Mohamed Atta al-Sayed
Mohammed Atta al-Sayed (
Arabic: محمد عطا السيد)
(September 1, 1968 – September 11, 2001) was named by the
FBI as the
suicide pilot of
American Airlines Flight 11, the initial plane to crash into the
World Trade Center during the
September 11, 2001 attacks. He is now believed to have been the leader of the attacks. He has used several aliases and alternate spellings, 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. The will that he allegedly wrote in 1996 gives his name as "
Mohamed Mohamed Elamir Awad Elsayed."
More is known about Mohamed Atta than any of the other 9/11 hijackers. However there are reports that seem to contradict others, indicating that he was in two places at the same time. Some reports may be unreliable, and it is possible that more than one person used Atta's identity at various times.
|
Atta in a University photo |
Atta was born on
September 1,
1968 in
Kafr El Sheikh, a
city in the
Nile Delta in
Egypt and also carried a
Saudi passport. He grew up in
Cairo, Egypt and graduated with a degree in
architecture from
Cairo University. He was apparently not particularly religious during this period. He then moved to
Germany, where he was registered as a student of urban planning at the
Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg in
Hamburg from 1993 to 1999. 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. [
1]
In Hamburg, Atta worked on a thesis exploring the history of
Aleppo's urban landscapes. It explored 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. There were reports that he worked as a car salesman while studying, to help pay for tuition.[
2] After he graduated, he took a bus to
Aleppo to visit his professor Dittmar Machule for three days on an archaeology site.[
3]
In Germany, Atta was registered as a citizen of the
United Arab Emirates. His German friends describe 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.
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 Germany, Atta became more and more religious, especially after a pilgrimage to
Mecca in 1995. A German terrorist of
Syrian origin,
Mohammed Haydar Zammar, claims he met Atta at this time and recruited him into
al-Qaeda. Atta started attending an Islamic prayer group at the university, and is thought to have been recruited for fundamentalist causes there. Other students remember him making strident
anti-American and
anti-Semitic statements. That year he also made an unconditional
loan of $25,000 to help
Muharrem Acar start up a
Turkish bakery.
In a visit home to Egypt in 1998, his former friends noticed that he had become much more of a religious fundamentalist than he had been before.
According to the FBI, on
November 1,
1998, Atta moved into an apartment in Germany with the alleged terrorists
Said Bahaji and
Ramzi Binalshibh. The
Hamburg cell was born at this apartment. [
4] 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 Shaikh Mohammed visited the apartment repeatedly.
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, Mohammed Atta boarded
Turkish Airlines Flight 1662 from
Istanbul to
Karachi, Pakistan. Atta took at least a couple of days to reach his final destination, a training camp in Afghanistan run by al-Qaeda.
German investigators said that they had evidence that Mohammed Atta trained at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan from late 1999 to early 2000. The timing of the Afghanistan training was outlined
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.
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. This 'stolen' passport, was found two blocks from the WTC towers after the 9/11 attacks.
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.[
5]
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. [
6][
7][
8]
In late spring 2000, before coming to the United States, Atta first went to
Prague, Czech Republic via plane but was turned away because he did not have a valid visa. He went back to Germany on the first flight, obtained a visa in
Bonn and then returned to Prague by bus. He stayed just one night in Prague that time, and left for the United States the next day.
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
While in the United States, Atta was reported as owning a red 1989
Pontiac.[
9]
2000
In March 2000, while still in Germany, Atta contacted 31 different U.S. flight schools to discuss training to fly planes.
Atta traveled to
Prague, stayed overnight, and then entered the U.S. on
June 3. 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 certificates 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.
2001
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
Decatur, Georgia for unknown reasons, where he and al-Shehhi attended a
health club. On
February 19, 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.
Prague controversy
See Atta in PragueIn the months following the September 11th attacks, officials at the Czech Interior Ministry asserted that Atta made a trip to Prague on
8 April 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"[
10]. The Bush Administration frequently cited these allegations as evidence of links between
Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. Intelligence officials have concluded that such a meeting did not occur. 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. It is possible that the informant mistook another man for Atta, and the consensus of investigators has concluded that Atta never attended a meeting in Prague.
Summer 2001 summit in Spain
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.[
11]
Atta left again in July 2001 for
Spain to meet with Binalshibh for the last time. On
July 7,
2001, Atta flew from
Tampa via
Miami to
Madrid, via
Switzerland.
On
July 8, Atta was recorded withdrawing 1000
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, Switzerland. After the stopover in Zurich, he arrived in Madrid the next morning.
