Mohamed Atta al Sayed

Mohamed Atta al Sayed (Arabic: محمد عطا السيد) (September 1, 1968 – September 11, 2001) was named by the FBI as the suicide pilot of the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 terrorist 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.

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.

Early history

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] (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2001/elmundo093001.html))

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. He received a high mark on his report from his German supervisor.

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. Ralph said, "He was most imbued 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-Qaida. [2] (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A7829-2002Jun18&notFound=true) (Zammar had al-Qaeda contacts going back a decade and knew Osama bin Laden personally.) Atta started attending an Islamic prayer group at the university, and is thought to have recruited for fundamentalist causes there. Other students remember him making strident anti-American and anti-Semitic statements. 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

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. [3] (http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/la-012702atta.story)[4] (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/10/national/10PLOT.html?ex=1090987200&en=00e7941222956576&ei=5070) 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. In addition, Atta was trained in passport alteration. Immediately afterwards, Atta, al-Shehhi, and Jerrah reported their passports stolen, possibly to erase travel visas to Afghanistan.

Atta and the other hijackers began to work on appearing normal, 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. [5] (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2001/afp092201.html)[6] (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2001/focus092401.html)[7] (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2001/berlinerzeitung092401.html) When he entered the United States in June 3, 2000 the CIA says its surveillance of Atta ended. It is unclear whether the FBI or some other inteligence agency monitored Atta's activities in the U.S.

In the United States

In March 2000, while still in Germany, Atta contacted 31 different U.S. flight schools to discuss training to fly planes. He traveled to Prague, stayed overnight, and then entered the U.S. on June 3. Atta and earlier arrived hijackers opened bank accounts and continue to check on flight schools. In July, Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi enrolled at Huffman Aviation International in Venice, Florida. Al-Shehhi would later become the pilot of hijacked United Airlines flight 175. 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, and received their licenses the next month.

In December 2000, Atta and al-Shehhi went to the Miami area to practise on a Boeing 727 simulator. He flew to Spain, January 4, 2001 to coordinate with Binalshib, returning to the U.S. on January 10, 2001. While in the United States he traveled to Georgia for unknown reasons. In April, Atta and al-Shehhi rent an apartment in Coral Springs, Florida. Atta assisted with the arrival of the "muscle" hijackers in April. Atta left again in July 2001 for Spain to meet with Binalshibh for the last time. They 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 Zacarias Moussaoui was being trained as a possible replacement for Jarrah.

U.S. investigators say that Atta sent a package to Mustafa Ahmed in the United Arab Emirates on September 4. Mustafa Ahmed is central to the funding of al-Qaeda.

Atta traveled twice to Las Vegas on "surveillance flights" rehearsing how the 9/11 attacks would be carried out. Other hijackers travelled 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. [8] (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/10/04/MN102970.DTL) In the week before the attack, Atta was seen drinking juice and playing video games in a Hollywood, Florida sports bar "Shuckum's". [9] (http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/01/911/Florida__terror_s_lau.shtml)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.[10] (http://www.madcowprod.com/10/atta%20in%20punta%20gorda.htm)

The attacks

Atta (blue shirt) and Abdulaziz al-Omari boarding a Colgan Air flight from Portland, Maine, to Boston on the morning of 9/11. They went on to board a flight from Boston which was hijacked.

Atta spent the day before the attack with another hijacker, Abdulaziz al-Omari, in South Portland and Scarborough, Maine. In the morning of September 11, they drove to the Portland International Jetport (PWM), flew on Colgan Air (U.S. Airways Express) to Logan International Airport in Boston and boarded American Airlines Flight 11. 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. 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.." [11] (http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/planes/attack/guardian_haveplanes.html) 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 8:47 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." The writer of this document is now believed to have been Abdulaziz al-Omari, who went with Atta aboard Flight 11.

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 Israel-controlled 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.

It is alleged that Atta was a ringleader among the hijackers. 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. [12] (http://www.maebrussell.com/Articles%20and%20Notes/Eqyptian%20man%20denies%20son's%20involvement%20in%20hijackings.html) 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. [13] (http://www.chicagotribune.com/search/chi-0109200046sep20.story?coll=chi-home), [14] (http://www.guardian.co.uk/september11/oneyearon/story/0,12361,784541,00.html)

