saying that it would violate Islamic law. Azzam reiterated the hadith that orders Muslims not to kill any women or children.
In November 1989, soon after bin Laden and Azzam split, Azzam was killed in Peshawar
, Pakistan
. Azzam and his two sons were travelling to Jummah (Friday prayer) when a remote-control activated bomb detonated and killed them. It is not known for certain if bin Laden was behind this, but thought unlikely. Nonetheless, bin Laden was free to take full control of MAK, laying groundwork for Al-Qaeda. Under guidance of Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri
, bin Laden became more radical.
In 1991, bin Laden moved to the Sudan
, where he led operations in East Africa
, including the 1993 assault on American troops at Mogadishu
in Somalia
. Under international pressure, the Sudanese forced bin Laden out of Sudan in 1996, and he returned to Afghanistan.
in 1990 marked a point where bin Laden turned his attention toward the United States
. He strongly urged the Saudi regime not to host the 500,000 American troops, instead advocating the use of a mujahidin force to oust the Iraqis. Bin Laden strongly opposed the continued presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia. He interpreted the Prophet Muhammad
as banning the "permanent presence of infidels in Arabia". This is why bin Laden attacked American military targets in Saudi Arabia
. Also, the date chosen for the 1998 African embassy bombings (August 7), was eight years to the day that American troops were sent to Saudi Arabia.
Bin Laden also stated that he viewed the House of Saud
(the Saudi royal family) as apostates. In Islam
, the charge of apostasy
made against Muslims that have become non-believers and reject Islam. Apostasy is a very serious charge, which may result in capital punishment in many Muslim countries (especially for males). Bin Laden also objects to American alliances with the governments of Kuwait
, Jordan
, and Egypt
.
He viewed Israelis as infidel
s, who are not welcome in "Muslim land". He objected to U.S. foreign policy in relation to Israel
. He noted that key figures Madeline Albright, Sandy Berger
, and William Cohen
, who were all Jewish, "drove Washington's undoubtedly pro-Israel policy" during the Clinton administration
.
, calling for American troops to get out of Saudi Arabia
. It is interesting to note that in Islam, a Fatwa can only be given by an Islamic scholar. However, Osama bin Laden on the other hand was a political fighter who used Islam to motivate his fighters. The 1998 United States Embassy bombings
marked a turning point, with bin Laden intent on attacking the United States
. Bin Laden issued another fatwa in February 1998, together with Ayman al Zawahiri, declaring war against Americans. Bin Laden stated "We do not have to differentiate between military or civilian. As far as we are concerned, they [Americans] are all targets." Bin Laden cited grievances including the presence of American infidels (troops) in the Saudi holy land, suffering of Iraqi people due to sanctions imposed after the Gulf War, and U.S. support of Israel
. In the December 1999 interview with Rahimullah Yusufzai, bin Laden reiterated his ideology and objected to America's military presence in Saudi Arabia. He proclaimed that Americans were "too near to Mecca
". He considered this a provocation to the entire Muslim world. He also believed Israel "was killing and punishing Palestinians with American money and American arms."
and the Philippines
, the September 11 attacks originated with Operation Bojinka
(a plan that was not executed), which was conceived by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (K.S.M) and his nephew, Ramzi Yousef
. The first stage would be the assassination of Pope
John Paul II
, and the bomb
ing of twelve airliner
s. The second and third stages called for small airplanes loaded with explosives to be crashed into the CIA headquarters. The plot was discovered by Manila
police on January 6, 1995 and Abdul Hakim Murad was arrested. Ramzi Yousef
was arrested in Pakistan
in February 1995. Wali Khan Amin Shah
escaped after his arrest, but was re-arrested in Malaysia in December 1995. Khalid Sheik Mohammed escaped, and Riduan Isamuddin
, also known as Hambali, was overlooked.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed first presented the idea for the September 11 plot to bin Laden in 1996 in Afghanistan. However, nothing came of the idea at the time. At that point, bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were in a period of transition, having just relocated back to Afghanistan from Sudan.
Mohammed moved to Qatar
. Before the government there could arrest him (after a request by the United States), he fled to Afghanistan
. The leaders of Al-Qaeda
liked the idea of the modified Phases II and III Mohammed presented to them. Instead of using small airplanes loaded with explosives, as Murad planned to do, Mohammed planned to use commercial airliners. Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah
became the managers of the plot. During late 1996 and 1997, Khalid Sheik Mohammed stayed in the Czech Republic
, as the Taliban allegedly did not approve of his womanising. German officials believe that the leaders of Al-Qaeda planned almost the entire September 11 plot in Afghanistan. Six of the hijackers that were chosen later down the line would have some say in the plot.
According to the September 11 Commission Khalid Shaikh Mohammed envisioned a hijacking of ten planes on both the East
and West
coasts, and for nine of them to be crashed into the World Trade Center
, the Pentagon
in Arlington, Virginia, either the White House
or the United States Capitol
, the tallest building in Los Angeles
(the Library Tower, now known as the U.S. Bank Tower), the Sears Tower
, both Columbia Center
and the Space Needle
in Seattle, Washington
, and Empire State Building
. The commission stated that Mohammed also wanted to personally hijack a tenth airliner, kill all of the adult males on board, land the plane in the U.S., make a political speech, and then free all of the women and children on the plane.
In December 1998, the Director of Central Intelligence
Counterterrorist Center reported to the president that Al-Qaeda was preparing for attacks in the USA, including the training of personnel to hijack aircraft.
In late 1998 or early 1999, bin Laden summoned Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to Kandahar
and gave approval for Mohammed to go forward with the plot. The plot was now referred to within Al-Qaeda as the "planes operation". In addition to flying planes into buildings, there was a plan to simultaneously crash additional planes in Asia, which could be done by operatives not granted a U.S. visa and without flight training. Bin Laden canceled the latter part of the planes operation in the spring of 2000, because of difficulties of coordination. The commission said that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed probably would have arranged to have six planes hijacked, even later on, if he was able to find more hijackers. He also considered a Phase II, but he and his colleagues spent so much time on the current plot that they could not plan a second phase.
A series of meetings occurred in spring of 1999, involving Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Osama bin Laden, and his deputy Mohammed Atef. Bin Laden recommended four individuals for the plot, including Nawaf al-Hazmi
, Khalid al-Mihdhar
, Walid Muhammad Salih Bin 'Attash (Khallad), and Abu Bara al-Taizi. Al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar were both Saudi citizens, thus making it simple for them to obtain U.S. visas. Khallad and al-Taizi were both Yemen
i citizens, thus not able to easily obtain visas to the United States. The two Yemenis were assigned for the Asia component of the plot. When Mohamed Atta
and other members of the Hamburg cell
arrived in Afghanistan, bin Laden was involved in selecting them for the plot, and assigning Atta to be the leader.
Several Al-Qaeda members are said to have attended a meeting in Kuala Lumpur
, Malaysia, from January 5 to January 8, 2000, that regarded the planning of the USS Cole bombing
(which took place on October 12, 2000), and the forthcoming September 11, 2001 attacks
. Hambali, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Nawaf al-Hazmi
, Khalid al-Mihdhar
, and Tawfiq bin Attash
attended the meeting. The men were also photographed when they came out of the meeting. U.S. investigators did not identify these men until much later. The meeting was not wiretapped but it was videotaped.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the head of Al-Qaeda's 'military committee'. He provided operational support, such as selecting targets and helping arrange travel for the hijackers. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed explained to Fouda, "We had a large surplus of brothers willing to die as martyrs. As we studied various targets, nuclear facilities arose as a key option"... but the nuclear targets were dropped for concerns the plan would "get out of hand."
According to several captured Al-Qaeda members, the leaders decided that the World Trade Center, The Pentagon, and the United States Capitol were the targets, and that leaders rejected the White House
as it was too difficult to see from the air. According to captured member Abu Zubaydah, the White House was the intended target of United Airlines
Flight 93
. According to his courtroom confession (which he recanted after being sentenced to life in prison) Zacarias Moussaoui intended to hijack a fifth plane with Richard Colvin Reid which would use GPS to find the White House.
, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Marwan al-Shehhi
and Ziad Jarrah
came into the picture in 1999, when they arrived in Kandahar from Germany. The Hamburg cell
was formed starting in 1998 shortly after Mohammed got approval by Al-Qaeda leadership for his plot. Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi
, Ziad Jarrah
, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Said Bahaji
, Zakariyah Essabar, and fifteen others were all members.
Mohamed Atta was very religious, but not fanatically so when he came to Germany
in Fall 1992 to study urban planning at the Technical University of Hamburg. While in Germany, he was drawn to Al Quds Mosque
in Hamburg, which adheres to a "harsh, uncompromisingly fundamentalist, and resoundingly militant" version of Sunni Islam. A friend of Atta's recalled meeting him at the Al-Quds mosque in 1993, though it is not known when he started going there. Atta had always lived as a strict Muslim. He went to Mecca
in 1995, and returned to Germany as more of a Muslim fanatic. Also in late 1997, Mohamed Atta told his roommate that he was going to Mecca
, but he most likely went to Afghanistan instead. Atta had already made his Mecca pilgrimage 18 months earlier. According to Al Jazeera
journalist Yosri Fouda
, Atta went to the mosque
around this time "not to pray but to sign his death will." He is known to have attended Al-Qaeda
training camps in Afghanistan in 1999 and 2000.
Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who also went under the name "Ramzi Omar", was a citizen of Yemen
. In 1995, he came to Germany seeking asylum, claiming to be a political refugee from Sudan
. The judge refused the asylum request, and bin al-Shibh returned to the Hadramawt region of Yemen
. Bin al-Shibh later got a German visa under his real name, and came to Germany in 1997. There, he met Mohamed Atta, the leader of the Hamburg cell
, at a mosque. For two years, Atta and bin al-Shibh were roommates in Germany. In late 1999, bin al-Shibh traveled to Kandahar in Afghanistan, where he received training at Al-Qaeda training camps
, and met others involved in planning the 9/11 attacks. Original plans for the 9/11 attacks called for bin al-Shibh to be one of the hijacker pilots, along with Mohamed Atta
, Marwan al-Shehhi
, and Ziad Jarrah
. From Hamburg, Germany, bin al-Shibh applied to take flight training in the United States. At that time, he also applied to Aviation Language Services, which provides language training for student pilots. Bin al-Shibh applied for an entry visa to the United States, four times, and was refused each time. He made visa applications in Germany on May 17, 2000, and again in June, on September 16, and October 25, 2000. According to the 9/11 Commission
, this refusal of a visa was out of general concern by U.S. officials that people from Yemen would illegally overstay their visit and seek work in the United States. His friend, Zakariyah Essabar, was also denied visas. After he failed to enter the United States, bin al-Shibh took on more of a "coordinator" role in the plot, and a link between Atta in the United States and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Afghanistan.
Marwan al-Shehhi
came to Bonn
, Germany
in 1996, on scholarship from the United Arab Emirates
Army to study marine engineering
. Al-Shehhi met Atta in 1997, and in 1998, he moved to Hamburg to join Atta and bin al-Shibh. As the son of a religiously trained father, al-Shehhi was very religious, well-educated in Islam, and adhered to a strict form of the faith. However, he had a friendlier, more humorous personality than Atta, who was very serious and more reclusive.
Ziad Jarrah
came from Lebanon
to Germany in April 1996, where he enrolled in a junior college in Greifswald
. There, he met his girlfriend, Aysel Senguen, a medical student. By late 1996, Jarrah started to become radical in his religious views. In September 1997, he transferred to the Technical University of Hamburg to study aircraft engineering. In the summer of that year, he worked at a paint shop factory for Volkswagen
in Wolfsburg
.
Other members of the Hamburg cell included Said Bahaji
, who came to Germany in 1995. He had been born there, but moved to Morocco at age 9. In 1996, Said Bahaji enrolled in the electrical engineering program at the technical university. He spent weekdays at a student home and weekends at the home of his aunt, Barbara Arens. Arens, his "high tech aunt", put a stop to the weekend visits when she saw his religious beliefs turn more radical.
to fight. While still in Germany, they met Khalid al Masri
who put the group in contact with Abu Musab
in Duisburg
, Germany
. Abu Musab turned out to be Mohamedou Ould Slahi
, an important Al-Qaeda operative. Slahi advised them that it would be difficult to get into Chechnya and advised them instead to go to Afghanistan for training first. In late 1999, the Hamburg group met with bin Laden, and pledged loyalty to him. They agreed to undertake a highly secret mission, and were told to go enroll in flight training. Atta was selected by bin Laden to lead the group. Bin Laden met with Atta several more times for additional instructions. The selection of hijackers was entirely a decision made by bin Laden and Mohammed Atef
. The hijackers had not yet met with Khalid Sheikh Mohamed. At the time, the hijacking team also included Nawaf al-Hazmi
and Khalid al-Mihdhar
, who were selected in early 1999 by Osama bin Laden.
Atta, al-Shehhi, and Jarrah all obtained new passports, claiming the old ones were lost, before applying for U.S. visas. Atta, Jarrah, and bin al-Shibh returned to Hamburg, early in 2000, while al-Shehhi went back to the United Arab Emirates to get a new passport and U.S. visa. Once back in Germany, they made efforts to appear less radical: they distanced themselves from the others, stopped attending extremist mosques, and changed their appearance and behavior. Jarrah, for example, began to behave more the way he did when he first met Senguen.
arrived in San Diego on December 8, 2000, joining Hamzi there. Hani Hanjour had previously lived in the United States, attending some flight training in 1996 and 1997. In 1997, after three months of training in Arizona
, he obtained his private pilot's license. With further training, Hanjour earned a commercial pilot's certificate, issued by the FAA, in April 1999. Hanjour aspired to become a commercial pilot, applying to a civil aviation school in Jeddah
, in 1999, but was rejected.
In Spring 2000, Hanjour went to Afghanistan. At the Al Farouq training camp
, he was identified as a trained pilot, and asked to report to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He returned to Saudi Arabia on June 20, and obtained a U.S. visa on September 25, 2000. He arrived back in San Diego on December 8, 2000. Hamzi and Hanjour then left for Mesa
, Arizona
, where Hanjour enrolled in refresher training at Arizona Aviation. He had difficulties with multi-engine training, due to his poor English language skills. He did some training at Pan Am International Flight Academy, on a Boeing 737 simulator, but struggled there, as well. Though he struggled, Hanjour completed the initial training by the end of March 2001. At that point, they left Arizona and headed East. By April 4, they had arrived in Falls Church, Virginia
.
on January 15, 2000. On January 18, Marwan al-Shehhi
applied for a visa
into the United States while he was in the United Arab Emirates
. He was the first member to apply for a visa in the Hamburg cell.
By the end of June, Atta, Jarrah, and al-Shehhi left for the United States. Bin al-Shibh and Essabar wanted to join Atta, al-Shehhi, and Jarrah, but they were denied U.S. visas several times. Bin al-Shibh's visa was denied since he was a citizen of Yemen
. He made several more attempts at receiving a U.S. visa. One such attempt was a $2,200 deposit he had sent to the Florida Flight Training Center, on a down payment for a similar training course taken by Ziad Jarrah. He used that application as a basis for a new attempt to get a student visa, as opposed to the visitor visa he had sought previously. On another occasion, he arranged for several thousand dollars to be deposited in his Yemen bank account, to demonstrate financial wherewithal. After his final attempt failed, he was advised by a consular official that they could not help him, and to stop trying. It was then that Bin al-Shibh decided to support the cell by sending money to it. Mohammed was making repeated trips to Indonesia
and the Philippines
in Southeast Asia
at the time. Jarrah nearly abandoned his role in the plot and probably would have been replaced by Zacarias Moussaoui
had he done so.
A man named Omar al-Bayoumi
was in San Diego, California
since 1995. He was raising a family and received a monthly stipend from his former employer, an aviation company in Saudi Arabia
. He was seen regularly videotaping various locations. Al-Bayoumi was quick to house immigrants who needed housing. In 2000, he settled in Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. According to al-Hazmi, al-Bayoumi met him and al-Mihdhar at a restaurant in Los Angeles. Al-Bayoumi offered a ride to San Diego after he heard the men speak Arabic
. Al-Bayoumi threw the men a welcome party and al-Hazmi, who said he was in the United States to learn English, signed a six-month lease. He often surfed the Internet from the San Diego State University
Library.
The first two months of the lease were paid for, yet the men complained that the lease was too expensive. In the spring, al-Hazmi told a friend that someone was going to wire $5000 to him, and that the money would come from Saudi Arabia
. Al-Hazmi told his friend that he had no account. The friend allowed him to use his account, and later found that the money came from a man named "Ali", and that it didn't originate from the United States. The two men wanted to take flight lessons, which is why they got the money. A friend took them to Montgomery Field
and arranged lessons for them. They took a single flight lesson and did not return. Fereidoun "Fred" Sorbi, the instructor, recalled, "The first day they came in here, they said they want to fly Boeings. We said you have to start slower. You can't just jump right into Boeings."
Al-Hazmi had season passes to the San Diego Zoo
and SeaWorld
. The men frequented a men's club in San Diego called Cheetah's
, which is near the Islamic Center. Al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi frequently drove to Las Vegas
in the Toyota sedan they bought.
, via e-mail, inquiring about flight training, "Dear sir, we are a small group of young men from different Arab countries. Now we are living in Germany since a while for study purposes. We would like to start training for the career of airline professional pilot
s. In this field we haven't yet any knowledge but we are ready to undergo an intensive training program (up to ATP and eventually higher)." He sent 50-60 similar e-mails to other flight training schools in the United States.
On May 18, 2000, Atta applied for and received a U.S. visa. After obtaining his visa, Atta traveled to Prague
before going to the United States. Atta, along with Marwan al-Shehhi
arrived in Venice
, Florida, and visited Huffman Aviation
to "check out the facility." They explained that "they came from a flight school in the area, they were not happy and they were looking for another flight school". By December, Atta and al-Shehhi left Huffman Aviation, and on December 21, Atta received a pilot license.
who was from the United Arab Emirates
. They were all between age 20 and 28, most were unemployed with no more than a high school education, and were unmarried. The muscle hijackers included Salem al-Hazmi
, a younger brother of Nawaf al-Hamzi. They came to Afghanistan for training to fight in Chechnya. In the Summer and Fall of 2000, they were identified as candidates for the 9/11 operation, and brought before bin Laden and Atef. Bin Laden personally selected the 13 hijackers from the candidates. They briefly left Afghanistan to acquire U.S. visas, then returned for further training in late 2000 or early 2001. In late April 2001, the muscle hijackers began arriving in the U.S.
One week after he was given the money, Moussaoui came to Minnesota
from Oklahoma
. He paid $6,300 in cash to the Pan Am International Flight Academy on August 10. He was arrested for immigration violations on August 17. Some investigators think that this sparked the move to the attacks.
About three weeks prior to the attacks, the targets were assigned to four teams. The United States Capitol
was called "The Faculty of Law". The Pentagon
was dubbed "The Faculty of Fine Arts". Atta codenamed the World Trade Center
"The Faculty of Town Planning".
