Salem al-Hazmi
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Salem al-Hazmi, (Arabic: سالم الحازمي, also transliterated Alhazmi) was one of five men named by the FBI as hijackers of American Airlines flight 77 in the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack.
Much of Salem's history is unknown. There are reports that he fought with his "brother" Nawaf al-Hazmi in Afghanistan, and other reports say the two fought together in Chechnya. Both obtained US visas through the US Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in April of 1999. Salem was an al-Qaida veteran by the time he was selected for participation in the 9/11 attacks.
Along with Nawaf and several other future hijackers, Salem attended the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was there that the details of the 9/11 attacks were decided upon.
According to the FBI and the 9/11 Commission report, Salem first entered the United States on June 29, 2001 (although there are numerous unconfirmed reports that he was living in San Antonio, Texas with fellow hijacker Satam Al Suqami much earlier). Salem used the Visa Express program to gain entry into the country. (This program, introduced in May of 2001 when terror alerts in the U.S. were very high, allowed Saudi Arabians to obtain visas without verifying their identity. Five hijackers used this method to get into the U.S. The program was finally cancelled in July of 2002.)
Salem moved to Paterson, New Jersey, and was one of the five hijackers that asked for identity cards on August 2, 2001. He worked at a Greenbelt, Maryland gym from September 2 to September 6 of the same year.
On September 11, Salem boarded American Airlines flight 77. Some time after takeoff, the plane was hijacked, and was flown into the Pentagon at 9:37 am, killing 189 people. Although airport security cameras would have filmed the hijackers, none of this footage has been released by the FBI, and there are no known pictures of Salem in the United States.
Controversy
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According to several news sources, Salem al-Hazmi is alive and working at a petrochemical plant in Yanbou, Saudi Arabia. He claims his passport was stolen by a pickpocket in Cairo three years before, and that pictures and details such as date of birth are of him.[1] (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-092101probe.story)[2] (http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/09/23/widen23.xml)[3] (http://www.guardian.co.uk/september11/story/0,11209,601550,00.html) [4] (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A59320-2001Sep19¬Found=true)
External Link
- The Final 9/11 Commission Report (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/index.html)