Planning of the September 11, 2001 attacks
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[edit] The conception
According to the presidents of the United States and the Philippines, the September 11, 2001 attacks originated with Operation Bojinka (a plan that was not executed), which was conceived by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed or K.S.M and Ramzi Yousef. The first stage would be the assassination of Pope John Paul II and the bombing of eleven airliners. The second and third stages called for small airplanes loaded with explosives to be crashed into the CIA headquarters and other targets. 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.
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. This method of attack was also outlined in Janet and Chris Morris 1984 book " The 40 Minute War". 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 got 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 the Bank of America Tower and Space Needle in Seattle, Washington, and other buildings.
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.
 The U.S. Bank Tower in Downtown Los Angeles is the white circular building in the center. |
 The Columbia Center(formerly the Bank of America Tower) in Downtown Seattle. |
 The Space Needle which is in the Seattle Center. |
 The Pentagon (center), looking east with the Potomac River and Washington Monument in the distance. |
 The twin World Trade Center towers in New York City. |
 The White House, the government-owned home of the President and his family. |
 The Sears Tower in Downtown Chicago. |
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 The Downtown Los Angeles skyline had the U.S. Bank Tower been destroyed. Note: this is a doctored photo and is not real. |
According to the commission bin Ladin summoned KSM to Kandahar in March or April 1999 to tell him that al Qaeda would support his proposal. The plot was now referred to within al Qaeda as the "planes operation". In addition to flying planes into buildings, there was the plan to simultaneously crash additional US planes in East-Asia, which could be done by operatives not granted a visa for the US and without flight training. Bin Ladin 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.
According to several captured Al-Qaeda members, the leaders decided that 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.
U.S. Intelligence officials say that Mohammed came back to Germany in 1999 to meet up with the new terrorist cell he formed out of men chosen by Osama bin Laden for being cosmopolitan and technically proficient.
[edit] Financial support
The 9/11 Commission 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."[1] Some people have claimed that the operation was financed by elements of the Pakistani government, specifically within the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), as well as agents of the Saudi Arabian government working from within the United States.
A senior-level U.S. government source told CNN in October of 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 Mohammed 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."[2]
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."[3]
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."[4]
Soon after the money transfer was discovered, the head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, Gen. Mahmood (Mahmud) Ahmed, resigned from his position. Indian news outlets reported the 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. [5]
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 Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the instance of Gen Mahumd."[6] 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 dollars to Mohammed Atta, one of the Kamikaze pilots who flew his Boeing into the World Trade Centre. Gen. Mehmood Ahmed, the FBI investigators found, fully knew about the transfer of money to Atta."[7]
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"[8] 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.[9][10][11][12] Lt Gen Mehmood Ahmed then lead 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.[13]
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".[14]
In May 2002, former FBI Agent Robert Wright 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.[15][16]
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 (al Kadi), who Ross described as a powerful Saudi Arabian businessman with extensive financial ties in Chicago.[17] One month after 9/11, the US government officially identified Yassin al-Qadi as one of Osama bin Laden's primary financiers and a specially designated global terrorist.[18]
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."[19]
The Muwafaq Foundation, which U.S. authorities have confirmed was an arm of bin Laden's terror organization, was headed by Yassin al-Qadi,[20] who was also known as the owner of Ptech[21] -- a company that has supplied high-tech computer systems to the FBI, the IRS, Congress, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, NATO, the 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.[22]
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."[23]
[edit] Students in Germany
The Hamburg cell was formed starting in 1998 shortly after Mohammed got approval by Al Qaeda leadership for his plot. Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Ziad Jarrah, Ramzi Binalshibh, Said Bahaji, Zakariyah Essabar, and fifteen others were all members. The cell was set in Germany as only one man in the German government had the part-time job of keeping tabs on radical Islam.
The men arrived in Germany over a course of five years, starting in 1992, when Mohammed Atta arrived from Egypt. A friend of Atta's recalled meeting him at the Al-Quds mosque in 1993; it is not known when he started going there. Atta had always lived as a strict Muslim. He studied architectural planning at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg.
