Mohamed Atta

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Mohamed Atta
Born	Mohamed Elamir awad al-Sayed Atta Karadogan (in Arabic: محمد عطا السيد) September 1, 1968(1968-09-01) Kafr El Sheikh, Egypt
Died	September 11, 2001 (aged 33) Manhattan, New York

Mohamed Atta (محمد عطا السيد transliteration: Muhammad `Ata as-Sayyid) (September 1, 1968 – September 11, 2001), a known associate of al-Qaeda^[1][2], was the leader of the nineteen hijackers who perpetrated the September 11, 2001 attacks. He personally participated in the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 attacks.^[3]

Contents 1 Aliases 2 Early life 3 Germany 3.1 Fundamentalism 3.2 Al-Qaeda involvement 3.3 Afghanistan 4 In the United States 4.1 Summer 2001 summit in Spain 4.2 August 2001 final plans in U.S. 5 The attacks 6 Mistaken identity 6.1 Shuckum's 6.2 Prague controversy 7 Martyrdom video 8 Timeline of Mohamed Atta in the United States 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 External links

[edit] Aliases

Atta is suspected of using numerous aliases during his lifetime, including Mehan Atta, Mohammed Atta, Mohammad El Amir, Mohamed El Sayed, Muhammad Muhammad Al Amir Awag Al Sayyid Atta, and Muhammad Muhammad Al-Amir Awad Al Sayad, although the will that he wrote in 1996 gives his name as "Mohamed son of Mohamed Elamir awad Elsayed." He went by the name, "Mohamed el-Amir" when he was a student at the Technical University of Harburg in Germany, but used Mohamed Atta while in the United States.^[4]

[edit] Early life

Atta was born on September 1, 1968 in Kafr el-Sheikh, located in northern Egypt in the Nile delta.^[5] His father, Mohomed el-Amir Awad al-Sayed Atta, was a lawyer, educated in both sharia and civil law. His mother, Bouthayna Mohamed Mustapha Sheraqi, was also educated, and came from a wealthy farming and trading family.^[6] Bouthayna and Mohamed married when she was 14 years old, via an arranged marriage. The family had few relatives on the father's side and kept a distance from Bouthayna's family.^[7] Atta's father has been characterized as "austere, strict, and private" by his in-laws. Atta's family was considered reclusive and kept to themselves.^[8] Atta had two sisters, Azza and Mona, who were both also educated — one becoming a zoology professor and the other, a medical doctor.^[9][7]

At age 10, his family moved to the Cairo suburb of Abdeen.^[10][6] Atta's father wished all his children to be well-educated. From childhood, Atta spent most of his time at home studying, and performed well in his studies. Atta was describe as sharply intelligent, strict, serious, shy, and seemed to retreat socially.^[8] Mohamed Atta entered Cairo University in 1985, and was admitted to the engineering department. The highest-scoring students in the department were admitted into the architecture program, including Atta. He also studied English at the American University in Cairo.^[11] In 1990, Atta graduated with a degree in architecture.^[10] After graduating, Atta spent some time looking for a job, and also studied German at the Goethe Institute in Cairo.^[12] The family moved out of Abdeen and into a 11th floor apartment in Giza in 1990.^[10][13]

[edit] Germany

A German couple, who ran an exchange program between Germany and Egypt, visited Cairo in 1991, and Atta's father had them over for dinner. They suggested to Atta that he continue his studies in Hamburg, Germany. They offered him a temporary place to live at their house in the city. Mohamed Atta moved to Germany in July 1992, and initially stayed with the two high school teachers. When he arrived in Germany, Atta adhered to a strict Islamic diet, frequented the mosque, and seldom socialized. His hosts found Atta frustrating due to his closed-mindedness and intensely introverted personality. After six months, they asked him to move out. Atta briefly lived in Stuttgart, before moving to Hamburg in Fall 1992.^[14][15]

In Hamburg, Atta studied urban planning at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg.^[16] Atta lived in an apartment at Centrumshaus in Harburg, from 1993 to 1998. During that time, he had two roommates who in the end were "so aggravated" with Atta, who almost never cleaned, seldom washed dishes, and such behavior. Atta would walk in and out of a room "without acknowledging anyone else in it". His roommates described Atta's personality as "complete, almost aggressive insularity".^[17]

At the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg, Atta studied under guidance of the department chair, Dittmar Machule, who himself specialized in the Middle East.^[18] Atta was concerned about modern development and construction of high-rise buildings in Cairo and other ancient cities in the Middle East. He believed that the large, impersonal, and often ugly apartment blocks built in the 1960s and 1970s had ruined old neighborhoods, and took away privacy and dignity from people. Atta's own family moved into such an apartment block in 1990, which to him was "a shabby symbol of Egypt's haphazard attempts to modernize and its shameless embrace of the West."^[19] For his thesis, Atta focused his studies on the ancient city of Aleppo in Syria. He explored the history of Aleppo's urban landscapes and the general themes of the conflict between Arab civilization and modernity. Atta criticized how the modern skyscrapers and development projects in Aleppo were disrupting the fabric of that city by blocking community streets and altering the skyline.

