Mohamed Atta

Mohamed Atta
A photograph of Mohamed Atta, released by the FBI in the days following the attack.
Born	Mohamed Elamir awad al-Sayed Atta Karadogan (in Arabic: محمد عطا السيد) (1968-09-01)September 1, 1968 Kafr El Sheikh, Egypt
Died	September 11, 2001(2001-09-11) (aged 33) Manhattan, New York (Unconfirmed)

Mohamed Atta (محمد عطا السيد Template:ArTranslit) (September 1, 1968 – September 11, 2001) is believed by the FBI to have 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.

Aliases

The FBI lists numerous aliases of Atta, 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."

Early life

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Mohamed 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 a strict family in Giza, a suburb of Cairo. Atta's father wished all his children to be well-educated. From childhood, Atta spent most of his time at home studying. He performed well in his studies and graduated with a degree in architecture from Cairo University. He was apparently not particularly religious during this period.

In 1991 a German couple running an "international student exchange program" suggested to Atta that he continue his studies in Hamburg, Germany, and offered him a temporary place to live at their house in the city. In 1992 Atta moved there, and was registered as a student of urban planning at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg, where he remained until graduating in 1999. He was apparently sponsored by the German student-exchange organization Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft. 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.

Carl Duisberg 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. The organization is the German end of a joint US-German government program, the "Congress-Bundestag program". The US end of the program is CDS (Carl Duisberg Society) International, run out of the United Nations Plaza in New York. It is/was backed by such figures as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, former President Bill Clinton and his former First Lady Hillary Clinton.

In Hamburg, Atta worked on a thesis exploring the history of Aleppo's urban landscapes and was invited to Aleppo by his professor Dittmar Machule for a three-day archeological visit. 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.

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.

Al-Qaeda involvement

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Prosecution trial exhibits from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui

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. 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 alleged hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi, Zakariya Essabar, alleged 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 alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh 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, Mohamed Atta boarded Turkish Airlines Flight TK1662 from Hamburg to Istanbul, where he changed to flight TK1056 to Karachi, Pakistan. Atta took at least a couple of days to reach his final destination, an al-Qaeda training camp in Tarnak Farms, near Kandahar, 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. This has recently (as of October 2006) been confirmed by the finding of a videotape purporting to show Atta in Afghanistan reading his will on January 18, 2000.

On his return journey, Atta left Karachi on February 24, 2000 by flight TK1057 to Istanbul where he changed to flight TK1661 to Hamburg.

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.

Atta and the other alleged 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.

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.

In the United States

While in the United States, Atta was reported as owning a red 1989 Pontiac.

1990s

Knight Ridder's news 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.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo reports after 9/11, “According to several professors at the Valencia School of Medicine, some of whom are forensic experts, [Mohamed Atta] was a student there in 1997 or 1998. Although he used another name then, they remember his face among the students that attended anatomy classes.” It is also suggested that “years before, as a student he went to Tarragona. That would explain his last visit to Salou (from July 8-19, 2001), where he could have made contact with dormant cells…” If this is true, it would contradict reports concerning Atta’s presence as a student in Hamburg, Germany, during this entire period. There is also a later report that in 1999 Atta will meet an al-Qaeda operative in Alicante, less than 100 miles from Valencia.

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.

Yet, according to a lengthy interview with Johnelle Bryant, former loan-official of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Florida, Atta came to see her between the third week of April, 2000 and the third week of May, in order to obtain a $650,000 loan to purchase a crop-duster plane. Bryant told that Atta humiliated her, threatened her, lauded Osama bin Laden and asked questions about the security at the World Trade Center.

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.

2001

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Atta's driver's license

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 to visit his brother , 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.

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 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".. 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.

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 other hijackers Wail and Waleed al-Shehri.

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 Hostel 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.[7]. 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.[8] 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.[9][10] 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. [11]

It is during this time Atta was seen frequenting Sun Cruz casino boats as well as being spotted with Sun Cruz co-owner Jack Abramoff according to reports made by several former Sun Cruz employees.

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. [12]

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.

The attacks

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Abdulaziz al-Omari (center) and Atta withdrawing money from an ATM

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. 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[13][14]

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 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, which required his checked bags to undergo extra screening for explosives and involved no extra screening at the passenger security checkpoint.

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.

At the American Airlines concourse, the pair is said to have boarded American Airlines Flight 11 although no one has testified to have seen them board the aircraft. Their boarding cards were never found. No CCTV recording of their boarding exists.

At 7:59 a.m., the plane designated as Flight AA11 departed from Boston, carrying 81 passengers. While traditionally Flight AA11 departed from Gate 32, according to media reports, Flight AA11 on September 11, 2001 left from Gate no. 26., This gate is located in another wing of Terminal B and about 1000 ft. away from Gate 32. Later, the 9/11 Commission Final Report will claim that the plane left from Gate no. 32. This discrepancy has not been explained. The plane's transponder was turned off at 8:28 a.m..[15] At 8:24:38 a.m., a voice attributed to 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...".

Seconds after American Airlines Flight 11 is said to have crashed into the World Trade Center.