Atta went to Mecca in 1995.
Ramzi Binalshibh went under the name "Ramzi Omar". He claimed to be a political refugee from Sudan. He asked for asylum in 1995. The judge refused the asylum request, and Binalshibh returned to the Hadramawt region of Yemen. Binalshibh later got a German visa under his real name.
Said Bahaji 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", kicked Bahaji out of the house when she saw his religious beliefs turn more radical.
In Spring 1996, Ziad Jarrah came to Greifswald from Lebanon. He met a female medical student named Aysel Senguen. She came over to live with him.
Al-Shehhi enrolled in a language institute in 1996 and boarded with a local family in Bonn. It took two years for him to learn enough of the German language to enroll.
Atta came to Hamburg around 1996 and 1997.
In 1997, Jarrah and Senguen moved to Hamburg, where Jarrah studied aeronautical engineering. In the summer of that year, he worked at a paint shop factory for Volkswagen in Wolfsburg. In the fall of that year, Zakariya Essabar enrolled in an applied sciences course in Hamburg.
Also in late 1997, Mohammed Atta told his roommate that he was going to Mecca, but he most likely instead went to Afghanistan. Atta had already taken his Mecca pilgrimage 18 months earlier. According to Al Jazeera journalist Yosri Fouda, Atta went to the mosque around this time period "not to pray but to sign his death will."
[edit] Formation of the Hamburg cell
The recruitment of members in Germany began in 1998. A report made by the September 11 Commission stated that Osama bin Laden chose the hijackers and that he pushed for the attack to occur as soon as possible. He sought to carry out the plan as early as 2000.
Investigators think that a postal worker named Mohammed bin Nasser Belfas first recruited members, either knowingly or unknowingly, by "converting" them to radical Islam in his regularly held study meetings on Islam in his apartment. Mohammed Atta became a regular member, as did Marwan al-Shehhi. Investigators say that an automobile mechanic named Mohammed Haydar Zammar acted as a "travel agent" to Afghanistan.
In 1998, Atta, Bahaji, and Binalshibh were living together when German police put them under "limited surveillance". But nothing came out of it and the surveillance ended. Later in 1998, al-Shehhi spent several months trying to pass the language exams in Hamburg.
Atta returned to Germany in 1998. Binalshibh left his container camp that spring and spent time with Belfas. In the summer, Atta, Binalshibh, al-Shehhi, and Belfas worked in a computer warehouse together packing crates.
Al-Shehhi failed his language exams and went back to Bonn. Soon afterwards, a man named Atif bin Mansour arrived in Hamburg. He was a co-applicant with Atta for a room at the Islamic study group at the technical university. In the winter, Atta, Binalshibh, and Bahaji moved to an apartment at Marienstraße 54. Marienstraße 54 has been described by Yosri Fouda, an Al Jazeera journalist, as the "kitchen" of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks.
When Mansour's brother, a member of the Pakistani armed forces, died in combat in 1999, Mansour went back to Pakistan for good. Al-Shehhi came back to Hamburg shortly afterwards.
Atta often attended Belfas' study group in 1999. A member named Volker Harum Bruhn told Atta to stay away from Islamic extremists, but this came in vain.
Atta got his master's degree in October and went back to Cairo for the last time. His aunt said that he asked his ill mother if he could remain in Egypt indefinitely. The mother told him to get an education.
German police said that they found data that Atta, al-Shehhi, Jarrah, and Binalshibh flew to Pakistan. They then went to a training camp in Kandahar. Al-Shehhi, who was paid a 2,000 dollar stipend per month from the United Arab Emirates Army withdrew 6,000 dollars and paid for airline tickets for flights from Germany to Karachi via Istanbul.
After the Afghanistan visit, Mohammed Atta reported his passport stolen, probably to erase travel visas to Afghanistan.
By 1999, the members of the Hamburg cell were already committed to Al Qaida.
[edit] 2000 Al-Qaida summit
Several Al-Qaida 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 September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks. Hambali, Ramzi Binalshibh, 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 wasn't wiretapped, but it was videotaped.