In 1994, Atta was invited to Aleppo by his professor Dittmar Machule for a three-day archeological visit.^[20] Atta traveled to Aleppo for several weeks in August 1994, and again that December.^[21] While in Syria, he met Amal, a young Palestinian woman, who worked there in the planning bureau. Volker Hauth, who was traveling with Atta, described Amal as "attractive and self-confident. She observed the Muslim niceties, taking taxis to and from the office so as not to come into close physical contact with men on the buses. But, she was 'emancipated' and 'challenging'." They both appeared to be attracted to one another, but Atta regretfully explained to Hauth that, "she had a quite different orientation and that the emancipation of the young lady did not fit." This was the closest thing to romance for Atta.^[5]

Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft, a German student-exchange organization, sponsored Atta on several Middle-East trips in 1994 and 1995, and employed him as a "tutor" and "seminar participant" in various locations in Germany during the period 1995-97.^[22] The organization is the German end of a joint US-German government program, the "Congress-Bundestag program". During the summer of 1995, Atta spent three months with co-students Volker Hauth and Ralph Bodenstein in Cairo, on a grant from the Carl Duisberg Society. They looked at the effects of redevelopment in the Islamic Cairo old quarter which the government wanted to develop for tourism. Atta remained in Cairo to stay with his family, after Hauth and Bodenstein returned to Germany.^[23][24]

Atta's friends on Germany described him as an intelligent man with religious beliefs who grew angry over the Western policy toward the Middle East, including the Oslo Accords and the Gulf War.^[25][26] MSNBC in its special "The Making of the Death Pilots" interviewed German friend Ralph Bodenstein who traveled, worked and talked a lot with Mohamed Atta. Bodenstein said, "He was most imbued [sic] actually about Israeli politics in the region and about U.S. protection of these Israeli politics in the region. And he was to a degree personally suffering from that." The 9/11 Commission Report states that "In his interactions with other students [in Germany], Atta voiced virulently anti-Semitic and anti-American opinions, ranging from condemnations of what he described as a global Jewish movement centered in New York City that supposedly controlled the financial world and the media, to polemics against governments of the Arab world. To him, Saddam Hussein was an American stooge set up to give Washington an excuse to intervene in the Middle East," (p.161).

While in Hamburg, Atta also held a number of jobs. Beginning in 1992, he worked part-time at Plankontor, an urban planning firm. Atta remained with the firm through the summer of 1997, when he was laid off. The firm's business had declined, and having bought a CAD system, "his draughtsmanship was not needed."^[27][28] Atta also worked at a cleaning firm, and buying and selling cars to earn extra money.^[29] After studying in Hamburg, Atta wanted to return to Cairo to work, but there were few job prospects, as his family did not have the "right connections".^[30][31] Atta was also concerned about actions of the Egyptian government in arresting political activists, and feared that he too would be a target due to his social and political beliefs.^[32]

[edit] Fundamentalism

After coming to Hamburg, Atta became more religious, strictly avoiding pork, frequenting the mosque, and in other ways. After spending the summer of 1995 in Egypt, he joined the Hajj in Mecca that fall. Before going to Egypt, he grew a beard, which is a sign of a devout Muslim, but was also seen as a political gesture.^[33] When Atta returned from Egypt in the winter of 1996, he had become more religious.

In Hamburg, Atta was drawn to Al-Quds Mosque, which adheres to a "harsh, uncompromisingly fundamentalist, and resoundingly militant" version of Sunni Islam.^[34] He developed acquaintances at Al Quds, some who came over to visit him at Centrumshaus. Atta also began teaching classes at Al Quds, as well as at a Turkish mosque near Harburg. Atta also formed a prayer group, which Ahmed Maklat and Mounir el-Motassadeq joined. Ramzi Binalshibh was also there teaching occasional classes, and became a good friend of Atta's.^[35] Mohammed Haydar Zammar, a German terrorist of Syrian origin, claims he met Atta at this time and recruited him into al-Qaeda.

On April 11, 1996, Atta signed his last will and testament at the mosque, officially declaring his Muslim beliefs and gives 18 instructions regarding his burial.^[36][37] The instructions in his last will and testament reflect both Sunni funeral practices, along with some more puritanical demands from Wahhabism, including asking people not "to weep and cry" or show emotion. The will was signed by el-Motassadeq and a second individual at the mosque.^[38]

While in the urban planning program at Harburg, Atta disappeared from time to time, frequently for long periods. He told his adviser that he needed to attend to family problems in Cairo.^[39] At the winter break in 1997, Atta left and did not return to Hamburg for three months. He said that he went on Hajj again, just 18 months after his first Hajj. It is highly unusual and unlikely for someone, especially a young student, to go that soon again. And, three months is an exceptionally long time, much longer than what Hajj requires. When Atta returned, he claimed that his passport was lost and got a new one -- a common tactic to erase evidence of travel to places such as Afghanistan.^[40] After leaving Plankontor in the summer of 1997, he disappeared again and did not return until 1998. When he returned, he had grown a thick long beard, and "seemed more serious and aloof" to those who knew him.^[41]

[edit] Al-Qaeda involvement

By the summer of 1998, Atta was no longer eligible for university housing, where he had lived at Centrumshaus. He left that summer and moved into an apartment nearby in Wilhelmsburg, where he lived with Said Bahaji and Ramzi Binalshibh. During the summer of 1998, Atta worked alongside al-Shehhi, Binalshibh, and Belfas, at a warehouse, packing computers in crates for shipping.^[42] The group did not stay in Wilhelmsburg for long.

