Organizers of the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks.
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2 The Hamburg Cell and other conspirators 3 See also 4 External Links and References |
Hijackers
There were 19 hijackers in all: five on three of the flights, and four on the fourth. Soon after the attacks, the FBI identified all nineteen, though at least eight of the names on the FBI's list have been called into serious doubt; see links by name.
U.S. authorities believe that the hijackers were in two groups--six core organizers, who included the four pilots and two others; and the remaining 13 who came to the United States later in pairs, in the spring and summer of 2001, via the United Arab Emirates.
The six organizers were the pilots--Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Ziad Jarrah, and Hani Hanjour--and Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi.
Some of the terrorists did not seem to match the profiles of past suicide terrorists (young, poor, uneducated and indoctrinated). However the muscle hijackers as opposed to the pilots were between 20 and 28 years old and most were unemployed, unmarried and with no more than a high school education. 15 came from Saudi Arabia. The remaining four came from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. According to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, this distribution merely reflected the proportions of trainees at al Qaida camps along the factor of ease of obtaining U.S. visas for Saudi citizens.
According to the 9/11 Commision Report, many of the hijackers were photographed at the airport by security cameras. None of these photographs have been released by U.S. authorities at this time. (One photograph of two of the hijackers was released, but it was at a separate airport, boarding a non-hijacked flight.) Despite persistent rumours there is no evidence of travel under false passports or misidentification of hijackers, the fact that some people with the same names as some of the hijackers merely shows the coincidence of a small number of names used by a very large population.
(Note: There have been variations in the spelling of the names of the alleged hijackers in differing accounts of the attacks. This is because there is no one correct way of transliterating from Arabic script to English letters.)
The hijackers aboard American Airlines flight 11 were reported to be
Mohammad Atta is believed to have flown Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.Aboard United Airlines flight 175 the hijackers were reported to be
Marwan al-Shehhi is believed to have flown Flight 175 into the South Tower.The hijackers aboard American Airlines flight 77 were reported to be
Hani Hanjour is believed to have flown Flight 77 into the Pentagon.The hijackers aboard United Airlines flight 93 were reported to be
Ziad Jarrah is believed to have crashed Flight 93 into the Pennsylvania countryside to prevent end an assault by the passengers.Ahmed al Ghamdi, Saeed al Ghamdi, Hamza al Ghamdi, and Ahmad al Haznawi came from three neighboring towns and belonged to the same tribe. Wail and Waleed al Shehri were brothers. Salem al Hazmi was a younger brother of Nawaf al Hazmi.
The Hamburg Cell and other conspirators
The terrorist attack itself was planned by Khalid Sheik Mohammed and approved by Osama bin Laden; the two of them personally chose the hijackers. Sheik Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah became the organizers of the plot. Investigators say that Mohammed Haydar Zammar acted as the "travel agent" to Afghanistan.
Three of the hijackers, along with Ramzi Binalshibh, Said Bahaji, and Zakariyah Essabar were members of the Hamburg cell. After Atta, al-Shehhi, and Jarrah left for the United States, Binalshibh provided money to the conspirators. Riduan Isamuddin, aka Hambali, met with two of the hijackers in Kuala Lumpur in 2000. Hambali also gave money to alleged 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui. The members of the cell fled Germany before the terrorist attacks.
Some of the money that financed the terrorist attack may have originated from Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mohammed Yousef Mohamed Alqusaidi, who may be Marwan al-Shehhi's brother. Another conspirator is Abu Abdul Rahman.
Interviews with detained al Qaida members have identified ten hijacker candidates who did not participate in the attacks for various reasons. This people were identified as Mohamed Mani Ahmad al Kahtani,Khalid Saeed Ahmad al Zahrani,Ali Abd al Rahman al Faqasi al Ghamdi, Saeed al Baluchi, Qutaybah al Najdi, Zuhair al Thubaiti, Saeed Abdullah Saeed al Ghamdi, Saud al Rashid, and Mushabib al Hamlan, and Abderraouf Jdey.
See also
External Links and References