A conspirator named Abu Abdul Rahman
sent a "love message" on an Internet chat room
to his "German girlfriend", who was really Ramzi bin al-Shibh. The message said, "The first semester commences in three weeks. Two high schools and two universities ... This summer will surely be hot ...19 [the eventual number of hijackers] certificates for private education and four exams [the number of planes used]. Regards to the professor. Goodbye."
Between August 25 and August 28, the hijackers had bought their tickets. Some September 11 hijackers bought their reservations over the Internet
on sites such as Travelocity
, and some bought them in person at the airport.
Two of the United Airlines
Flight 175
hijackers paid $4,500 for each of their tickets. Three of the other hijackers on that flight paid $1,600 and $1,760 for their tickets. Atta booked seat 8D. Waleed al-Shehri
and Wail al-Shehri
, who sat in seats 2B and 2A, used the same Hollywood post-office-box address to buy their tickets. Satam al-Suqami
would pay in cash and sit in seat 10B. Abdulaziz al-Omari also planned to be on this flight.
On August 28, Mohamed Atta bought his ticket with his VISA
card at the American Airlines
website by using addresses in Coral Springs, Florida
and Hollywood, Florida
. He established an AAdvantage frequent flyer miles account on August 25.
According to Ramzi bin al-Shibh, on August 29, Mohamed Atta notified bin al-Shibh after Moussaoui's capture in an early morning coded telephone message, "A mate of mine bothered me with this puzzle and I was hoping you would help me solve it. Two sticks, a dash and a cake with a stick down. What is it?"
"Did you wake me up to tell me this puzzle?" Ramzi bin al-Shibh replied. Atta meant that the attacks would be on September 11; he chose when the attack would happen. The date that the attacks would occur on was uncertain until the phone call happened. A report by the September 11 Commission stated that Atta chose the date "so that the United States Congress would be in session."
Salem al-Hazmi
, Majed Moqed
, and three other hijackers worked out at a Greenbelt, Maryland
Gold's Gym from September 2 to September 6.
US investigators say that Atta sent a package to Mustafa Ahmed, the alleged al-Qaida paymaster on September 4. Mustafa Ahmed was in the United Arab Emirates at the time.
Said Bahaji left Germany and flew to Karachi via Istanbul on September 4. German police found that two other men on the flight stayed with Bahaji at the Embassy Hotel in Karachi. The men had false identification papers. Zakariya Essabar disappeared around the same time. Investigators think that he may have been one of the passengers on the plane.
Ramzi bin al-Shibh returned to Spain on September 5, flying from Düsseldorf
. Investigators say that he stayed at his private home in the Madrid area, and he never used his return ticket. He instead headed for Afghanistan.
Around this time, the FBI had been unable to access Moussaoui's computer. Agents were notified by the Central Intelligence Agency
at this time that they needed to look for Khalid al-Mihdhar
and Nawaf al-Hazmi
.
Ziad Jarrah
wrote a letter to his girlfriend and sent it to her on September 10. He wrote "I have done what I had to do" and "You should be very proud, it is an honor, and you will see the result, and everyone will be happy" as well as "Hold on to what you have until we meet each other again." The letter was returned to the U.S., as Jarrah made an error in writing the address.
Mohamed Atta spent September 10 with Abdulaziz al-Omari in South Portland, Maine
and Scarborough, Maine. Atta called Khalid Sheik Mohammed that day. Intelligence officials think that Mohammed gave him a coded signal to proceed.
stated in their final report that the "9/11 plotters eventually spent somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 to plan and conduct their attack" but the "origin of the funds remains unknown." The Commission noted: "we have seen no evidence that any foreign government-or foreign government official-supplied any funding." Some people have claimed that the operation was financed by elements of the Pakistan
i government, specifically within the Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI), as well as agents of the Saudi Arabia
n government working from within the United States.
A senior-level U.S. government source told CNN
in October 2001 that U.S. investigators believed Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh
(Ahmed Umar Syed Sheikh
), a long time ISI asset, using the alias Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad, sent more than $100,000 from Pakistan
to Mohamed Atta
, the suspected hijack ringleader of the September 11, 2001 attacks
.
"Investigators said Atta then distributed the funds to conspirators in Florida in the weeks before the deadliest acts of terrorism on U.S. soil that destroyed the World Trade Center, heavily damaged the Pentagon and left thousands dead [...] Syed
also is described as a key figure in the funding operation of Al-Qaeda, the network headed by suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden."
The Pittsburgh Tribune notes "There are many in Musharraf's government who believe that Saeed Sheikh's
power comes not from the ISI, but from his connections with our own CIA."
CNN later confirmed that it was "Ahmed Umar Syed Sheikh
, whom authorities say used a pseudonym to wire $100,000 to suspected hijacker Mohammad Atta, who then distributed the money in the United States."
Soon after the money transfer was discovered, the head of Pakistan
's Inter-Services Intelligence
, Gen. Mahmood (Mahmud) Ahmed, resigned from his position. India
n news outlets reported the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) was investigating the possibility that Gen. Mahmood Ahmed ordered Saeed Sheikh to send the $100,000 to Atta, while most Western media outlets only reported his connections to the Taliban as the reason for his departure from the ISI.
The Wall Street Journal
was one of the few Western news organizations to follow up on the story, citing the Times of India: "US authorities sought [Gen. Mahmud Ahmed's] removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 [was] wired to WTC hijacker Mohamed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh
at the instance of Gen Mahumd." The best coverage came from The Daily Excelsior, reporting "The FBI’s examination of the hard disk of the cellphone company Omar Sheikh
had subscribed to led to the discovery of the "link" between him and the deposed chief of the Pakistani ISI, Gen. Mehmood Ahmed. And as the FBI investigators delved deep, sensational information surfaced with regard to the transfer of $100,000 to Mohamed Atta, one of the Kamikaze pilots who flew a Boeing into the World Trade Center. Gen. Mehmood Ahmed, the FBI investigators found, fully knew about the transfer of money to Atta."
According to the Washington Post, "on the morning of Sept. 11, [Porter] Goss and [Bob] Graham were having breakfast with a Pakistani general named Mahmud Ahmed -- the soon-to-be-sacked head of Pakistan's intelligence service" On September 12 and 13, Lt. Gen. Mahmood met with United States Deputy Secretary of State
Richard Armitage
, Senator Joseph Biden, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Secretary of State Colin Powell. An agreement on Pakistan's collaboration in the new "war on terror
" was negotiated between Mahmood and Armitage.
Lt Gen Mehmood Ahmed then led a six-member delegation to the Afghan city of Kandahar in order to hold crisis talks with the Taliban leadership, supposedly in an attempt to persuade them to hand over Osama bin Laden
.
In June 2001, a "high-placed member of a US intelligence agency" told BBC
reporter Greg Palast that "after the [2000] elections, the agencies were told to "back off" investigating the bin Ladens and Saudi royals".
In May 2002, former FBI Agent Robert Wright, Jr.
delivered a tearful press conference apologizing to the families who lost loved ones on 9/11. He described how his superiors intentionally obstructed his investigation into Al-Qaeda financing.
Agent Wright would later tell ABC
's Brian Ross: "September 11th is a direct result of the incompetence of the FBI's International Terrorism Unit," specifically referring to the Bureau's hindering of his investigation into Yassin al-Qadi, whom Ross described as a powerful Saudi Arabian businessman with extensive financial ties in Chicago. One month after September 11, the US government officially identified Yassin al-Qadi as one of Osama bin Laden
's primary financiers and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist
.
In an interview with Computerworld Magazine, a former business associate described his relationship with al-Qadi: "I met him a few times and talked to him a few times on the telephone. He never talked to me about violence. Instead, he talked very highly of his relationship with [former President] Jimmy Carter and [Vice President] Dick Cheney
."
The Muwafaq Foundation, which U.S. authorities have confirmed was an arm of bin Laden's terror organization, was headed by Yassin al-Qadi, who was also known as the owner of Ptech -- a company that has supplied high-tech computer systems to the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service
, the United States Congress
, the United States Army
, the Navy
, the Air Force
, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA), and the White House
. A former FBI counter terrorism agent commented: "For someone like [al-Qadi] to be involved in a capacity, in an organization, a company that has access to classified information, that has access to government open or classified computer systems, would be of grave concern." Also sitting on Ptech's board of directors was Yacub Mirza— "a senior official of major radical Islamic organizations that have been linked by the US government to terrorism." In addition, Hussein Ibrahim, the Vice President and Chief Scientist of Ptech, was vice chairman of a now defunct investment group called BMI, a company the FBI has named as a conduit used by al-Qadi to launder money to Hamas terrorists.
According to Senator Bob Graham
, who was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee from June 2001 through the buildup to the Iraq war, "Two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers had a support network in the United States that included agents of the Saudi government, and the Bush administration and FBI blocked a congressional investigation into that relationship," as reported by the Miami Herald.
"And in Graham's book, Intelligence Matters, obtained by The Herald Saturday, he makes clear that some details of that financial support from Saudi Arabia were in the 27 pages of the congressional inquiry's final report that were blocked from release by the administration, despite the pleas of leaders of both parties on the House and Senate intelligence committees."
Boeing 757
The Boeing 757 is a mid-size, narrow-body twin-engine jet airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Passenger versions of the twinjet have a capacity of 186 to 289 persons and a maximum range of , depending on variant and cabin configuration...
and Boeing 767
Boeing 767
The Boeing 767 is a mid-size, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It was the manufacturer's first wide-body twinjet and its first airliner with a two-crew glass cockpit. The aircraft features two turbofan engines, a supercritical wing, and a conventional tail...
aircraft, operated by American Airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
and United Airlines
United Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
.