Atta is alleged by the FBI to have crashed American Flight 11 into the north tower of the World Trade Center 23 minutes later at 8:46:40 a.m. All aboard the plane were killed.

Bags said to be owned by Atta did not make it to Flight AA11 for unexplained reasons. Law enforcement authorities who later opened the bags said they contained a hand-held electronic flight computer, a simulator procedures manual for Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft, a slide-rule flight calculator, a copy of the Qur’an and a handwritten testament written in Arabic, copies of which were also found at the crash sites of the other three planes. It was said to contain 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". According to later testimonies by former FBI agents, the luggage also contained the identities of all 19 suspects involved in the four hijackings, information on their plans, backgrounds, motives, al Qaeda connections and [a] folding knife and pepper spray.

Family portraits of Atta

Soon after September 11th there were several interviews with Atta's father, [16] Mohammed al-Atta, a Cairo lawyer. He expressed rage at the picture being drawn of his son:

"My son is a hijacker and drinks vodka!" (he) yelled, his face reddening to the roots of his short white hair and his hands waving in the air. "It is like accusing a decent, veiled religious girl of smuggling prostitutes into Egypt. It is nonsense, imagination!"

The father said the only vaguely political remark he heard his son make was that the restoration of a mosque in Cairo's Old City was too lavish, and the money could be better spent on job creation.

Two German classmates, Volker Hauth[17] and Ralph Bodenstein[18], said Atta, who left Egypt in 1993, spoke with increasing bitterness about President Hosni Mubarak and the small coterie of former army officers and of rich Egyptians gathered around him. The classmates said he called the ruling elite "the fat cats" and decried both their close ties to the United States and their suppression of both religious and non-governmental organizations.

In the week before the attack, Atta was seen drinking juice and/or alcohol (there are conflicting reports from the bar manager on whether Atta was drunk or had drunk only cranberry juice)[19] and playing video games in a Hollywood, Florida sports bar "Shuckum's". [20]His companion, al-Shehhi, and a third unidentified man reportedly drank heavily at the bar. In fact the owner of the bar almost called the police on them for arguing over the bar tab.[21][22] According to author Daniel Hopsicker, who spent time in Florida tracing all those who met Atta, Atta lived with a prostitute, loved pork chops and snored cocaine.

Mistaken identity

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.

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Atta's father declines an interview with Liz Jackson

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. 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.[23] [24] 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. [25], [26]

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. [27]

Martyrdom video

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Ziad Jarrah and Mohamed Atta in what is claimed to be a Training Camp in Tarnak Farms near Kandahar, January 18, 2000 in a "martyrdom" video.

On October 1, 2006, The Sunday Times released a video it had obtained showing Mohamed Atta and Ziad Jarrah at what is described as a training camp in Afghanistan. The video contains no audio but is of high quality resolution. Another segment of 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."

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.[28]

• 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. [29]
• 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.[30][31] Reports claim final plans for the attacks are set.[32]
• 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.[33]
• 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.[34][35]
• 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.[36]
• 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. [37]
• 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.

In literature

One of the first accounts on Mohamed Atta is Daniel Hopsicker's book "[|Welcome to Terrorland, Mohamed Atta & the 9-11 Cover-Up in Florida, (2004)]". The book description says: "Venice, Florida, where three of the four terrorist pilots learned to fly, is the biggest September 11 crime scene that wasn't reduced to rubble. Yet it received no serious scrutiny for what it might reveal about the nature of the terrorist conspiracy that resulted in the 9-11 attack."

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".

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)

Atta appears as a character in the conclusion of the 2006 novel "Duizend levens" ("A Thousand Lives") by Dutch writer Margreet Hofland.

Atta is a source of obsession to the main character of the 2006 Arnon Grunberg novel "Tirza". The main character confuses his daughter's boyfriend with Mohamed Atta.

Atta appears as a minor character in Don DeLillo's 2007 novel Falling Man.

The terrorist Khalil Mohammed in Patrick Grady's [2005] novel "Royal Canadian Jihad" is based on Atta.

Atta is a primary character in the 2007 novel "Marwan" by Aram Schefrin.

Sources

• Paul Thompson, The Terror Timeline (ReganBooks,2004) ISBN 0-06-078338-9
• Four Corners, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, broadcast November 12 2001 [38]
• The 9/11 Commission Report, (W.W. Norton & Company) ISBN 0-393-32671-3
• FBI Press Release October 4 2001.
• Der Spiegel, Inside 9-11: What Really Happened (Diane Pub Co, June 2002) ISBN 0-756-78048-9

See also

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

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
• 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
• Six Degrees of Mohamed Atta (Business2.com subscription required)
• 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."
• The Complete 9/11 Timeline from the Center for Cooperative Research
• 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
• October 2001 interview with Dittmar Machule. Machule was Atta's thesis supervisor at the University of Hamburg-Harburg.
• Atta's will, written in 1996
• Mohamed Atta at Find-A-Grave

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  flight record at Huffman
• 2000 Visa
  2000 Visa
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  Egyptian passport