[edit] Were plotters already in the United States?
Some of the men who would be involved in the September 11 plot may have already been to the United States on previous occasions during the mid-to-late 1990s.
Real estate records show that a man named Waleed al-Shehri lived in Daytona Beach, Florida, during that time period, probably starting in 1993, since the spokeswoman for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the school which al-Shehri attended, said that it was a four year program; al-Shehri graduated in 1997. The manager of the Anatole Apartments nearby the airport of Daytona Beach, Florida, says that Ahmed al-Ghamdi lived in the apartment complex in 1995, while Waleed al-Shehri lived there in 1997, from May to December. School officials say that Al-Ghamdi never came to the school. Federal Aviation Administration records show that Al-Shehri had a pilot's license.
In 1999, Al-Shehri rented a house on Orrin street in Vienna, Virginia and moved into Vienna from Florida. A woman named Diane Albritton, who lives across the street from the rental house, said, "There were always people coming and going. Arabic people. Some of them never uttered a word; I don't know if they spoke English. But they looked very focused. We thought they might be dealing drugs, or illegal immigrants." (quote from [24]). It is not clear when he moved out of the house.
It is known that Hani Hanjour had been to Arizona in the late 1990s before coming back in late 2000.
[edit] Arrival to the United States
Al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi arrived in Los Angeles 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. In March, Mohammed Atta began e-mailing thirty flight schools in the United States.
By the end of June, Atta, Jarrah, and al-Shehhi left for the United States. Binalshibh and Essabar wanted to join Atta, al-Shehhi, and Jarrah, but they were denied U.S. Visas several times. Binalshibh's visa was denied since he was a citizen of Yemen. Binalshibh 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 raised a family, and that he received a monthly stipend from his former employer, an aviation company in Saudi Arabia. He videotaped places all the time. 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 here to learn English, signed a six-month lease. He often surfed the Internet from the San Diego State 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 one and quit. 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 called Cheetah's, which is near the Islamic Center, which praised multiculturalism and openly attacked Islamism; men who were passing leaflets praising Osama bin Laden found their leaflets taken and found themselves forced to leave. Al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi frequently drove to Las Vegas in the Toyota sedan they bought.
[edit] On the go
Al-Mihdhar left the United States in June 2000. Ramzi Binalshibh had wired $115,000 to a Suntrust bank account shortly after Atta and al-Shehhi arrived in Florida. Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi started taking flight lessons at Huffman Aviation International in Venice, Florida. Atta claimed that he was of royal Saudi descent, and that al-Shehhi was his bodyguard. The men may have received money financing the plot from Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mohammed Yousef Mohamed Alqusaidi, who may be al-Shehhi's brother.
Meanwhile, Ziad Jarrah arrived in the United States in late June 2000. He left the country five times in the next thirteen months. Al-Hazmi took a job washing cars at a Texaco station that was owned by Palestinians. The gas station was a hangout for Arabs, who drank coffee as they sat at a picnic table outside. Al-Hazmi often rambled about how he feels that Muslims were discriminated against. According to his family, al-Hazmi never told his friends that he fought in Chechnya three years earlier after leaving Saudi Arabia. Back in Europe, Said Bahaji told his employer and his family that he was quitting his job and was going to be an intern in Pakistan. His aunt, Barbara Arens, says that she was suspicious and that she went to the police and pleaded to them "to do something." She says that police took no action against Bahaji.
The men in the September 11 plot were always on the move, spending thousands of dollars on airline tickets and logging many miles into rental cars. They often stayed in Econo Lodges. The men often went to cities that had one or more Mail Boxes Etc. stores. They obtained mail boxes there and used them as permanent addresses to get drivers licenses and admissions into flight schools.