Background
Al-QaedaAl-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
's origins date back to 1979 when the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
invaded Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. Soon after the invasion, Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
traveled to Afghanistan and helped organize Arab mujahadeen, using financial and military assistance from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Together with Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian-Jordanian who influenced bin Laden, they formed Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK) in 1984, to provide support for Arab mujahadeen who came to join the jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
in Afghanistan.
Towards the end of the 1980s, the Soviets were retreating in defeat. Bin Laden and Azzam had discussions about the future of MAK and what to do with the mujahadeen force that had built up. Bin Laden and Azzam both wanted to use the force as a "rapid reaction force" to defend oppressed Muslims around the world. Bin Laden wanted to train the mujahadeen in terrorist tactics, while Azzam strongly disagreed with this approach, issuing a fatwa saying that it would violate Islamic law. Azzam reiterated the hadith that orders Muslims not to kill any women or children.
In November 1989, soon after bin Laden and Azzam split, Azzam was killed in Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. Azzam and his two sons were travelling to Jummah (Friday prayer) when a remote-control activated bomb detonated and killed them. It is not known for certain if bin Laden was behind this, but thought unlikely. Nonetheless, bin Laden was free to take full control of MAK, laying groundwork for Al-Qaeda. Under guidance of Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...
, bin Laden became more radical.
In 1991, bin Laden moved to the Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, where he led operations in East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
, including the 1993 assault on American troops at Mogadishu
Mogadishu
Mogadishu , popularly known as Xamar, is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital. Located in the coastal Benadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for centuries....
in Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
. Under international pressure, the Sudanese forced bin Laden out of Sudan in 1996, and he returned to Afghanistan.
Ideology
The Iraqi invasion of KuwaitGulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
in 1990 marked a point where bin Laden turned his attention toward the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He strongly urged the Saudi regime not to host the 500,000 American troops, instead advocating the use of a mujahidin force to oust the Iraqis. Bin Laden strongly opposed the continued presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia. He interpreted the Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
as banning the "permanent presence of infidels in Arabia". This is why bin Laden attacked American military targets in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. Also, the date chosen for the 1998 African embassy bombings (August 7), was eight years to the day that American troops were sent to Saudi Arabia.
Bin Laden also stated that he viewed the House of Saud
House of Saud
The House of Saud , also called the Al Saud, is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia and one of the wealthiest and most powerful dynasties in the world. The family holds thousands of members...
(the Saudi royal family) as apostates. In Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, the charge of apostasy
Apostasy
Apostasy , 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy is known as an apostate. These terms have a pejorative implication in everyday...
made against Muslims that have become non-believers and reject Islam. Apostasy is a very serious charge, which may result in capital punishment in many Muslim countries (especially for males). Bin Laden also objects to American alliances with the governments of Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
, Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
.
He viewed Israelis as infidel
Infidel
An infidel is one who has no religious beliefs, or who doubts or rejects the central tenets of a particular religion – especially in reference to Christianity or Islam....
s, who are not welcome in "Muslim land". He objected to U.S. foreign policy in relation to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. He noted that key figures Madeline Albright, Sandy Berger
Sandy Berger
Samuel Richard "Sandy" Berger was United States National Security Advisor, under President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001. In his position, he helped to formulate the foreign policy of the Clinton Administration...
, and William Cohen
William Cohen
William Sebastian Cohen is an author and American politician from the U.S. state of Maine. A Republican, Cohen served as Secretary of Defense under Democratic President Bill Clinton.-Early life and education:...
, who were all Jewish, "drove Washington's undoubtedly pro-Israel policy" during the Clinton administration
Presidency of Bill Clinton
The United States Presidency of Bill Clinton, also known as the Clinton Administration, was the executive branch of the federal government of the United States from January 20, 1993 to January 20, 2001. Clinton was the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term...
.
Fatwas
In 1996, bin Laden issued a fatwaFatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
, calling for American troops to get out of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. It is interesting to note that in Islam, a Fatwa can only be given by an Islamic scholar. However, Osama bin Laden on the other hand was a political fighter who used Islam to motivate his fighters. The 1998 United States Embassy bombings
1998 United States embassy bombings
The 1998 United States embassy bombings were a series of attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998, in which hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capitals of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The date of the...
marked a turning point, with bin Laden intent on attacking the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Bin Laden issued another fatwa in February 1998, together with Ayman al Zawahiri, declaring war against Americans. Bin Laden stated "We do not have to differentiate between military or civilian. As far as we are concerned, they [Americans] are all targets." Bin Laden cited grievances including the presence of American infidels (troops) in the Saudi holy land, suffering of Iraqi people due to sanctions imposed after the Gulf War, and U.S. support of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. In the December 1999 interview with Rahimullah Yusufzai, bin Laden reiterated his ideology and objected to America's military presence in Saudi Arabia. He proclaimed that Americans were "too near to Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
". He considered this a provocation to the entire Muslim world. He also believed Israel "was killing and punishing Palestinians with American money and American arms."
Origins of 9/11
According to the intelligence authorities in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, the September 11 attacks originated with Operation Bojinka
Oplan Bojinka
The Bojinka plot was a planned large-scale Islamist terrorist attack by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to blow up 12 airliners and their approximately 4,000 passengers as they flew from Asia to the United States. The term can also refer to a combination of plots by Yousef and Mohammed to...
(a plan that was not executed), which was conceived by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (K.S.M) and his nephew, Ramzi Yousef
Ramzi Yousef
Ramzi Yousef was one of the main perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a co-conspirator in the Bojinka plot. In 1995, he was arrested at a guest house in Islamabad, by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence and United States Diplomatic Security Service, then extradited to the...
. The first stage would be the assassination of Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
, and the bomb
Bomb
A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...
ing of twelve airliner
Airliner
An airliner is a large fixed-wing aircraft for transporting passengers and cargo. Such aircraft are operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an aircraft intended for carrying multiple passengers in commercial...
s. The second and third stages called for small airplanes loaded with explosives to be crashed into the CIA headquarters. The plot was discovered by Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
police on January 6, 1995 and Abdul Hakim Murad was arrested. Ramzi Yousef
Ramzi Yousef
Ramzi Yousef was one of the main perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a co-conspirator in the Bojinka plot. In 1995, he was arrested at a guest house in Islamabad, by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence and United States Diplomatic Security Service, then extradited to the...
was arrested in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
in February 1995. Wali Khan Amin Shah
Wali Khan Amin Shah
Wali Khan Amin Shah was a man who had a role in the foiled Bojinka plot. He was convicted of terrorism, and has been imprisoned on these charges since 1995....
escaped after his arrest, but was re-arrested in Malaysia in December 1995. Khalid Sheik Mohammed escaped, and Riduan Isamuddin
Riduan Isamuddin
Riduan Isamuddin also transliterated as Riduan Isamudin, Riduan Isomuddin, and Riduan Isomudin, better known by the nom de guerre Hambali, born as Encep Nurjaman, born April 4, 1964 is the former military leader of the Indonesian terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah , which is linked with Al...
, also known as Hambali, was overlooked.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed first presented the idea for the September 11 plot to bin Laden in 1996 in Afghanistan. However, nothing came of the idea at the time. At that point, bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were in a period of transition, having just relocated back to Afghanistan from Sudan.
Mohammed moved to Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
. Before the government there could arrest him (after a request by the United States), he fled to Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. The leaders of Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
liked the idea of the modified Phases II and III Mohammed presented to them. Instead of using small airplanes loaded with explosives, as Murad planned to do, Mohammed planned to use commercial airliners. Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah
Abu Zubaydah
Abu Zubaydah is a Saudi Arabian citizen, sentenced to death in Jordan and currently held in U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.Not neutral: Arrested in Pakistan in March 2002, he has been in US custody for more than eight years, four-and-a-half of them spent incommunicado in solitary confinement...
became the managers of the plot. During late 1996 and 1997, Khalid Sheik Mohammed stayed in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, as the Taliban allegedly did not approve of his womanising. German officials believe that the leaders of Al-Qaeda planned almost the entire September 11 plot in Afghanistan. Six of the hijackers that were chosen later down the line would have some say in the plot.
According to the September 11 Commission Khalid Shaikh Mohammed envisioned a hijacking of ten planes on both the East
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
and West
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
coasts, and for nine of them to be crashed into the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
, the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
in Arlington, Virginia, either the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
or the United States Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
, the tallest building in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
(the Library Tower, now known as the U.S. Bank Tower), the Sears Tower
Sears Tower
Sears' optimistic growth projections were not met. Competition from its traditional rivals continued, with new competition by retailing giants such as Kmart, Kohl's, and Wal-Mart. The fortunes of Sears & Roebuck declined in the 1970s as the company lost market share; its management grew more...
, both Columbia Center
Columbia Center
Columbia Center is the tallest skyscraper in the downtown Seattle skyline, as well as the tallest building in the State of Washington, and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. It occupies most of the block bounded by Fourth and Fifth Avenues and Cherry and Columbia Streets...
and the Space Needle
Space Needle
The Space Needle is a tower in Seattle, Washington and is a major landmark of the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and a symbol of Seattle. Located at the Seattle Center, it was built for the 1962 World's Fair, during which time nearly 20,000 people a day used the elevators, with over...
in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, and Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
. The commission stated that Mohammed also wanted to personally hijack a tenth airliner, kill all of the adult males on board, land the plane in the U.S., make a political speech, and then free all of the women and children on the plane.
In December 1998, the Director of Central Intelligence
Director of Central Intelligence
The Office of United States Director of Central Intelligence was the head of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, the principal intelligence advisor to the President and the National Security Council, and the coordinator of intelligence activities among and between the various United...
Counterterrorist Center reported to the president that Al-Qaeda was preparing for attacks in the USA, including the training of personnel to hijack aircraft.