On
July 9 Atta disembarked
Iberia Airlines Flight 656 at
Madrid Airport.
He spent up to five hours at the airport, then checked into a hotel in
Barajas, a town near the airport. Atta was accompanied by a 41-year-old man who registered under the name
Iqbal Afzal Admat and showed an Irish passport. Hotel records indicate they made lengthy phone calls to Hamburg, Germany and
Manchester, England.
On the morning of
July 9,
2001, Mohamed Atta then rented a silver
Hyundai and drove east out of Madrid toward the Mediterranean beach area of
Tarragona, a ribbon of resorts crowded with vacationers.
Atta was headed to a secret meeting to complete the planning, according to U.S. officials and a Spanish police investigation of the lead hijacker's movements. Spanish officials have said Atta drove 1,190 miles during his 12 days in Spain. He drove halfway across the country and checked into
Hotel Sant Jordi in Tarragona, five miles north of
Salou on the Mediterranean coast.
He is thought to have met there with brothers
Wail and
Waleed al-Shehri.[
12]
As Atta drove 300 miles across the country, his old roommate in Germany, Ramzi Binalshibh, was boarding the weekly charter from the northern German city where he lived, a budget flight from Hamburg to
Reus, the small airport that serves this region.
The flight from Hamburg landed at 7 p.m. on July 9, 2001 and three hours later, Binalshibh, accompanied by another man, pulled up in a car outside the Hotel Monica in the coastal town of
Cambrils, a coastal resort on the southern outskirts of Salou, a few miles south of the Reus airport. Atta's and Binalshibh's movements in the area were first detailed by the Spanish newspaper
El País.
According to Pere Gomez, the hotel manager, the receptionist on duty declined to rent them a room, despite vacancies, because she didn't like the look of Binalshibh; the other man stayed in the car and the receptionist did not get a clear view of him, the hotel manager said. The two drove off to the nearby Hotel Tropicana, which was full but whose receptionist offered to call other hotels to find the pair a room. She located a double room -- back at the Hotel Monica. The two men returned and this time the receptionist gave them the room, explaining that there had been a cancellation. Binalshibh registered for the two men, Gomez said. They spent the night and checked out the next morning, July 10.
The identity of Binalshibh's companion remains unknown to investigators, but his description matches that of
Said Bahaji, a then 26-year-old German citizen of Moroccan origin, who is also wanted on an international arrest warrant issued by Germany. But a U.S. official, confirming what the hotel manager said in an interview, noted that investigators had no clear description of Binalshibh's companion, and it could also have been Atta. Atta had left Madrid in his rental car and driven cross country early the morning of July 9, but he did not check himself into any hotel in the Salou area until half a week later,
July 13,
2001.
During the next six days, there is hardly any trace of either Atta or Binalshibh, only Atta's midweek visit to a travel agency in Tarragona on July 13, 2001 to book a flight back to Miami for
July 19,
2001.
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. Several clues have been found to link their stay in Spain to
Syrian-born
Imad Yarkas, who prosecutors say was al-Qaeda's point man in Spain.
After Binalshibh returned to Germany on
July 16,
2001 Atta had three more days in Spain. He spent a night in Salou at the beachside Casablanca Playa hotel and the next day, because that hotel was fully booked, moved around the corner to the Hostal Montsant.
During the Spain meetings, Atta and Binalshibh had coordinated the details of the attacks, but did not reach a firm agreement on all the targets or the date. They did decide that the World Trade Center would be hit, and they ruled 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. The
9/11 Commission Report speculates that the now convicted terrorist conspirator
Zacarias Moussaoui was being trained as a possible replacement for Jarrah.
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.[
13]. 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.[
14] 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.[
15][
16] 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 financier
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.
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. Some reportedly drank alcohol, gambled, and paid
strippers to perform
lap dances for them. [
17]
Staff at
Shuckum's Oyster Bar later claim that they recognized both Atta and al-Shehhi, as two of the men who had been at the restaurant on either
September 7 or 8th. While there are varying stories about Atta's activities, all sources indicate that al-Shehhi drank
rum and coke while talking to the others.
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 5:43pm and spent the night in room 232 only to catch a 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[
18][
19]
|
Atta (blue shirt) and al-Omari in the Portland, Maine airport on the morning of 9/11 |
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 Marwan, does not explicitly say it was them.
On the morning of
September 11, they drove to the
Portland International Jetport, and took the 6am flight on
Colgan Air (
U.S. Airways Express) to
Logan International Airport in
Boston.