The next winter, they moved into an apartment at Marienstrasse 54, near the university in Harburg.^[43] It was here that the Hamburg Cell developed and acted more as a group.^[44] They met three or four times a week to discuss their anti-American feelings and to plot possible attacks. Many al-Qaeda members lived in this apartment at various times, including hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi, Zakariya Essabar, hijacker Waleed al-Shehri, and others. In all, 29 men listed the apartment as their home address while Atta's name was on the lease. The 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed visited the apartment repeatedly.

[edit] Afghanistan

In late 1999, Atta, al-Shehhi, Jarrah, Bahaji, and Binalshibh decided to travel to Chechnya to fight against the Russians, but were convinced by Khalid al-Masri and Mohamedou Ould Slahi at the last minute to change their plans. They instead traveled to Afghanistan to meet with Osama bin Laden and train for terrorist attacks. The information above is related to intense surveillance of the Marienstrasse apartment and telephone surveillance by the CIA and the German Verfassungsschutz.

On November 29, 1999, Mohamed Atta boarded Turkish Airlines Flight TK1662 from Hamburg to Istanbul, where he changed to flight TK1056 to Karachi, Pakistan.^[2] Atta took at least a couple of days to reach his final destination, an al-Qaeda training camp in Tarnak Farms, near Kandahar airport in Afghanistan.

German investigators said that they had evidence that Mohamed Atta trained at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan from late 1999 to early 2000. The timing of the Afghanistan training was outlined on August 23, 2002 by a senior investigator. The investigator, Klaus Ulrich Kersten, director of Germany's federal anticrime agency, the Bundeskriminalamt, provided the first official confirmation that Atta and two other pilots had been in Afghanistan and the first dates of the training. Kersten said in an interview at the agency's headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany, that Atta was in Afghanistan from late 1999 until early 2000. A video surfaced in October 2006, which showed Bin Laden at Tarnak Farms on January 8, 2000, and showing Atta together with Ziad Jarrah reading their wills ten days later on January 18, 2000.^[2][45] On his return journey, Atta left Karachi on February 24, 2000 by flight TK1057 to Istanbul where he changed to flight TK1661 to Hamburg.^[2]

In addition, Atta was trained in passport alteration. Immediately after returning to Germany, Atta, al-Shehhi, and Jarrah reported their passports stolen, possibly to erase travel visas to Afghanistan.

During a visit to the Philippines, they stayed at a popular resort hotel, dined at a restaurant that specializes in Middle Eastern cuisine and visited at least one of the local flight schools.^[46]

Atta and the other hijackers began to work on appearing more mainstream, shaving their beards and avoiding known radicals. Starting in 2000, the CIA placed Atta under surveillance in Germany. He was trailed by CIA agents, and was observed buying large quantities of chemicals.^[47][48][49]

Once he entered the United States on June 3, 2000, through Newark, New Jersey, the CIA says its surveillance of Atta ended. It is unclear whether the FBI or some other intelligence agency monitored Atta's activities in the United States.

[edit] In the United States

On March 22, 2000, while still in Germany, Mohamed Atta contacted the Academy of Lakeland in Florida, 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 pilots. 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)." Atta sent 50-60 similar e-mails to other flight training schools in the United States.^[50]

On May 17, Mohamed Atta applied for a U.S. visa. The next day, he received a five-year B-1/B-2 (tourist/business) visa from the U.S. embassy in Berlin. Because Atta had lived in Germany for approximately five years, along with his "strong record as a student", he was treated more leniently and not scrutinized. ^[51]

After obtaining his visa, Atta took a bus from Germany to Prague. He stayed overnight there on June 2, before traveling on to the United States the next day. According to Ramzi Binalshibh, Atta did not meet with anyone in Prague. They believed it would contribute to operational security to fly out of Prague rather than Hamburg, where he traveled from previously.^[52]

Atta and other hijackers who had arrived earlier opened bank accounts and continued to check on flight schools. In July, Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi enrolled at Huffman Aviation in Venice, Florida. Atta claimed to be of royal Saudi descent and presented al-Shehhi as his bodyguard. Both earned their instrument ratings from the FAA in November.

On November 5th, Atta purchased flight deck videos for Boeing 747-200 and Boeing 757-200 models from Sporty's Pilot Shop in Batavia, Ohio. On December 11th, Atta purchased additional flight deck videos for Airbus A320 and Boeing 767-300ER models from the same store in Ohio. On December 21st, both Atta and Marwan were granted their pilot licenses. On the 26th or 27th, Atta and Marwan abandoned a Piper Cherokee that had stalled on the runway of Miami International Airport. On the 29th, Atta and Marwan went to the Opa-Locka Airport and practiced on a Boeing 727 simulator.