In late 1998 or early 1999, bin Laden summoned Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to Kandahar
Kandahar
Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
and gave approval for Mohammed to go forward with the plot. The plot was now referred to within Al-Qaeda as the "planes operation". In addition to flying planes into buildings, there was a plan to simultaneously crash additional planes in Asia, which could be done by operatives not granted a U.S. visa and without flight training. Bin Laden canceled the latter part of the planes operation in the spring of 2000, because of difficulties of coordination. The commission said that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed probably would have arranged to have six planes hijacked, even later on, if he was able to find more hijackers. He also considered a Phase II, but he and his colleagues spent so much time on the current plot that they could not plan a second phase.
A series of meetings occurred in spring of 1999, involving Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Osama bin Laden, and his deputy Mohammed Atef. Bin Laden recommended four individuals for the plot, including Nawaf al-Hazmi
Nawaf al-Hazmi
Nawaf Muhammed Salim al-Hazmi was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks....
, Khalid al-Mihdhar
Khalid al-Mihdhar
Khalid Muhammad Abdallah al-Mihdhar was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which was flown into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks....
, Walid Muhammad Salih Bin 'Attash (Khallad), and Abu Bara al-Taizi. Al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar were both Saudi citizens, thus making it simple for them to obtain U.S. visas. Khallad and al-Taizi were both Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
i citizens, thus not able to easily obtain visas to the United States. The two Yemenis were assigned for the Asia component of the plot. When Mohamed Atta
Mohamed Atta
Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta was one of the masterminds and the ringleader of the September 11 attacks who served as the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, crashing the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the coordinated attacks.Born in 1968...
and other members of the Hamburg cell
Hamburg cell
The Hamburg cell was, according to U.S. and German intelligence agencies, a group of radical Islamists based in Hamburg, Germany that included students who eventually came to be key operatives in the 9/11 attacks...
arrived in Afghanistan, bin Laden was involved in selecting them for the plot, and assigning Atta to be the leader.
Several Al-Qaeda members are said to have attended a meeting in Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
, Malaysia, from January 5 to January 8, 2000, that regarded the planning of the USS Cole bombing
USS Cole bombing
The USS Cole Bombing, or the USS Cole Incident, was a suicide attack against the United States Navy destroyer on October 12, 2000 while it was harbored and refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen American sailors were killed, and 39 were injured...
(which took place on October 12, 2000), and the forthcoming September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
. Hambali, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Nawaf al-Hazmi
Nawaf al-Hazmi
Nawaf Muhammed Salim al-Hazmi was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks....
, Khalid al-Mihdhar
Khalid al-Mihdhar
Khalid Muhammad Abdallah al-Mihdhar was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which was flown into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks....
, and Tawfiq bin Attash
Tawfiq bin Attash
Walid Muhammad Salih bin Roshayed bin Attash is a Yemeni prisoner held in extrajudicial detention at the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps....
attended the meeting. The men were also photographed when they came out of the meeting. U.S. investigators did not identify these men until much later. The meeting was not wiretapped but it was videotaped.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the head of Al-Qaeda's 'military committee'. He provided operational support, such as selecting targets and helping arrange travel for the hijackers. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed explained to Fouda, "We had a large surplus of brothers willing to die as martyrs. As we studied various targets, nuclear facilities arose as a key option"... but the nuclear targets were dropped for concerns the plan would "get out of hand."
According to several captured Al-Qaeda members, the leaders decided that the World Trade Center, The Pentagon, and the United States Capitol were the targets, and that leaders rejected the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
as it was too difficult to see from the air. According to captured member Abu Zubaydah, the White House was the intended target of United Airlines
United Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
Flight 93
United Airlines Flight 93
United Airlines Flight 93 was United Airlines' scheduled morning transcontinental flight across the United States from Newark International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco International Airport in California. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the Boeing 757–222 aircraft operating the...
. According to his courtroom confession (which he recanted after being sentenced to life in prison) Zacarias Moussaoui intended to hijack a fifth plane with Richard Colvin Reid which would use GPS to find the White House.
Hamburg cell
Mohamed AttaMohamed Atta
Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta was one of the masterminds and the ringleader of the September 11 attacks who served as the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, crashing the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the coordinated attacks.Born in 1968...
, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Marwan al-Shehhi
Marwan al-Shehhi
Marwan Yousef Mohamed Rashid Lekrab al-Shehhi was the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 175, crashing the plane into the South Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the September 11 attacks....
and Ziad Jarrah
Ziad Jarrah
Ziad Samir Jarrah was one of the masterminds of the September 11 attacks who served as the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 93, crashing the plane into a field in a rural area near Shanksville—after a passenger uprising—as part of the coordinated attacks.After a wealthy and secular...
came into the picture in 1999, when they arrived in Kandahar from Germany. The Hamburg cell
Hamburg cell
The Hamburg cell was, according to U.S. and German intelligence agencies, a group of radical Islamists based in Hamburg, Germany that included students who eventually came to be key operatives in the 9/11 attacks...
was formed starting in 1998 shortly after Mohammed got approval by Al-Qaeda leadership for his plot. Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi
Marwan al-Shehhi
Marwan Yousef Mohamed Rashid Lekrab al-Shehhi was the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 175, crashing the plane into the South Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the September 11 attacks....
, Ziad Jarrah
Ziad Jarrah
Ziad Samir Jarrah was one of the masterminds of the September 11 attacks who served as the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 93, crashing the plane into a field in a rural area near Shanksville—after a passenger uprising—as part of the coordinated attacks.After a wealthy and secular...
, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Said Bahaji
Said Bahaji
Said Bahaji was an alleged member of the Hamburg cell that provided money to the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks.-History:He is a German citizen, and was born to a Moroccan father and a German mother in 1975. The family moved to Morocco when he was nine years old. He came to Hamburg in...
, Zakariyah Essabar, and fifteen others were all members.
Mohamed Atta was very religious, but not fanatically so when he came to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in Fall 1992 to study urban planning at the Technical University of Hamburg. While in Germany, he was drawn to Al Quds Mosque
Al-Quds Mosque Hamburg
Al-Quds Mosque Hamburg was a mosque in Hamburg, Germany that preached a radical form of Sunni Islam. Al-Quds is where some of the September 11 attackers including Mohamed Atta, attended and met one another, forming the Hamburg cell.-History:The mosque opened in 1993, and was run by the Taiba...
in Hamburg, which adheres to a "harsh, uncompromisingly fundamentalist, and resoundingly militant" version of Sunni Islam. A friend of Atta's recalled meeting him at the Al-Quds mosque in 1993, though it is not known when he started going there. Atta had always lived as a strict Muslim. He went to Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
in 1995, and returned to Germany as more of a Muslim fanatic. Also in late 1997, Mohamed Atta told his roommate that he was going to Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
, but he most likely went to Afghanistan instead. Atta had already made his Mecca pilgrimage 18 months earlier. According to Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...
journalist Yosri Fouda
Yosri Fouda
Yosri Fouda , born in Egypt, is a journalist who initially worked for the BBC's short-lived Arabic-subsidiary covering the ongoing struggle in Bosnia with veteran reporter Martin Bell. He currently works for the independent Cairo-based ON TV, which is largely owned by Egyptian businessman Naguib...
, Atta went to the mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
around this time "not to pray but to sign his death will." He is known to have attended Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
training camps in Afghanistan in 1999 and 2000.
Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who also went under the name "Ramzi Omar", was a citizen of Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
. In 1995, he came to Germany seeking asylum, claiming to be a political refugee from Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
. The judge refused the asylum request, and bin al-Shibh returned to the Hadramawt region of Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
. Bin al-Shibh later got a German visa under his real name, and came to Germany in 1997. There, he met Mohamed Atta, the leader of the Hamburg cell
Hamburg cell
The Hamburg cell was, according to U.S. and German intelligence agencies, a group of radical Islamists based in Hamburg, Germany that included students who eventually came to be key operatives in the 9/11 attacks...
, at a mosque. For two years, Atta and bin al-Shibh were roommates in Germany. In late 1999, bin al-Shibh traveled to Kandahar in Afghanistan, where he received training at Al-Qaeda training camps
Afghan training camp
An Afghan training camp is a camp or facility used for militant training located in pre-2002 Afghanistan. At the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Indian intelligence officials estimated that there were over 120 training camps operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, run by a variety of...
, and met others involved in planning the 9/11 attacks. Original plans for the 9/11 attacks called for bin al-Shibh to be one of the hijacker pilots, along with Mohamed Atta
Mohamed Atta
Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta was one of the masterminds and the ringleader of the September 11 attacks who served as the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, crashing the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the coordinated attacks.Born in 1968...
, Marwan al-Shehhi
Marwan al-Shehhi
Marwan Yousef Mohamed Rashid Lekrab al-Shehhi was the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 175, crashing the plane into the South Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the September 11 attacks....
, and Ziad Jarrah
Ziad Jarrah
Ziad Samir Jarrah was one of the masterminds of the September 11 attacks who served as the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 93, crashing the plane into a field in a rural area near Shanksville—after a passenger uprising—as part of the coordinated attacks.After a wealthy and secular...
. From Hamburg, Germany, bin al-Shibh applied to take flight training in the United States. At that time, he also applied to Aviation Language Services, which provides language training for student pilots. Bin al-Shibh applied for an entry visa to the United States, four times, and was refused each time. He made visa applications in Germany on May 17, 2000, and again in June, on September 16, and October 25, 2000. According to the 9/11 Commission
9/11 Commission
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks", including preparedness for and the immediate response to...