On October 20, 2000, Atta's mentor, Mohammed Belfas, and an Indonesian architecture student that Belfas knew for years, named Agus Budiman, arrived in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Both men had been coming to the United States for many years. He said that he wanted to move to the United States for good, and that he had family in Northern Virginia. Belfas even had a Virginia driver's license. While in the United States, Belfas accompanied Budiman while he worked as his job as a driver for a take-out-taxi restaurant delivery service. When Belfas offered to help Budiman if he got Belfas a U.S. driver's license, Budiman explained that he didn't need one. Belfas said that he wanted one for a souvenir. On November 4, they went to the first trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Arlington County, Virginia. They swore that Belfas lived in Arlington County, so he got his Virginia Identification card. The men obtained his driver's license two days later using the ID. Within the week, Belfas went back to Germany.
Also in October, Zacarias Moussaoui allegedly received 35,000 U.S. dollars and travel documents from Yazid Sufaat, a cohort of Hambali, while Moussaoui was in Malaysia. Sudaat provided the money and documents on Hambali's orders.
In December, a man who al-Hazmi called "Hani" arrived in San Diego. "Hani" was actually Hani Hanjour, who spent most of three years in the late 1990s in Arizona training to be a pilot. Every account of him stated that he was a bad student, but he got his license and returned to Saudi Arabia. He and al-Hazmi then left San Diego and started training to be a pilot in Arizona.
Atta and al-Shehhi practiced flying on a Boeing 727 flight simulator on December 29 and December 30. The simulator was at the SimCenter flight school in Opa-Locka, Florida. According to Henry George, the instructor, the men told him that they wanted to be commercial pilots back in their home countries. The instructor didn't think that they had skill to be real pilots. He commented, "All they were doing is making themselves both prepared for the task." During the three hours apiece training, the men made a lot of turns and maneuvers. Although they could take off and land well, the instructor called the simulator, "a mini, mini introduction."
Shortly afterwards, Atta left for Germany. He then travelled to Spain, before going back to the United States.
Zacarias Moussaoui entered the United States in February 2001. Ramzi Binalshibh, who was in Germany, wired him $14,000. Binalshibh also wired money to Marwan al-Shehhi and a soon-to-be hijacker named Fayez Banihammad.
Al-Mihdhar returned to the U.S. on July 4, 2001. By that time, twelve Saudi men and a man from the United Arab Emirates arrived in the East Coast. It is unknown how they were recruited. Many of the Saudis may have been chosen because it was very easy for Saudi citizens to get visas to the United States.
On July 8, 2001, Atta took his second trip to Spain, leaving from Miami to Madrid. He had already left for Spain another time since he first came to the U.S. Al-Shehhi also took two of his own trips across the Atlantic Ocean. Atta then rented a silver Hyundai and took an 8-hour drive to Tarragona. Ramzi Binalshibh was also in Spain at the time, staying at the Hotel Monica in Cambrils. Atta stayed at a hotel in Tarragona, which was fifteen minutes away. Atta spent 11 days in Spain. The following day, Binalshibh checked out without breakfast and vanished along with Atta. It is unknown why they came to Spain. They most likely came for a third party. Various theories include an operational commander or a courier relaying the final instructions of the plot. The meeting may have concerned Zacarias Moussaoui, a French Moroccan that spent time in Afghanistan and Chechnya and was supposedly on his way to the United States to fill the vacuum that Binalshibh left when he was denied a visa. Plans to include him in the plot were never finalized, as the leadership of the group questioned his competency. The meeting that Atta and Binalshibh possibly attended may have taken place at a safehouse. Binalshibh returned to Hamburg on July 20. On July 29, and August 2, Zacarias Moussaoui placed several calls to a telephone number in Düsseldorf. On July 30 and July 31 in Hamburg, Binalshibh received 15,000 dollars from the alleged paymaster in the United Arab Emirates. He wired 14,000 of the dollars to Moussaoui on August 1 and August 3.
Soon after Atta returned to the U.S., he set up a meeting in Las Vegas. Again, it is unknown why he set up the meeting. Al-Hazmi and Hanjour were living in an apartment in Paterson, New Jersey, close to where Atta bought a ticket for his second Spain trip.
On August 1, Hani Hanjour left the Paterson apartment.