Atta's cellphone was recorded phoning the Moroccan embassy in Washington on January 2, just before al-Shehhi flew to the country. Atta flew to Spain on January 4, 2001 to coordinate with Binalshibh and returned to the U.S. on January 10, 2001. While in the United States he traveled to Lawrenceville, Georgia, where he and al-Shehhi attended a Gold's Health Club. During that time Atta flew out of Briscoe Field in Lawrenceville with a pilot, and Atta and either the pilot or al-Shehhi flew around the Atlanta area. They lived in the area for several months. On April 3, Atta and al-Shehhi rented a postal box in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

On April 11, Atta and al-Shehhi rented an apartment in Coral Springs, Florida, and assisted with the arrival of the muscle hijackers. On April 16 Atta was given a citation for not having a valid driver's license, and began steps to get one. On May 2, Atta received his driver's license in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida. While in the United States, Atta was reported as owning a red 1989 Pontiac.^[53]

On June 27, Atta flew from Fort Lauderdale to Boston, Massachusetts, where he spent a day, and then continued on to San Francisco for a short time, and from there to Las Vegas. On June 28, Atta arrived at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas to meet with the three other pilots. He rented a Chevrolet Malibu from an Alamo Rent A Car agency. It is not known where he stayed that night, but on the 29th he registered at the EconoLodge at 1150 South Las Vegas Boulevard. Here he presented an AAA membership for a discount, and paid cash for the $49.50/night room. During his trip to Las Vegas, he is thought to have used a video camera that he had rented from a Select Photo outlet back in Delray Beach, Florida.^[54]

[edit] Summer 2001 summit in Spain

Atta left again in July 2001 for Spain to meet with Binalshibh for the last time. On July 7, 2001, Atta flew on Swiss Air Flight 117 from Miami to Zurich, where he had a stopover.^[55] On July 8, Atta was recorded withdrawing 1700 Swiss francs from an ATM, and using his credit card to purchase two swiss army knives and some chocolate in an airport shop in Zurich.^[56] After the stopover in Zurich, he arrived in Madrid at 4:45 pm on Swiss Air Flight 656, and spent several hours at the airport. Then at 8:50 pm, he checked into the Hotel Diana Cazadora in Barajas, a town near the airport. That night and twice the next morning, he called Bashar Ahmad Ali Musleh, a Jordanian student in Hamburg who served as a liaison for Binalshibh.^[57]

On the morning of July 9, Mohamed Atta rented a silver Hyundai Accent, which he booked from SIXT Rent-A-Car for July 9 to 16, and later extended to the 19th.^[57][58] He drove east out of Madrid toward the Mediterranean beach area of Tarragona. On the way, Atta stopped in Reus to pick up Ramzi Binalshibh at the airport. They drove to Cambrils, where they spent a night at the Hotel Monica.^[57] They checked out the next morning, and spent the next few days at an unknown location in Tarragona.^[57] The absence of other hotel stays, signed receipts or credit card stubs has led investigators to believe that the men may have met in a safe house provided by other al-Qaeda operatives in Spain. There, Atta and Binalshibh held a meeting to complete the planning of the attacks. Several clues have been found to link their stay in Spain to Syrian-born Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas (Abu Dahdah), and Amer el Azizi, a Moroccan in Spain. They may have helped arrange and host the meeting in Tarragona.^[59]

During the Spain meetings, Atta and Binalshibh had coordinated the details of the attacks. The 9/11 Commission obtained details about the meeting, based on interrogations of Binalshibh in the weeks after his arrest in September 2002. Binalshibh explained that he passed along instructions from Bin Laden, including his desire for the attacks to be carried out as soon as possible. Bin Laden was concerned about having so many operatives in the United States. Atta said that he needed five to six more weeks to work out details. Bin Laden also asked that other operatives not be informed of the specific data until the last minute. Atta and Binalshibh decided on the targets to be hit, ruling out a strike on a nuclear plant. They also discussed the personal difficulties Atta was having with fellow hijacker Ziad Jarrah. Binalshibh was worried that Jarrah might even abandon the plan. Atta also confirmed that all the muscle hijackers had arrived in the United States, without any problems. The 9/11 Commission Report speculated that the now-convicted terrorist conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui was being trained as a possible replacement for Jarrah.^[60] Yosri Fouda, who interviewed Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) before the arrest, believes that Said Bahaji and KSM may have also been present at the meeting. Spanish investigators have said that Marwan al-Shehhi and two others later joined the meeting. Binalshibh would not discuss this meeting with Fouda.^[61]

From July 13 to 16, Atta stayed at the Hotel Sant Jordi in Tarragona.^[57][58] After Binalshibh returned to Germany on July 16, 2001, Atta had three more days in Spain. He spent two nights in Salou at the beachside Casablanca Playa Hotel, then spent the last two nights at the Hotel Residencia Montsant.^[62] On July 19, Atta returned to the United States, flying on Delta Airlines from Madrid to Fort Lauderdale, via Atlanta.^[58]

[edit] August 2001 final plans in U.S.