, this refusal of a visa was out of general concern by U.S. officials that people from Yemen would illegally overstay their visit and seek work in the United States. His friend, Zakariyah Essabar, was also denied visas. After he failed to enter the United States, bin al-Shibh took on more of a "coordinator" role in the plot, and a link between Atta in the United States and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Afghanistan.
Marwan al-Shehhi
Marwan al-Shehhi
Marwan Yousef Mohamed Rashid Lekrab al-Shehhi was the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 175, crashing the plane into the South Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the September 11 attacks....
came to Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1996, on scholarship from the United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
Army to study marine engineering
Naval architecture
Naval architecture is an engineering discipline dealing with the design, construction, maintenance and operation of marine vessels and structures. Naval architecture involves basic and applied research, design, development, design evaluation and calculations during all stages of the life of a...
. Al-Shehhi met Atta in 1997, and in 1998, he moved to Hamburg to join Atta and bin al-Shibh. As the son of a religiously trained father, al-Shehhi was very religious, well-educated in Islam, and adhered to a strict form of the faith. However, he had a friendlier, more humorous personality than Atta, who was very serious and more reclusive.
Ziad Jarrah
Ziad Jarrah
Ziad Samir Jarrah was one of the masterminds of the September 11 attacks who served as the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 93, crashing the plane into a field in a rural area near Shanksville—after a passenger uprising—as part of the coordinated attacks.After a wealthy and secular...
came from Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
to Germany in April 1996, where he enrolled in a junior college in Greifswald
Greifswald
Greifswald , officially, the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald is a town in northeastern Germany. It is situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, at an equal distance of about from Germany's two largest cities, Berlin and Hamburg. The town borders the Baltic Sea, and is crossed...
. There, he met his girlfriend, Aysel Senguen, a medical student. By late 1996, Jarrah started to become radical in his religious views. In September 1997, he transferred to the Technical University of Hamburg to study aircraft engineering. In the summer of that year, he worked at a paint shop factory for Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
in Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located on the River Aller northeast of Braunschweig , and is mainly notable as the headquarters of Volkswagen AG...
.
Other members of the Hamburg cell included Said Bahaji
Said Bahaji
Said Bahaji was an alleged member of the Hamburg cell that provided money to the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks.-History:He is a German citizen, and was born to a Moroccan father and a German mother in 1975. The family moved to Morocco when he was nine years old. He came to Hamburg in...
, who came to Germany in 1995. He had been born there, but moved to Morocco at age 9. In 1996, Said Bahaji enrolled in the electrical engineering program at the technical university. He spent weekdays at a student home and weekends at the home of his aunt, Barbara Arens. Arens, his "high tech aunt", put a stop to the weekend visits when she saw his religious beliefs turn more radical.
Selection for 9/11 plot
In 1999, this group decided to go to ChechnyaChechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
to fight. While still in Germany, they met Khalid al Masri
Khalid al-Masri
Khalid al-Masri is the name of a person alleged to have approached two 9/11 hijackers on a train in Germany and suggested that they contact an alleged al Qaeda operative in Duisburg....
who put the group in contact with Abu Musab
Mohamedou Ould Slahi
Mohamedou Ould Slahi or Salahi is a Mauritanian who has been detained at Guantánamo Bay detention camp since August 4, 2002...
in Duisburg
Duisburg
- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Abu Musab turned out to be Mohamedou Ould Slahi
Mohamedou Ould Slahi
Mohamedou Ould Slahi or Salahi is a Mauritanian who has been detained at Guantánamo Bay detention camp since August 4, 2002...
, an important Al-Qaeda operative. Slahi advised them that it would be difficult to get into Chechnya and advised them instead to go to Afghanistan for training first. In late 1999, the Hamburg group met with bin Laden, and pledged loyalty to him. They agreed to undertake a highly secret mission, and were told to go enroll in flight training. Atta was selected by bin Laden to lead the group. Bin Laden met with Atta several more times for additional instructions. The selection of hijackers was entirely a decision made by bin Laden and Mohammed Atef
Mohammed Atef
Mohammed Atef was the alleged military chief of al-Qaida, although his role in the organization was not well known by intelligence agencies for years...
. The hijackers had not yet met with Khalid Sheikh Mohamed. At the time, the hijacking team also included Nawaf al-Hazmi
Nawaf al-Hazmi
Nawaf Muhammed Salim al-Hazmi was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks....
and Khalid al-Mihdhar
Khalid al-Mihdhar
Khalid Muhammad Abdallah al-Mihdhar was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which was flown into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks....
, who were selected in early 1999 by Osama bin Laden.
Atta, al-Shehhi, and Jarrah all obtained new passports, claiming the old ones were lost, before applying for U.S. visas. Atta, Jarrah, and bin al-Shibh returned to Hamburg, early in 2000, while al-Shehhi went back to the United Arab Emirates to get a new passport and U.S. visa. Once back in Germany, they made efforts to appear less radical: they distanced themselves from the others, stopped attending extremist mosques, and changed their appearance and behavior. Jarrah, for example, began to behave more the way he did when he first met Senguen.
Hani Hanjour
Hani HanjourHani Hanjour
Hani Saleh Hasan Hanjour was the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, crashing the plane into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks....
arrived in San Diego on December 8, 2000, joining Hamzi there. Hani Hanjour had previously lived in the United States, attending some flight training in 1996 and 1997. In 1997, after three months of training in Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, he obtained his private pilot's license. With further training, Hanjour earned a commercial pilot's certificate, issued by the FAA, in April 1999. Hanjour aspired to become a commercial pilot, applying to a civil aviation school in Jeddah
Jeddah
Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...
, in 1999, but was rejected.
In Spring 2000, Hanjour went to Afghanistan. At the Al Farouq training camp
Al Farouq training camp
The Al Farouq training camp, also known as "the airport camp", was an alleged Al-Qaeda training camp near Kandahar, Afghanistan. Camp attendees received small-arms training, map-reading, orientation, explosives training, and other training....
, he was identified as a trained pilot, and asked to report to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He returned to Saudi Arabia on June 20, and obtained a U.S. visa on September 25, 2000. He arrived back in San Diego on December 8, 2000. Hamzi and Hanjour then left for Mesa
Mesa, Arizona
According to the 2010 Census, the racial composition of Mesa was as follows:* White: 77.1% * Hispanic or Latino : 26.54%* Black or African American: 3.5%* Two or more races: 3.4%* Native American: 2.4%...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, where Hanjour enrolled in refresher training at Arizona Aviation. He had difficulties with multi-engine training, due to his poor English language skills. He did some training at Pan Am International Flight Academy, on a Boeing 737 simulator, but struggled there, as well. Though he struggled, Hanjour completed the initial training by the end of March 2001. At that point, they left Arizona and headed East. By April 4, they had arrived in Falls Church, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
.
Arrival in the United States
Al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi arrived in Los AngelesLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
on January 15, 2000. On January 18, Marwan al-Shehhi
Marwan al-Shehhi
Marwan Yousef Mohamed Rashid Lekrab al-Shehhi was the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 175, crashing the plane into the South Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the September 11 attacks....
applied for a visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
into the United States while he was in the United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
. He was the first member to apply for a visa in the Hamburg cell.
By the end of June, Atta, Jarrah, and al-Shehhi left for the United States. Bin al-Shibh and Essabar wanted to join Atta, al-Shehhi, and Jarrah, but they were denied U.S. visas several times. Bin al-Shibh's visa was denied since he was a citizen of Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
. He made several more attempts at receiving a U.S. visa. One such attempt was a $2,200 deposit he had sent to the Florida Flight Training Center, on a down payment for a similar training course taken by Ziad Jarrah. He used that application as a basis for a new attempt to get a student visa, as opposed to the visitor visa he had sought previously. On another occasion, he arranged for several thousand dollars to be deposited in his Yemen bank account, to demonstrate financial wherewithal. After his final attempt failed, he was advised by a consular official that they could not help him, and to stop trying. It was then that Bin al-Shibh decided to support the cell by sending money to it. Mohammed was making repeated trips to Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
at the time. Jarrah nearly abandoned his role in the plot and probably would have been replaced by Zacarias Moussaoui
Zacarias Moussaoui
Zacarias Moussaoui is a French citizen who was convicted of conspiring to kill citizens of the US as part of the September 11 attacks...
had he done so.
A man named Omar al-Bayoumi
Omar al-Bayoumi
Omar al-Bayoumi is a Saudi national who befriended two of the 9/11 hijackers in the United States.Some people suspect he was a Saudi agent and an accessory to the attacks...
was in San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
since 1995. He was raising a family and received a monthly stipend from his former employer, an aviation company in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. He was seen regularly videotaping various locations. Al-Bayoumi was quick to house immigrants who needed housing. In 2000, he settled in Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. According to al-Hazmi, al-Bayoumi met him and al-Mihdhar at a restaurant in Los Angeles. Al-Bayoumi offered a ride to San Diego after he heard the men speak Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
. Al-Bayoumi threw the men a welcome party and al-Hazmi, who said he was in the United States to learn English, signed a six-month lease. He often surfed the Internet from the San Diego State University
San Diego State University
San Diego State University , founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, is the largest and oldest higher education facility in the greater San Diego area , and is part of the California State University system...
Library.
The first two months of the lease were paid for, yet the men complained that the lease was too expensive. In the spring, al-Hazmi told a friend that someone was going to wire $5000 to him, and that the money would come from Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. Al-Hazmi told his friend that he had no account. The friend allowed him to use his account, and later found that the money came from a man named "Ali", and that it didn't originate from the United States. The two men wanted to take flight lessons, which is why they got the money. A friend took them to Montgomery Field
Montgomery Field
Montgomery Field is a public airport located in San Diego, California, United States, six miles north of the central business district of San Diego. The airport covers and has three runways and two helipads...
and arranged lessons for them. They took a single flight lesson and did not return. Fereidoun "Fred" Sorbi, the instructor, recalled, "The first day they came in here, they said they want to fly Boeings. We said you have to start slower. You can't just jump right into Boeings."