At Logan Airport, 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, Mohamed Atta took a call from
Marwan al-Shehhi, another hijacker. This call was apparently to confirm 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.[
20] At 8:24:38, 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..." [
21].
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 a.m.
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," "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."
Initially, Mohamed Atta's identity was confused with that of a native
Jordanian,
Mahmoud Mahmoud Atta, who bombed a bus in 1986 on the
Israel-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-Amir Atta, a retired lawyer in
Egypt, characterized this accusation in an interview as ridiculous, calling his son gentle and shy. He 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. He also showed media an image of his son, claiming that while there were similarities with the FBI released photos, they were clearly different people.[
22] [
23] The elder Mr. Atta also claims to have spoken with Mohamed by phone two days after the air crashes of the 11th, and continued to hold in interviews with the German news magazine
Bild am Sonntag in late 2002 that his son was alive, in hiding. [
24], [
25]
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. [
26]
While the July 2004
9/11 Commission reported that
American intelligence agencies were unaware of Mr. 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.[
27]
*
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. [
28]
*
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 crop-duster 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 Tarra 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.[
29][
30] Reports claim final plans for the attacks are set.[
31]
*
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 sooth Atta's burning hands.[
32]
*
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 same Econo Lodge.
*
August 14,
2001: Atta flies from
Las Vegas to
Houston, Texas.
*
August 16, 17, and 20, 2001: Atta rents a single-engin Piper Archer at Palm Beach County Park Airport in
Lantana, Florida.[
33][
34]
*
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 Alomari 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 Kinko's.[
35]
*
September 5,
2001:
FBI reports and eyewitnesses place Atta and other hijackers onboard a
SunCruz Casinos gambling boat.
*
September 7,
2001: Atta and Marwan Alshehhi 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, a sports bar in
Hollywood, Florida.
*
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 Alomari drive from Boston to Portland, Maine.
*
September 10, 5:43 P.M. 2001: Atta and Alomari checked into the Comfort Inn, room 232, South Portland, Maine. [
36]
*
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 Alomari photographed by Key Bank drive-up ATM in South Portland, Maine.
*
September 10, 8:41 P.M. 2001: Atta and Alomari 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 Alomari 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 Alomari board a flight from Portland, Maine to Boston, Massachusetts.
*
September 11, 6:50 A.M. 2001: Atta and Alomari arrive on time at Boston's Logan Airport.
*
September 11, 7:45 A.M. 2001: Atta and Alomari 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 other hijackers onboard.
*
September 11, 8:46 A.M. 2001: Mohammed Atta crashes Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
*March, 2002: Mohamed Atta's visa is renewed by
INS.
In literature
In its
April 24 2006 issue
The New Yorker published
Martin Amis's fictionalized account of Atta's role in the
September 11 attack, titled "The Last Days of Muhammad Atta". It was later published in his book
House of Meetings (2006).
The American protagonist of
Christopher R. Howard's novel,
Tiboli Taboo, obsesses over the 9/11 hijackers, particularly Atta, while engaged in a similar descent into madness. (2005)
ISBN 9780977475704Sources
* Paul Thompson,
The Terror Timeline (ReganBooks,2004) ISBN 0060783389
* Four Corners, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, broadcast
November 12 2001 [
37]
*
The 9/11 Commission Report, (W.W. Norton & Company) ISBN 0393326713
* FBI Press Release
October 4 2001.
*
Chapter 5 of the Final 9/11 Commission Report Mohamed Atta is described in section 5.3
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Investigation of the claim that Atta also blew up a bus in Israel, snopes.com*
Six Degrees of Mohamed Atta (Business2.com subscription required)
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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)
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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."
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" 'We have planes. Stay quiet' - Then silence" by Michael Ellison,
The Guardian, October 17, 2001
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The Complete 9/11 Timeline from the Center for Cooperative Research
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Description of Atta by a Hamburg neighbor*
Filipinos Recall Hijack Suspects Leading a High Life International Herald Tribune *
1000 Days of Continuous Cover-Up Conspiracy theory averring that the discrepancies in descriptions of Atta point to a sweeping conspiracy
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Atta's Odyssey October 2001 biography of Atta printed in
Time Magazine*
October 2001 interview with Dittmar Machule. Machule was Atta's thesis supervisor at the University of Hamburg-Harburg.
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Atta's will, written in 1996Image:Attasflightrecord.jpg|flight record at HuffmanImage:Atta-Visa.jpg|2000 VisaImage:Attas EgyptianPassport.jpg|Egyptian passport