On August 4, Atta is believed to have been at Orlando International Airport waiting to pick up suspected "20th Hijacker" Mohamed al-Kahtani from Dubai, who ended up being held by immigration as "suspicious." This person (assuming it was Atta) used a payphone at the airport to phone a number "linked to al-Qaeda" after Kahtani was denied entry.[5]. On August 23, Atta's driver license was revoked in absentia after he failed to show up in traffic court to answer the earlier citation for driving without a license.[6] On the same day, Israeli Mossad reportedly gave his name to the CIA as part of a list of 19 names they said were planning an attack in the near future. Only four of the names are known for certain - Atta, al-Shehhi, al-Mihdar and al-Hazmi.[7][8] On August 30 he was recorded purchasing a utility knife from a Wal-Mart store near the hotel where he stayed prior to 9/11.

U.S. investigators say that Atta sent a package via FedEx to one Mustafa Ahmed in the United Arab Emirates on September 4, and it was received four days later. On the 8th, Atta was also recorded sending Ahmed two wire payments, first for $2,860, and then for $5000. Over the next two days, Waleed al-Shehri and Marwan al-Shehhi would also both wire Ahmed several thousand dollars. Mustafa Ahmed's identity is not known for sure, but the most persistent allegation is that it is Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, currently a prisoner in Pakistan, and accused by Indian intelligence of having links to Mahmoud Ahmad, the head of Pakistan's ISI. [9]

Atta traveled twice to Las Vegas on "surveillance flights" rehearsing how the 9/11 attacks would be carried out. Other hijackers traveled to Las Vegas at different times in the summer of 2001.

[edit] The attacks

On September 10, Atta picked up al-Omari from the Milner Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, and the two drove their rented Nissan to a Comfort Inn in Portland, Maine, where they arrived at 5:43 p.m. and spent the night in room 232 only to catch a US Airways flight back to Boston the following morning. Possibly this was done by the two men to clear airport security under less scrutiny in Maine than they would have faced at Logan Airport in Boston. It was initially reported that Adnan and Ameer Bukhari were the two hijackers who had rented and driven the car. The FBI also states that Atta made a credit-card purchase in Manhattan, New York on the 10th[10][11]

The two spent their last night pursuing ordinary activities: making two ATM withdrawals, and a 20-minute stop at Wal-Mart. FBI reports specified that "two middle-eastern men" were seen in the parking lot of a Pizza Hut, but despite alluding to Atta and Abdulaziz, does not explicitly say it was them.

On the morning of September 11, they drove to the Portland International Jetport, and took the 6:00 a.m. Colgan Air (U.S. Airways Express) BE-1900C flight to Logan International Airport in Boston. The two sat in the rearmost seats, next to one another. In Portland, Mohamed Atta was selected by CAPPS,^[63] which required his checked bags to undergo extra screening for explosives and involved no extra screening at the passenger security checkpoint.^[64]

The connection between the two flights at Logan Airport was within Terminal B, but the two gates were not connected within security. One must cross a parking garage before going through security once again. There are two separate concourses in Terminal B; the south concourse is mainly used by US Airways and the north one is mostly used by American Airlines. It was overlooked that there would still be security in Boston because of this distinct detail of the terminal's arrangement.

At the American Airlines concourse, the pair boarded American Airlines Flight 11, where Atta was checked in under the abbreviation "Moham Atta", and was seated in 8D. At 6:45 a.m., while at the Boston airport, Atta took a call from Marwan al-Shehhi, another hijacker. This call was apparently to confirm that the attacks were ready to begin.

At 7:59 a.m., the plane departed from Boston, carrying 81 passengers. The plane's transponder was turned off at 8:28 a.m..[12] At 8:24:38 a.m., a voice believed to be Atta's was heard by air traffic controllers, saying: "We have some planes. Just stay quiet and you will be OK. We are returning to the airport. Nobody move, everything will be OK. If you try to make any moves you'll endanger yourself and the airplane. Just stay quiet...".

Atta is believed to have been the pilot of the plane when it crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center 23 minutes later at 8:46:40 a.m. All aboard the plane were killed.

Because the flight from Portland to Boston had been delayed, his bags did not make it onto Flight 11. When later found by U.S. authorities, they contained airline uniforms, flight manuals, and a four-page document in Arabic, copies of which were also found with the terrorists of the other three planes. It contains a list of instructions, such as "make an oath to die and renew your intentions", "you should feel complete tranquility, because the time between you and your marriage in heaven is very short", and "check your weapon before you leave and long before you leave. You must make your knife sharp and you must not discomfort your animal during the slaughter".

[edit] Mistaken identity

Newsweek reported that "U.S. military sources have given the FBI information that suggests five of the alleged hijackers of the planes used in Tuesday's terror attacks received training at secure U.S. military installations in the 1990s." Knight Ridder's news account was more specific which said Mohamed Atta had attended International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. In addition, Abdulaziz Alomari had attended Aerospace Medical School at Brooks Air Force base in Texas, they reported, and Saeed Alghamdi had been to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. "Officials stressed that the name matches may not necessarily mean the students were the hijackers because of discrepancies in ages in other personal data. Some of the FBI suspects had names similar to those used by foreign alumni of U.S. military courses," said the Air Force in a statement. "However, discrepancies in their biographical data, such as birth dates 20 years off, indicate we are probably not talking about the same people." The birth date of the Mohamed Atta who attended International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base has not been released and many have pointed to the failure of the Air Force to produce a separate birth date as proof of a match.