Al-Hazmi had season passes to the San Diego Zoo
San Diego Zoo
The San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, is one of the most progressive zoos in the world, with over 4,000 animals of more than 800 species...
and SeaWorld
SeaWorld
SeaWorld is a United States chain of marine mammal parks, oceanariums, and animal theme parks owned by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. The parks feature captive orca, sea lion, and dolphin shows and zoological displays featuring various other marine animals. There are operations in Orlando,...
. The men frequented a men's club in San Diego called Cheetah's
Cheetah's
Cheetah's Topless Club is a "gentleman's club" or topless bar located in San Diego, and Las Vegas, best known for being featured in the 1995 movie Showgirls, and also for having been owned by Mike Galardi, a nightclub owner who was investigated by the FBI with a controversial invocation of the...
, which is near the Islamic Center. Al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi frequently drove to Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
in the Toyota sedan they bought.
Flight training
In March 2000, Mohamed Atta contacted the Academy of Lakeland in FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, via e-mail, inquiring about flight training, "Dear sir, we are a small group of young men from different Arab countries. Now we are living in Germany since a while for study purposes. We would like to start training for the career of airline professional pilot
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
s. In this field we haven't yet any knowledge but we are ready to undergo an intensive training program (up to ATP and eventually higher)." He sent 50-60 similar e-mails to other flight training schools in the United States.
On May 18, 2000, Atta applied for and received a U.S. visa. After obtaining his visa, Atta traveled to Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
before going to the United States. Atta, along with Marwan al-Shehhi
Marwan al-Shehhi
Marwan Yousef Mohamed Rashid Lekrab al-Shehhi was the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 175, crashing the plane into the South Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the September 11 attacks....
arrived in Venice
Venice, Florida
Venice is a city in Sarasota County, Florida, United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2007 estimates, the city had a population of 21,015. It is noted for its large snowbird population. Its newspaper is the Venice Gondolier Sun...
, Florida, and visited Huffman Aviation
Huffman Aviation
Huffman Aviation was a flight-training school in Venice, Florida at Venice Municipal Airport.-Background:Huffman Aviation was established in 1972 as Venice Flying Service, and was reorganized in 1987 and renamed as Huffman Aviation. Huffman Aviation was purchased by Dutchman Rudi Dekkers in 1999. ...
to "check out the facility." They explained that "they came from a flight school in the area, they were not happy and they were looking for another flight school". By December, Atta and al-Shehhi left Huffman Aviation, and on December 21, Atta received a pilot license.
Muscle hijackers
During the Summer and Fall of 2000, bin Laden and other senior Al-Qaeda leaders began selecting the "muscle" hijackers. With Hamzi and al-Mihdhar already selected, thirteen additional hijackers were selected. They were all from Saudi Arabia, except for Fayez BanihammadFayez Banihammad
Fayez Rashid Ahmed Hassan al-Qadi Banihammad was one of five hijackers aboard United Airlines Flight 175 as part of the September 11 attacks....
who was from the United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
. They were all between age 20 and 28, most were unemployed with no more than a high school education, and were unmarried. The muscle hijackers included Salem al-Hazmi
Salem al-Hazmi
Salem al-Hazmi was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77 as part of the September 11 attacks.A Saudi, Hazmi had a relatively long history with al-Qaeda before being selected for the attacks...
, a younger brother of Nawaf al-Hamzi. They came to Afghanistan for training to fight in Chechnya. In the Summer and Fall of 2000, they were identified as candidates for the 9/11 operation, and brought before bin Laden and Atef. Bin Laden personally selected the 13 hijackers from the candidates. They briefly left Afghanistan to acquire U.S. visas, then returned for further training in late 2000 or early 2001. In late April 2001, the muscle hijackers began arriving in the U.S.
Final preparations
The report by the September 11 Commission stated that Osama bin Laden aggressively pushed the September 11 plan as it formed, even when some of his closest aides were advising him to cancel the plans. Osama bin Laden envisioned an increase in recruiting and fundraising after the attacks.One week after he was given the money, Moussaoui came to Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
from Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
. He paid $6,300 in cash to the Pan Am International Flight Academy on August 10. He was arrested for immigration violations on August 17. Some investigators think that this sparked the move to the attacks.
About three weeks prior to the attacks, the targets were assigned to four teams. The United States Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
was called "The Faculty of Law". The Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
was dubbed "The Faculty of Fine Arts". Atta codenamed the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
"The Faculty of Town Planning".
A conspirator named Abu Abdul Rahman
Abu Abdul Rahman
Abu Abdul Rahman is an Iraqi Canadian alleged to have led insurgent forces in "the most disciplined, intense attacks from insurgency forces" in the November 2006 Battle of Turki.Rahman moved to Turki in 1995, after marrying a woman from the city....
sent a "love message" on an Internet chat room
Chat room
The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing...
to his "German girlfriend", who was really Ramzi bin al-Shibh. The message said, "The first semester commences in three weeks. Two high schools and two universities ... This summer will surely be hot ...19 [the eventual number of hijackers] certificates for private education and four exams [the number of planes used]. Regards to the professor. Goodbye."
Between August 25 and August 28, the hijackers had bought their tickets. Some September 11 hijackers bought their reservations over the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
on sites such as Travelocity
Travelocity
Travelocity is an online travel agency and wholly owned subsidiary of Sabre Holdings Corporation, which was a publicly traded company until taken private by Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group in March 2007...
, and some bought them in person at the airport.
Two of the United Airlines
United Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
Flight 175
United Airlines Flight 175
United Airlines Flight 175 was United Airlines' daily scheduled morning transcontinental flight, from Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California...
hijackers paid $4,500 for each of their tickets. Three of the other hijackers on that flight paid $1,600 and $1,760 for their tickets. Atta booked seat 8D. Waleed al-Shehri
Waleed al-Shehri
Waleed Mohammed al-Shehri was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11, which was crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the September 11 attacks....
and Wail al-Shehri
Wail al-Shehri
Wail Mohammed al-Shehri was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11, which was hijacked and flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the September 11 attacks....
, who sat in seats 2B and 2A, used the same Hollywood post-office-box address to buy their tickets. Satam al-Suqami
Satam al-Suqami
A law student, Satam Muhammed Abdel Rahman al-Suqami was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11 as part of the September 11 attacks....
would pay in cash and sit in seat 10B. Abdulaziz al-Omari also planned to be on this flight.
On August 28, Mohamed Atta bought his ticket with his VISA
VISA (credit card)
Visa Inc. is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered on 595 Market Street, Financial District in San Francisco, California, United States, although much of the company's staff is based in Foster City, California. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout...
card at the American Airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
website by using addresses in Coral Springs, Florida
Coral Springs, Florida
Coral Springs, officially chartered July 10, 1963, is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, approximately northwest of Fort Lauderdale. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 121,096...
and Hollywood, Florida
Hollywood, Florida
-Demographics:As of 2000, there were 59,673 households out of which 24.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.5% were married couples living together, 11.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.2% were non-families. 34.4% of all households were made up of...
. He established an AAdvantage frequent flyer miles account on August 25.
According to Ramzi bin al-Shibh, on August 29, Mohamed Atta notified bin al-Shibh after Moussaoui's capture in an early morning coded telephone message, "A mate of mine bothered me with this puzzle and I was hoping you would help me solve it. Two sticks, a dash and a cake with a stick down. What is it?"
"Did you wake me up to tell me this puzzle?" Ramzi bin al-Shibh replied. Atta meant that the attacks would be on September 11; he chose when the attack would happen. The date that the attacks would occur on was uncertain until the phone call happened. A report by the September 11 Commission stated that Atta chose the date "so that the United States Congress would be in session."
Salem al-Hazmi
Salem al-Hazmi
Salem al-Hazmi was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77 as part of the September 11 attacks.A Saudi, Hazmi had a relatively long history with al-Qaeda before being selected for the attacks...
, Majed Moqed
Majed Moqed
A former law student, Majed Mashaan Ghanem Moqed was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77 as part of the September 11 attacks....
, and three other hijackers worked out at a Greenbelt, Maryland
Greenbelt, Maryland
Greenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Contained within today's City of Greenbelt is the historic planned community now known locally as "Old Greenbelt" and designated as the Greenbelt Historic District...
Gold's Gym from September 2 to September 6.
US investigators say that Atta sent a package to Mustafa Ahmed, the alleged al-Qaida paymaster on September 4. Mustafa Ahmed was in the United Arab Emirates at the time.
Said Bahaji left Germany and flew to Karachi via Istanbul on September 4. German police found that two other men on the flight stayed with Bahaji at the Embassy Hotel in Karachi. The men had false identification papers. Zakariya Essabar disappeared around the same time. Investigators think that he may have been one of the passengers on the plane.
Ramzi bin al-Shibh returned to Spain on September 5, flying from Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
. Investigators say that he stayed at his private home in the Madrid area, and he never used his return ticket. He instead headed for Afghanistan.
Around this time, the FBI had been unable to access Moussaoui's computer. Agents were notified by the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
at this time that they needed to look for Khalid al-Mihdhar
Khalid al-Mihdhar
Khalid Muhammad Abdallah al-Mihdhar was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which was flown into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks....
and Nawaf al-Hazmi
Nawaf al-Hazmi
Nawaf Muhammed Salim al-Hazmi was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks....
.