On August 2, 2001, Salem al-Hazmi, Abdulaziz al-Omari, Majed Moqed, and two to four other of the hijackers visited the office in Arlington County, Virginia to get IDs and drivers' licenses in the same manner as how Mohammed Belfas got them. They paid other men to sign for them on the paperwork. They used the IDs to make it simpler to purchase boarding tickets for airplanes.
[edit] 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 would happen.
Hani Hanjour and Majed Moqed were photographed using an ATM in Maryland on August 5.
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 as "The Faculty of Town Planning." [25]
A conspirator named Abu Abdul Rahman sent a "love message" on an Internet chat room to his "German girlfriend", who was really Ramzi Binalshibh. 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. 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, Mohammed 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 for this on August 25.
According to Ramzi Binalshibh, on August 29, Mohammed Atta notified Binalshibh 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 Binalshibh 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. The men were purchasing air tickets around that time.
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 Binalshibh 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 CIA 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.
Mohammed 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.
[edit] War games paralleled attacks
On the morning of September 11, several United States government agencies were participating in a series of preplanned simultaneous war game exercises that simulated various threats to America's national security. One exercise, entitled Global Guardian, simulated a nuclear strike and practiced the United States' response/retaliation procedures to such an event. Another exercise, sponsored by the Joint Chiefs and conducted by NORAD, the FAA, and all HQ NORAD levels of command, was entitled Vigilant Guardian, which was a wide range multi-command post exercise that confused the FAA and military officials who were responsible for defending America's skies. And according to Richard Myers, the Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), the US military was conducting another war game during the attacks entitled operation Vigilant Warrior -- a JCS live-fly training exercise -- that also acted to slow fighter response. In addition, another war game entitled Northern Vigilance injected simulated radar signals onto FAA and military radar screens, while yet another exercise, a National Reconnaissance Office exercise, simulated a small corporate jet crashing into one of the four towers at the agency's headquarters building after experiencing a mechanical failure [26].
[edit] Standard procedure
When a private or commercial aircraft moves significantly off its flight plan, it is a US legal requirement that fighter planes be sent up to investigate. Between September 2000 and June 2001, the US military launched fighter aircraft — able to be airborne within eight minutes[27] — on 67 occasions in order to intercept suspicious flights.[28]
On 9/11, the first hijacking was confirmed by 8:20am; the second, by 8:42am; and the third was known of no later than 8:50am. The first plane struck the WTC at 8:46am followed by the second plane at 9:03am; yet not a single fighter plane was scrambled to investigate from Andrews Air Force Base, located 10 miles from Washington DC, until after the third plane had hit The Pentagon at 9:37am.[29]
On the day after 9/11, Commander in Chief of the Russian Air Force, General Anatoly Kornukov, stated "Generally it is impossible to carry out an act of terror on the scenario which was used in the USA yesterday. As soon as something like that happens here, I am reported about that right away and in a minute we are all up."[30]
As 9/11 was unfolding, FAA Administrator Jane Garvey reported 11 aircraft off course or out of communications;[31] and by the end of the day, 21 aircraft had been identified as tracks of interest.[32] With only 20 fighters available[33] — many of which were participating in a wide range of war games — NORAD was unable to identify or engage the actual hijackings until it was too late.
