Hani Hanjour

Hani Saleh Hanjour, (Arabic: هاني صالح حنجور) was one of five men named by the FBI as hijackers of American Airlines flight 77 in the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack. The FBI believes that he piloted the plane and crashed it into the Pentagon.

History

Hanjour was born in Ta'if, Saudi Arabia, and was the first of the 9/11 hijackers to enter the United States. FBI director Robert Mueller testified that Hanjour first arrived on October 3, 1991, and the 9/11 Commission agreed.[1] (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2002/senatecommittee092602.html) However several news sources report him in the country even earlier.[2] (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10711FC3C5B0C7A8DDDAF0894DA404482)[3] (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2001/coxnews101501.html) He was a religious Muslim who studied English at the University of Arizona. After travelling to Afghanistan to work with a relief agency, Hanjour returned to the U.S. in 1996, at which time it is believed that he lived briefly in Oakland, California where he claimed that he intended to enroll in English studies at Holy Names College. Reports are that he never attended, but rather moved on to Phoenix, Arizona.

Hanjour took flight lessons in Phoenix, Arizona, kept to himself, and aroused few suspicions. An FBI informant named Aukai Collins claims he told the FBI about Hanjour's activities during 1998, giving them Hanjour's name and phone number, and warning them that more and more foreign-born Muslims seem to be taking flying lessons in the U.S. The FBI admits it paid Collins to monitor the Islamic and Arab communities in Phoenix at the time, but denies Collins told them anything about Hanjour.[4] (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2002/ap052402.html)[5] (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/FBI_informant020523.html)[6] (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2002/foxnews052402.html)

Hanjour had gained his pilot qualification, but was unable to get a job as a pilot when he returned to his native Saudi Arabia. It is likely that the resulting bitterness and disappointment contributed to his being recruited into the al-Qaeda and to ultimately be one of the four pilots of the September 11 attacks.

He came back to San Diego, California in December 2000 and stayed with Nawaf al-Hazmi before the two came to Arizona to train. Hanjour, al-Hazmi, Ahmed al-Ghamdi, and Majed Moqed met in Fairfield, Connecticut with a man named Eyad M. Alrababah, a Jordanian charged with providing false identification to at least 50 illegal aliens.[7] (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2002/senatecommittee092602.html)[8] (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2002/ap030602.html)

In early Spring 2001, Hanjour rented a one-bedroom apartment in Paterson, New Jersey. He lived there with at least one roommate and was visited by several other hijackers, including Mohamed Atta al Sayed. Hanjour, along with at least five other future hijackers, traveled to Las Vegas at least six times in the Summer of 2001. They reportedly drank alcohol, gambled, and paid strippers to perform lap dances for them.[9] (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/10/04/MN102970.DTL)

Hanjour began to make cross-country "surveillance flights" in August, preparing for the hijackings. He moved out on September 1. He was photographed on September 5 when using a Maryland ATM with fellow hijacker Majed Moqed.

On September 10, one of the hijackers was seen by the owner of a strip club in Elizabeth near Newark airport. He had a beer and watched a dancer in a private "VIP" room, where the bar owner watched him through a security camera. That night, Hanjour, al-Mihdhar, and al-Hazmi checked into a hotel. Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman Hussayen, a prominent Saudi government official, was staying at the same hotel. There is no evidence Hussayen met with them, but he has been linked to terrorism many times since then.[10] (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/10/03/wsaud03.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/10/03/ixportal.html)[11] (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A31402-2003Oct1?language=printer)

The attack

On September 11, 2001, Hani Hanjour boarded American Airlines Flight 77 at 7:50. The plane was hijacked, and Hanjour crashed the plane into the Pentagon at 9:37 am in a high-speed dive that required a great deal of skill. All onboard were killed instantly, as were 125 people on the ground. The National Geographic Channel created a documentary that deconstructs the crash. His flight instructors claimed he was such a terrible pilot that they refused to let him rent a plane, and how such an incompetent pilot managed to pull off an almost impossible bit of piloting remains unknown.

External Link

• The Final 9/11 Commission Report (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/index.html)
• Hijacker Went to Bay Area School CBS-5 Report (http://cbs5.com/news/local/2001/10/10/Hijacker_Went_to_Bay_Area_School.html)