Ziad Jarrah
Ziad Jarrah
Ziad Samir Jarrah was one of the masterminds of the September 11 attacks who served as the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 93, crashing the plane into a field in a rural area near Shanksville—after a passenger uprising—as part of the coordinated attacks.After a wealthy and secular...
wrote a letter to his girlfriend and sent it to her on September 10. He wrote "I have done what I had to do" and "You should be very proud, it is an honor, and you will see the result, and everyone will be happy" as well as "Hold on to what you have until we meet each other again." The letter was returned to the U.S., as Jarrah made an error in writing the address.
Mohamed Atta spent September 10 with Abdulaziz al-Omari in South Portland, Maine
South Portland, Maine
South Portland is a city in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, and is the fourth-largest city in the state. Founded in 1895, as of the 2010 census, the city population was 25,002. Known for its working waterfront, South Portland is situated on Portland Harbor and overlooks the skyline of...
and Scarborough, Maine. Atta called Khalid Sheik Mohammed that day. Intelligence officials think that Mohammed gave him a coded signal to proceed.
Financial support
The 9/11 Commission9/11 Commission
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks", including preparedness for and the immediate response to...
stated in their final report that the "9/11 plotters eventually spent somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 to plan and conduct their attack" but the "origin of the funds remains unknown." The Commission noted: "we have seen no evidence that any foreign government-or foreign government official-supplied any funding." Some people have claimed that the operation was financed by elements of the Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i government, specifically within the Inter-Services Intelligence
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
(ISI), as well as agents of the Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
n government working from within the United States.
A senior-level U.S. government source told CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
in October 2001 that U.S. investigators believed Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is a British-born militant of Pakistani descent with links to various Islamist militant organisations, including Jaish-e-Mohammed, al-Qaeda, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the Taliban.He was arrested and served time in prison for...
(Ahmed Umar Syed Sheikh
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is a British-born militant of Pakistani descent with links to various Islamist militant organisations, including Jaish-e-Mohammed, al-Qaeda, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the Taliban.He was arrested and served time in prison for...
), a long time ISI asset, using the alias Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad, sent more than $100,000 from Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
to Mohamed Atta
Mohamed Atta
Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta was one of the masterminds and the ringleader of the September 11 attacks who served as the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, crashing the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the coordinated attacks.Born in 1968...
, the suspected hijack ringleader of the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
.
"Investigators said Atta then distributed the funds to conspirators in Florida in the weeks before the deadliest acts of terrorism on U.S. soil that destroyed the World Trade Center, heavily damaged the Pentagon and left thousands dead [...] Syed
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is a British-born militant of Pakistani descent with links to various Islamist militant organisations, including Jaish-e-Mohammed, al-Qaeda, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the Taliban.He was arrested and served time in prison for...
also is described as a key figure in the funding operation of Al-Qaeda, the network headed by suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden."
The Pittsburgh Tribune notes "There are many in Musharraf's government who believe that Saeed Sheikh's
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is a British-born militant of Pakistani descent with links to various Islamist militant organisations, including Jaish-e-Mohammed, al-Qaeda, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the Taliban.He was arrested and served time in prison for...
power comes not from the ISI, but from his connections with our own CIA."
CNN later confirmed that it was "Ahmed Umar Syed Sheikh
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is a British-born militant of Pakistani descent with links to various Islamist militant organisations, including Jaish-e-Mohammed, al-Qaeda, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the Taliban.He was arrested and served time in prison for...
, whom authorities say used a pseudonym to wire $100,000 to suspected hijacker Mohammad Atta, who then distributed the money in the United States."
Soon after the money transfer was discovered, the head of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
's Inter-Services Intelligence
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
, Gen. Mahmood (Mahmud) Ahmed, resigned from his position. India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n news outlets reported the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) was investigating the possibility that Gen. Mahmood Ahmed ordered Saeed Sheikh to send the $100,000 to Atta, while most Western media outlets only reported his connections to the Taliban as the reason for his departure from the ISI.
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
was one of the few Western news organizations to follow up on the story, citing the Times of India: "US authorities sought [Gen. Mahmud Ahmed's] removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 [was] wired to WTC hijacker Mohamed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is a British-born militant of Pakistani descent with links to various Islamist militant organisations, including Jaish-e-Mohammed, al-Qaeda, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the Taliban.He was arrested and served time in prison for...
at the instance of Gen Mahumd." The best coverage came from The Daily Excelsior, reporting "The FBI’s examination of the hard disk of the cellphone company Omar Sheikh
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is a British-born militant of Pakistani descent with links to various Islamist militant organisations, including Jaish-e-Mohammed, al-Qaeda, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the Taliban.He was arrested and served time in prison for...
had subscribed to led to the discovery of the "link" between him and the deposed chief of the Pakistani ISI, Gen. Mehmood Ahmed. And as the FBI investigators delved deep, sensational information surfaced with regard to the transfer of $100,000 to Mohamed Atta, one of the Kamikaze pilots who flew a Boeing into the World Trade Center. Gen. Mehmood Ahmed, the FBI investigators found, fully knew about the transfer of money to Atta."
According to the Washington Post, "on the morning of Sept. 11, [Porter] Goss and [Bob] Graham were having breakfast with a Pakistani general named Mahmud Ahmed -- the soon-to-be-sacked head of Pakistan's intelligence service" On September 12 and 13, Lt. Gen. Mahmood met with United States Deputy Secretary of State
United States Deputy Secretary of State
The Deputy Secretary of State of the United States is the chief assistant to the Secretary of State. If the Secretary of State resigns or dies, the Deputy Secretary of State becomes Acting Secretary of State until the President nominates and the Senate confirms a replacement. The position was...
Richard Armitage
Richard Armitage (politician)
Richard Lee Armitage, GCMG AC CNZM was the 13th United States Deputy Secretary of State, the second-in-command at the State Department, serving from 2001 to 2005.-Early life and military career:...
, Senator Joseph Biden, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Secretary of State Colin Powell. An agreement on Pakistan's collaboration in the new "war on terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
" was negotiated between Mahmood and Armitage.
Lt Gen Mehmood Ahmed then led a six-member delegation to the Afghan city of Kandahar in order to hold crisis talks with the Taliban leadership, supposedly in an attempt to persuade them to hand over Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
.
In June 2001, a "high-placed member of a US intelligence agency" told BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
reporter Greg Palast that "after the [2000] elections, the agencies were told to "back off" investigating the bin Ladens and Saudi royals".
In May 2002, former FBI Agent Robert Wright, Jr.
Robert Wright, Jr.
Robert G. Wright, Jr. is an FBI agent who has criticised the FBI's counterterrorist activities in the 1990s, when he worked in the Chicago division on terrorists with links to the Middle East, especially on the issue of money laundering. Specifically, he worked on project Vulgar Betrayal which...
delivered a tearful press conference apologizing to the families who lost loved ones on 9/11. He described how his superiors intentionally obstructed his investigation into Al-Qaeda financing.
Agent Wright would later tell ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Brian Ross: "September 11th is a direct result of the incompetence of the FBI's International Terrorism Unit," specifically referring to the Bureau's hindering of his investigation into Yassin al-Qadi, whom Ross described as a powerful Saudi Arabian businessman with extensive financial ties in Chicago. One month after September 11, the US government officially identified Yassin al-Qadi as one of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
's primary financiers and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist
Specially Designated Global Terrorist
Specially Designated Global Terrorist is a designation authorized under U.S. Executive Order 13224 , among other executive orders, and Title 31, Parts 595, 596, and 597 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, among other U.S. laws and regulations. SDGT designations are administered and enforced...
.
In an interview with Computerworld Magazine, a former business associate described his relationship with al-Qadi: "I met him a few times and talked to him a few times on the telephone. He never talked to me about violence. Instead, he talked very highly of his relationship with [former President] Jimmy Carter and [Vice President] Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
."
The Muwafaq Foundation, which U.S. authorities have confirmed was an arm of bin Laden's terror organization, was headed by Yassin al-Qadi, who was also known as the owner of Ptech -- a company that has supplied high-tech computer systems to the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
, the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, the Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
, the Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Federal Aviation Administration
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
(FAA), and the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. A former FBI counter terrorism agent commented: "For someone like [al-Qadi] to be involved in a capacity, in an organization, a company that has access to classified information, that has access to government open or classified computer systems, would be of grave concern." Also sitting on Ptech's board of directors was Yacub Mirza— "a senior official of major radical Islamic organizations that have been linked by the US government to terrorism." In addition, Hussein Ibrahim, the Vice President and Chief Scientist of Ptech, was vice chairman of a now defunct investment group called BMI, a company the FBI has named as a conduit used by al-Qadi to launder money to Hamas terrorists.
According to Senator Bob Graham
Bob Graham
Daniel Robert "Bob" Graham is an American politician. He was the 38th Governor of Florida from 1979 to 1987 and a United States Senator from that state from 1987 to 2005...
, who was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee from June 2001 through the buildup to the Iraq war, "Two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers had a support network in the United States that included agents of the Saudi government, and the Bush administration and FBI blocked a congressional investigation into that relationship," as reported by the Miami Herald.
"And in Graham's book, Intelligence Matters, obtained by The Herald Saturday, he makes clear that some details of that financial support from Saudi Arabia were in the 27 pages of the congressional inquiry's final report that were blocked from release by the administration, despite the pleas of leaders of both parties on the House and Senate intelligence committees."
External links
- The Final 9/11 Commission Report
- Suspected hijack bankroller freed by India in '99 - CNN
- Sept. 11's Smoking Gun: The Many Faces of Saeed Sheikh - Center for Cooperative Research
- 'Our Friends the Pakistanis' - The Wall Street Journal
- India wants terror spotlight on Kashmir - CNN
- A Cloak But No Dagger - The Washington Post
- Chapter 5, Final Report - 9/11 Commission