Timeline in America

• June 3, 2000: Mohamed Atta enters the United States from Prague to Newark, New Jersey, on a six month tourist visa.
• June 5, 2000: Atta emails New Hampshire flight school.
• June 19, 2000: Atta and Marwan Alshehhi stay at short-term rental in New York City.
• June 22, 2000: Atta visits New Jersey flight school.
• July 2, 2000: Atta and Alshehhi visit the Airman Flight School in Norman, Oklahoma.
• July, 2000: Atta and Alshehhi move to Venice, Florida and take pilot training classes at Huffman Aviation from July to December.
• December 21, 2000: Atta and Alshehhi get their pilot licenses.
• December 26 or 27, 2000: Atta and Alshehhi abandon a small plane that stalled on a runway at Miami International Airport.
• December 29-30, 2000: Atta and Alshehhi train on a Boeing 727 simulator at SimCenter Inc. in Opa-locka Airport near Miami, Florida.
• January 3, 2001: Atta flies from Tampa, Florida to Miami.[15] (http://www.liberalconspiracy.com/911Timeline.htm)
• January 4, 2001: Atta flies from Miami to Madrid, Spain.
• January 10, 2001: Return flight from Madrid to Miami.
• January 25, 2001: Atta and Alshehhi in Norcross and Decatur, Georgia.
• January 31, 2001: Atta rents a plane in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
• February 2001: Atta and Alshehhi rent a single-engine plane from a Gwinnett County, Georgia flight school.
• February 19, 2001: Atta and Alshehhi rent a mail box in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
• March, 2001: Atta visits a small airport in Belle Glade, Florida and inquires about flying crop-duster planes.
• April 3-4, 2001: Atta in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
• April 11, 2001: Atta and Alshehhi lease an apartment in Coral Springs, Florida.
• April 26, 2001: Atta is given a citation for not having a drivers's license in Broward County, Florida.
• May 2, 2001: Atta applies for driver's license in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida.
• May 13-June 13, 2001: Atta and Alshehhi live on Jackson Street in Hollywood, Florida.
• Mid-June 2001: Atta and Alshehhi move into Tarra Gardens condo in Coral Springs, Florida.
• June 27, 2001: Atta flies from Fort Lauderdale to Boston.
• June 28 or 29, 2001: Atta flies first class on United Airlines in his first surveillance flight from Boston to Las Vegas via San Francisco.
• June 29-30, 2001, Atta stays at the Econo Lodge in Las Vegas. [16] (http://www.lvlife.com/2002/09/feature3.html)
• 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 8 or 9, 2001: Atta and three other would-be hijackers fly from Miami to Madrid, Spain via Zurich.[17] (http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/story/0,9860,557190,00.html)[18] (http://www.liberalconspiracy.com/911Timeline.htm) Reports claim final plans for the attacks are set.[19] (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/waronterrorism/story/0,1373,556630,00.html)
• 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.
• 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 Lauderdal to Newark to meet with Nawaf al Hazmi.
• August 13, 2001: Atta flies first class with two other hijackers from 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 15-19, 2001: Atta and Alshehhi rent a car at WARRICK’S RENT-A-CAR in Pompano Beach, Florida and return it with almost 3,000 miles logged.
• August 16, 17, and 20, 2001: Atta rents a single-engined Piper Archer at Palm Beach County Park Airport in Lantana, Florida.[20] (http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/story/0,9860,557190,00.html)[21] (http://www.madcowprod.com/10/atta%20in%20punta%20gorda.htm)
• August 20, 2001: Atta sends a coded email to Ramzi bin al-Shibh indicating the attacks will begin in about three weeks.
• August 23, 2001: Atta flies to Newark (from Florida?) and meets with Hazmi.
• August 28, 2001: Atta flies from Baltimore to Fort Lauderdale.
• August 29, 2001: Atta buy 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.[22] (http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/01/911/Florida__terror_s_lau.shtml)
• September 7, 2001: Atta and Marwan Alshehhi stay at a Holiday Inn close to Sarasota, Florida where President Gerorge 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: Alshehhi returns Atta's rented car to WARRICK’S RENT-A-CAR in Pompano Beach, Florida.[23] (http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/01/911/Florida__terror_s_lau.shtml)
• 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, South Portland, Maine.
• 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 parkinglot 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 apporximately 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 America 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: Mohamed Atta crashes Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Sources

• Paul Thompson, The Terror Timeline (ReganBooks,2004) ISBN 0060783389
• Four Corners, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, broadcast November 12, 2001 [24] (http://www.abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/printfriendly.pl?/4corners/atta/maps/timeline.htm)
• The 9/11 Commission Report, (W.W. Norton & Company) ISBN 0393326713
• FBI Press Release October 4, 2001.

External links and references

• Chapter 5 of the Final 9/11 Commission Report (http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch5.htm) Mohamed Atta is described in section 5.3
• Investigation of the claim that Atta also blew up a bus in Israel, snopes.com (http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/atta.htm)
• Six Degrees of Mohamed Atta (http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/print/0,1643,35253,FF.html) (Business2.com subscription required)
• Social Network Map of Mohamed Atta and 9-11 hijackers (http://www.orgnet.com/hijackers.html)
• Prague Discounts an Iraqi Meeting (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/21/international/21PRAG.html), The New York Times, October 21, 2002 (requires login to read online)
• " 'We have planes. Stay quiet' - Then silence" (http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/planes/attack/guardian_haveplanes.html) by Michael Ellison, The Guardian, October 17, 2001
• The Complete 9/11 Timeline (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&timeperiod=0:10am-11:50pm%2011%20Sept%202001) from the Center for Cooperative Research
• Description of Atta by a Hamburg neighbor (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/terror/20050202-0737-sept.11trial.html)
• Filipinos Recall Hijack Suspects Leading a High Life (http://www.hamline.edu/apakabar/basisdata/2001/10/05/0079.html) International Herald Tribune
• 1000 Days of Continuous Cover-Up (http://www.madcowprod.com/mc6122004.html) Conspiracy theory averring that the discrepancies in descriptions of Atta point to a sweeping conspiracy
• Atta's Odyssey (http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,176917,00.html) October 2001 biography of Atta printed in Time Magazine
• October 2001 interview with Dittmar Machule (http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/interviews/machule.htm). Machule was Atta's thesis supervisor at the University of Hamburg-Harburg.
• Hopsicker, Daniel. Welcome to Terrorland: Mohamed Atta and the Venice Flying Circus. [25] (http://www.madcowprod.com/books.html)de:Mohammed Atta

fr:Mohammed Atta nl:Mohammed Atta