Initially, Mohamed Atta's identity was confused with that of a native Jordanian, Mahmoud Mahmoud Atta, who bombed a bus in 1986 on the Israeli-occupied West Bank, killing one and severely injuring three. Mahmoud Mahmoud Atta, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was subsequently deported from Venezuela to the United States, extradited to Israel, tried and sentenced to life in prison. The Israeli Supreme Court later overturned his extradition and set him free; his whereabouts are unknown. He is 14 years older than Mohamed Atta. After the September 11 attacks, a general furor arose over the supposed failure of immigration authorities and the U.S. intelligence community to stop a known terrorist from entering the country under his true name. Eventually, The Boston Globe reported details from records at the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals detailing the detention and subsequent extradition of Mahmoud Mahmoud Atta from the U.S.

In a video released by the U.S. government, Osama bin Laden points to Atta as the leader of the attacks (see videos of bin Laden). His father, Mohamed el-Emir Atta, a retired lawyer in Egypt, characterized this accusation in an interview as ridiculous, calling his son gentle and shy. The skeptic Atta has said that he suspects Mossad had a hand in framing his son, whom he said was a quiet boy uninvolved in politics, shy and devoted to studying architecture. In particular, some of these post 9/11 interviews have Atta's father saying that he openly criticized Atta for being too shy when he was a young teenager and accused Atta's mother for having made his son too shy.^{[citation needed]} He also showed the media an image of his son, claiming that while there were similarities with the FBI released photos, they were clearly different people.[13] [14] The elder Mr. Atta also claims to have spoken with Mohamed by phone two days after the air crashes of the 11th. He held interviews with the German news magazine Bild am Sonntag in late 2002 claiming that his son is alive, and in hiding. Although it's widely believed that Mr. Atta clearly made up the claims of speaking with his son after September 11, 2001, as well as that of his son being alive and well, all steming out of denial to his son's role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the USA. [15]^{[dead link]}, [16]

In July 2005 Atta's father (interviewed by CNN) said the attacks in the United States and the July 7 attacks in London were the beginning of what would be a 50-year religious war, in which there would be many more fighters like his son. [17]

There are other reports that Atta attended Valencia School of Medicine in Spain during this period, though these may be a case of mistaken identity.^[65]

[edit] Shuckum's

There were numerous reports in the media of Atta and al-Shehhi going to Shuckum's Oyster Pub and Seafood Grill, a sports bar in Hollywood, Florida, on September 8, 2001. Atta, al-Shehhi, and a third unidentified man reportedly drank heavily and played video games there. The bartender said "Atta drank vodka and orange juice, while Al-Shehhi preferred rum and cokes , five drinks apiece. "They were wasted."^[66] Manager Tony Amos described, "The guy Mohamed was drunk, his voice was slurred and he had a thick accent." Bartender Patricia Idrissi said the men argued over the bill, and when she asked if there was a problem, "Mohamed said he worked for American Airlines and he could pay his bill."^[67] Atta said, "I have plenty of money. I'm a pilot." And he hauled a wad of $50 and $100 bills from his pocket, eventually leaving a $3 tip.^[66] However, Atta flew on on US Airways Flight 2719 to Baltimore on September 7 from Fort Lauderdale.^[68] On September 8, Atta was in Laurel, Maryland, where he went to a Safeway grocery store to wire $2850 to Mustafa Ahmed in Dubai, and sent another $5000 to Ahmed from a Giant Food store in Laurel on the same day.^[69][70] On September 9, Atta flew on to Boston.^[68]

[edit] Prague controversy

Further information: Atta in Prague

In the months following the September 11th attacks, officials at the Czech Interior Ministry asserted that Atta made a trip to Prague on April 8, 2001 to meet with an Iraqi intelligence agent named Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani. This piece of information was passed on to the FBI as "unevaluated raw intelligence".^[71]. Intelligence officials have concluded that such a meeting did not occur. A Pakistani businessman named Mohammed had come to Prague from Saudi Arabia on May 31, 2000, with this second Atta possibly contributing to confusion. The Egyptian Mohamed Atta came arrived at the Florenc bus terminal in Prague, from Germany, on June 2, 2000. He left Prague the next day, flying on Czech Airlines to Newark, New Jersey. In the Czech Republic, some intelligence officials say the source of the purported meeting was an Arab informant who approached the Czech intelligence service with his sighting of Atta only after Atta's photograph had appeared in newspapers all over the world. U.S. and Czech intelligence officials have since concluded that the person seen with al-Ani, was mistakenly identified as Atta, and the consensus of investigators has concluded that Atta never attended a meeting in Prague.^[72][73]

[edit] Martyrdom video

On October 1, 2006, The Sunday Times released a video it had obtained showing Mohamed Atta and Ziad Jarrah at a training camp in Afghanistan. The video is of high quality resolution and is unedited. However, "The tape has no soundtrack and a US source said lip readers had tried without success to decipher what was being said." The video is apparently a martyrdom message from the two 9/11 hijackers that was filmed on January 18, 2000. The video also shows bin Laden addressing his followers at a complex near Kandahar. Ramzi Binalshibh is also identified in the video. According to The Sunday Times, "American and German investigators have struggled to find evidence of Atta’s whereabouts in January 2000 after he disappeared from Hamburg. The hour-long tape places him in Afghanistan at a decisive moment in the development of the conspiracy when he was given operational command. Months later both he and Jarrah enrolled at flying schools in America."^[74][75]

[edit] Timeline of Mohamed Atta in the United States

While the July 2004 9/11 Commission reported that "American intelligence agencies were unaware of Atta until the day of the attacks", commissioners later said they had met with a Naval Captain Scott Phillpott ten days before releasing the report, who informed them that Operation Able Danger had identified Atta as an Al-Qaeda agent in Brooklyn, NY, and had an overseas photograph of him listed on a chart of threats.

Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and Congressman Curt Weldon later supported this claim, stating that Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi had been tracked in the U.S. as early as February 2000, but that project Able Danger's warning was not heeded. Since then, the Pentagon has denied the claims, and the United States Senate is considering holding hearings to determine if the assertions are true, and if so, how this intelligence failure occurred.[18]^{[dead link]}

• June 5, 2000: Atta e-mails New Hampshire flight school.
• June 19, 2000: Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi stay at short-term rental in New York City.
• June 22, 2000: Atta visits New Jersey flight school.
• July 2, 2000: Atta and al-Shehhi visit the Airman Flight School in Norman, Oklahoma.
• July, 2000: Atta and al-Shehhi move to Venice, Florida and take pilot training classes at Huffman Aviation from July to December.
• January 3, 2001: Atta flies from Tampa, Florida to Miami. [19]
• January 4, 2001: Atta flies from Miami to Madrid, Spain.
• January 10, 2001: Return flight from Madrid to Miami.
• January 25, 2001: Atta and al-Shehhi in Norcross and Decatur, Georgia.
• January 31, 2001: Atta rents a plane in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
• February 2001: Atta and al-Shehhi rent a single-engine plane from a Gwinnett County, Georgia flight school.
• March, 2001: Atta visits a small airport in Belle Glade, Florida and inquires about flying cropduster planes.
• April 3 - April 4, 2001: Atta in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
• May 13 - June 13, 2001: Atta and al-Shehhi live on Jackson Street in Hollywood, Florida.
• Mid-June 2001: Atta and al-Shehhi move into Tara Gardens condo in Coral Springs, Florida.
• Late June 2001: Atta returns to Boston from Las Vegas.
• July 1, 2001: Atta flies from Boston to New York City.
• Early July. 2001: Atta picks up travel tickets to Spain at travel agency in Paterson, New Jersey.
• July 3, 2001: Atta flies from Newark to Fort Lauderdale.
• July 7 or July 8 or July 9, 2001: Atta flies from Miami to Madrid, Spain via Zurich.[20][21] Reports claim final plans for the attacks are set.[22]
• July 19, 2001: Return flight to America, Fort Lauderdale, Florida via Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport.
• Late July, 2001: Atta flies to Newark, New Jersey to meet with other hijackers in the area.
• July 30, 2001: Atta flies back from New Jersey to Florida.
• Early August, 2001: Atta and al-Shehhi were in Huber Drugs in Delray Beach, Florida looking for something to soothe Atta's burning hands.[23]
• August 4, 2001: Atta drives to Orlando, Florida airport to meet arriving hijacker. Mohamed al Kahtani. Kahtani is denied entry by US immigration officials and returns to Dubai.
• August 7, 2001: Atta flies from Fort Lauderdale to Newark, New Jersey to meet with Nawaf al-Hazmi.
• August 13, 2001: Atta flies first class with two other hijackers from Newark, New Jersey to Las Vegas on second surveillance flight and stays at the same Econo Lodge.
• August 14, 2001: Atta flies from Las Vegas to Houston, Texas.
• August 16, 17, and 20, 2001: Atta rents a single-engine Piper Archer at Palm Beach County Park Airport in Lantana, Florida.[24][25]
• August 23, 2001: Atta flies to Newark (from Florida?) and meets with al-Hazmi.
• August 28, 2001: Atta flies from Baltimore to Fort Lauderdale.
• August 29, 2001: Atta buys two tickets for American Airlines Flight 11 on September 11 over the Internet for himself and Abdulaziz al-Omari on a computer at a Kinko's copy store in Hollywood, Florida. Two other hijackers accompanying Atta purchase their September 11 tickets here. A total of six hijackers purchased September 11 tickets from the computers at Kinkos.[26]
• September 5, 2001: FBI reports and eyewitnesses place Atta and other hijackers onboard a SunCruz Casinos gambling boat.
• September 7, 2001: Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi stay at a Holiday Inn close to Sarasota, Florida where President George Bush plans to visit an elementary school on September 11.
• September 7, 2001: Atta and Alshehhi visit Shuckums Oyster Bar, a sports bar in Hollywood, Florida. Apparently when paying for the bill, Atta had a wallet full of bills, but the bartender behind the counter said that Atta and Al-Shehhi were arguing about who was going to pay for the drinks. According to the bartender, Atta angrily paid for the bill and walked to his rented home nearby.
• September 8, 2001: Atta flies from Fort Lauderdale to Baltimore and meets with Flight 77 team of hijackers in Laurel, Maryland.
• September 9, 2001: Atta flies from Baltimore to Boston.
• September 10, 2001: Atta and al-Omari drive from Boston to Portland, Maine.
• September 10, 5:43 P.M. 2001: Atta and al-Omari checked into the Comfort Inn, room 232, South Portland, Maine. [27]
• September 10, 8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. 2001: The FBI says two Middle Eastern men were seen at Pizza Hut in South Portland, Maine, for approximately fifteen minutes.
• September 10, 8:31 P.M. 2001: Atta and al-Omari photographed by Key Bank drive-up ATM in South Portland, Maine.
• September 10, 8:41 P.M. 2001: Atta and al-Omari photographed by a Fast Green ATM located in the parking lot of UNO's restaurant, South Portland, Maine.
• September 10, 9:15 P.M. 2001: Atta and al-Omari were at Jetport Gas Station, South Portland, Maine.
• September 10, 9:22 P.M. 2001: Atta was at Wal-Mart, Scarborough, Maine, for approximately twenty minutes.
• September 11, 5:53 A.M. 2001: Atta and al-Omari board Colgan Air/U.S. Airways Flight 5930 from Portland, Maine to Boston, Massachusetts. Flight 5930 was where Mohammed Atta made final preparations for the attack.
• September 11, 6:50 A.M. 2001: Atta and al-Omari arrive on time at Boston's Logan Airport.
• September 11, 7:45 A.M. 2001: Atta and al-Omari board American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767.
• September 11, 7:59 A.M. 2001: Flight 11 takes off from Boston 14 minutes late.
• September 11, 8:13 A.M. 2001: Flight 11 is hijacked 50 miles west of Boston by Atta and four others.
• September 11, 8:46:40 A.M. 2001: Mohamed Atta crashes Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