[edit] War games
Global Guardian is an annual command-level exercise sponsored by the US Strategic Command in cooperation with Space Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command. The primary purpose of the exercise is to test and validate nuclear command and control and execution procedures. Exercise objectives include live communications and the participation of all elements potentially assigned to USSTRATCOM in wartime, including USSTRATCOM's Mobile Consolidated Command Center (MCCC), USSTRATCOM's Airborne Command Post (ABNCP), and external participation from national-level and other unified commands.[34] On 9/11, US bombers, missile crews and submarines around the country and off U.S. shores were following orders from StratCom's command bunker as the Global Guardian exercise began its second scheduled week. The exercise linked with other exercise activities sponsored by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Unified Commands,[35] including Vigilant Guardian[36] and Amalgam Warrior.[37]
Vigilant Guardian was a nationwide, CINCNORAD-sponsored, CJCS/CDS-approved, system-wide Command Post Exercise (CPX) involving HQ NORAD, NORAD regions and sectors and their supporting units.[38] It was coordinated between multiple radar sites across the United States and Canada and one element involved a simulated attack coming from across the North Pole.[39] September 11th 2001 was day-two of the Vigilant Guardian exercise, and simulated an imaginary crisis occurring at North American Air defense outposts nationwide.[40] FAA and military officials reported trouble decerning the war game operations from the actual attacks. After being notified of the first hijacking, General Larry Arnold originally thought it was part of the exercise,[41] [42] as did NEADS Commander Col. Robert K. Marr Jr.[43] and his deputy Lt. Col. Dawne Deskins, who said "everybody" at NEADS first thought the attacks were part of Vigilant Guardian.[44] In addition to Global Guardian and Amalgam Warrior, Vigilant Guardian is also conducted in conjunction with Crown Vigilance -- an Air Combat Command/Langley Air Force Base exercise -- as well as a USCINCSPACE-sponsored exercise entitled Apollo Guardian. [45] The details of Vigilant Guardian remain classified and the 9/11 Commission's failure to thoroughly report on the exercise or even mention any of the other war games would suggest the same is true for all other training operations being conducted on that morning.
However it is known that another war game being conducted at the same time of the attacks was entitled Amalgam/Vigilant[46] Warrior,[47] which as of 1996, is an exercise held once every fall, that deals with tracking unknown aircraft which have incorrectly filed their flight plans or wandered off course, and then escalates to terrorist aircraft attacks and large-scale bomber strike missions. It is a CINCNORAD-sponsored, CJCS- approved and -funded, large-scale live-fly exercise, performed in real-time, and normally involving two or more NORAD regions.[48] Over 40 minutes after the WTC had been hit and over an hour after the first plane was confirmed hijacked, when asked about fighter response, acting CJCS Richard Myers replied: "Not a pretty picture…We're in the middle of Vigilant Warrior, a NORAD exercise, but … Otis has launched two birds towards New York."[49] The first jets to defend New York City on September 11th—the 158th Fighter Wing of the Vermont Air National Guard, also known as the “Green Mountain Boys”—were a regular participant in the Amalgam/Vigilant Warrior exercise, and a group that—under regular circumstances—was kept on alert 24 hours a day and was required to have its aircraft airborne within five minutes after receiving the call to scramble.[50]
Also being conducted on 9/11 was operation Northern Vigilance, a war game that inserted false blips onto FAA and military radar screens and drew fighters away from the North East Air Defense Sector (NEADS) -- where all four hijackings had occurred.[51][52]
Such NORAD exercises practiced coordination between NORAD headquarters, its subordinate regions and sectors, and the National Command Authority,[53] which, in President Bush's absence, would've been Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.[54] Prior to 9/11, NORAD had planned multiple war game scenarios involving hijacked planes being flown into American symbols, including the World Trade Center. One exercise planned in July of 2001 and ran sometime before or possibly even on 9/11, involved military aircraft mocking the behavior of hijacked airliners;[55] and coincidentally, as the 9/11 attacks were taking place, the CIA and the National Reconnaissance Office were actually participating in an exercise that simulated a plane crashing into a building.[56] The 9/11 Commission neglected to investigate or report on this subject, therefore it is presently unknown what relation, if any, these exercises had to Global Guardian, Vigilant Guardian, Vigilant Warrior, or Northern Vigilance, or how any of the war games might have affected the military's response to the real attacks.
[edit] External links
- The Final 9/11 Commission Report
- http://www.latimes.com/news/specials/911/la-na-plot-1sep01.story
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2001/war_on_terror/investigation_on_terror/people_4.stm
- http://www.twincities.com/mld/kentucky/news/politics/4020169.htm
- http://www.amanaonline.com/Articles/art_122.htm
- http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/09/12/alqaeda.911.claim/index.html
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45853-2004Jun16.html
- 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
- Crossing the Rubicon (Chapter 19)
