Hamza al-Ghamdi
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This photograph of Hamza al-Ghamdi was released by the FBI in the days following the attack. |
Hamza al-Ghamdi (
Arabic: حمزة الغامدي, also
transliterated Alghamdi) was named by the
FBI as one of the
hijackers of
United Airlines Flight 175 as part of the
September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack.
Al-Ghamdi was from the
al Bahah province of
Saudi Arabia, an isolated and underdeveloped area, and shared the same tribal affiliation with fellow hijackers
Ahmed al-Ghamdi,
Saeed al-Ghamdi, and
Ahmed al-Haznawi. This group is noted as being some of the more religiously observant of the hijackers, and they are thought to have met each other some time in 1999.
Some reports say that al-Ghamdi left his home to fight in
Chechnya against the
Russians in early
2000. (Other reports say he left in January of
2001.) He called home several times until mid-2001, saying he was in Chechnya. It is not known if he ever actually went to Chechnya or not.
Some time late in 2000, Hamza traveled to the
United Arab Emirates, where he purchased
traveler's cheques presumed to have been paid for by
Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi. Five other hijackers also passed through the UAE and purchased travellers cheques, including
Majed Moqed,
Saeed Alghamdi,
Wail al-Shehri,
Ahmed al-Haznawi and
Ahmed al-Nami.
In January of
2001, al-Ghamdi rented a post office box in
Delray Beach, Florida with another hijacker,
Mohand al-Shehri. According to
FBI director
Robert Mueller and the
9/11 Commission however, Hamza did not first enter the United States until a
London flight on May 28 with Mohand and
Abdulaziz Al-Omari.
In March of
2001, al-Ghamdi was filmed in a farewell video that was aired on
al Jazeera. In the video, many future 9/11 hijackers swear to become martyrs, although no details of the plot are revealed. Al-Ghamdi does not speak in the film, but is seen studying maps and flight manuals.[
1]
He was one of 9 hijackers to open a
SunTrust bank account with a cash deposit around June of 2001. Al-Ghamdi also applied for and received a Florida drivers license on
June 27,
2001. In the next two month, he obtained two duplicate licenses simply by filling out change-of-address forms. Five other suspected hijackers also receive duplicate Florida licenses in 2001, and others had licenses in different states. Some have speculated that this was to allow multiple persons to use the same identity.[
2]
Hamza purchased his own eTicket for
Flight 175 on August 29th, using his
Visa card. The FBI also oddly claimed that he also purchased an eTicket for a 'Flight 7950' from Los Angeles to San Francisco on the 29th, although it does not give the projected date of flight.[
3]
On August 30th, Hamza bought
Ahmed al-Ghamdi an identical eTicket for
Flight 175, and bought them each one-way tickets an
AirTran flight on September 7th, from
Fort Lauderdale to
Boston. On the 7th however, Hamza instead went with
Mohand al-Shehri to
Newark, New Jersey on $139.75 tickets purchased from the
Mile High Travel agency in
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
Hamza and Ahmed al-Ghamdi stayed at the
Charles Hotel in
Cambridge, Mass.. On September 8th they checked out of the hotel, and moved into the
Days Hotel on
Soldiers Field Road in
Brighton, Mass. where they remained up until the attacks.[
4][
5]
On the morning of
September 11,
2001, Hamza left the hotel with
Ahmed al-Ghamdi, the two of them sharing a
taxicab to get to
Logan International Airport, where they boarded flight 175, helped to hijack it, and assisted as the plane crashed into the
World Trade Center in a coordinated attack that killed thousands of people.
On September 22nd 2001, Hamza al-Ghamdi's father told the
Al-Watan newspaper that the FBI-released photograph bore absolutely no resemblance to his son.[
6]
*
The Final 9/11 Commission Report