[edit] See also

• Islamist terrorism
• Al-Qaeda
• September 11, 2001 attacks

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Corbin, Jane (2003). Al-Qaeda: In Search of the Terror Network that Threatens the World. Nation Books. 
• Der Spiegel (2002). Inside 9-11: What Really Happened. Diane Pub Co. 
• Fouda, Yosri and Nick Fielding (2003). Masterminds of Terror. Arcade Publishing. 
• Four Corners, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, broadcast November 12, 2001 [28]
• McDermott, Terry (2005). Perfect Soldiers. Harper. 
• The 9/11 Commission Report, (W.W. Norton & Company) ISBN 0-393-32671-3
• FBI Press Release October 4, 2001.

[edit] External links

• Interviews with those who interacted with Atta prior to 9/11 from Australian ABC TV's "A Mission To Die For" TV programme
• October 2001 interview with Dittmar Machule. Machule was Atta's thesis supervisor at the University of Hamburg-Harburg.
• Atta's will, written in 1996
• Chapter 5 of the Final 9/11 Commission Report Mohamed Atta is described in section 5.3
• Investigation of the claim that Atta also blew up a bus in Israel, snopes.com
• Social Network Map of Mohamed Atta and 9-11 hijackers
• Prague Discounts an Iraqi Meeting, The New York Times, October 21, 2002 (requires login to read online)
• Havel Denies Telephoning U.S. on Iraq Meeting, The New York Times, October 22, 2002 -- The Times retracted its earlier story that Havel had called Bush to deny the disputed meeting, although a Havel spokesman said that the Czech president was "still certain there was no factual basis behind the report that Mr. Atta met an Iraqi diplomat."
• Description of Atta by a Hamburg neighbor
• Filipinos Recall Hijack Suspects Leading a High Life International Herald Tribune
• Atta's Odyssey October 2001 biography of Atta printed in Time Magazine

v • d • e Reported September 11th Hijackers
Flight 11	Mohamed Atta · Satam al-Suqami · Waleed al-Shehri · Wail al-Shehri · Abdulaziz al-Omari
Flight 175	Marwan al-Shehhi · Fayez Banihammad · Mohand al-Shehri · Hamza al-Ghamdi · Ahmed al-Ghamdi
Flight 77	Hani Hanjour · Khalid al-Mihdhar · Majed Moqed · Nawaf al-Hazmi · Salem al-Hazmi
Flight 93	Ziad Jarrah · Ahmed al-Nami · Saeed al-Ghamdi · Ahmed al-Haznawi
Suspected 20th Hijackers	Ramzi Binalshibh · Mohamed al-Kahtani · Zacarias Moussaoui · Mushabib al-Hamlan · Zakariya Essabar · Ali Abdul Aziz Ali · Tawfiq bin Attash · Khalid al Zahrani
Wrongly Accused	Lotfi Raissi · Amer Kamfar · Ameer Bukhari · Adnan Bukhari · Abdul al-Omari

flight record at Huffman

Atta-Visa.jpg 2000 Visa

Egyptian passport

Persondata
NAME	Atta, Mohamed
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Sayyid, Muhammad `Ata as- (full name, strict transliteration); Atta, Mohamed Elamir awad al-Sayed (full name, alternative transliteration); محمد عطا السيد (Arabic script);
SHORT DESCRIPTION	9/11 hijacker
DATE OF BIRTH	September 1, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kafr el-Sheikh, Egypt
DATE OF DEATH	September 11, 2001
PLACE OF DEATH	New York City, United States