September 11, 2001 attacks/Hijackers

Hijackers

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 UAE.

The six organizers were the pilots--Mohammed Atta, Marwan Alshehhi, Ziad Jarrah, and Hani Hanjour--and Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi.

Several of the terrorist hijackers appeared to be traveling with false passports, assuming the identities of other people. Saudis Saeed Alghamdi, Abdulaziz Alomari, and Waleed Alshehri, whose photographs have appeared on CNN and other media outlets, have spoken to Saudi newspapers since the attack.

Their profiles do not seem to match that of past suicide terrorists (young, poor, uneducated and indoctrinated): many were in their late twenties and thirties, most with college educations, and had lived for prolonged periods of time in western countries. 15 came from Saudi Arabia. The remaining four came from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon.

There have been variations in the spelling of the names of the alleged hijackers in differing accounts of the attacks- one good example being the Alshehris from Flight 11. This is because there is no one correct way of translating from Arabic script to English letters.

Network Map of how hijackers were connected to each other and color-coded by their flight.

The hijackers aboard American Airlines flight 11 used the names

• Waleed Alshehri
• Wail M. Alshehri
• Mohammad Atta
• Abdulaziz Alomari
• Satam Al Suqami

Mohammad Atta is believed to have flown Flight 11 into the North Tower.

Aboard United Airlines flight 175 the hijackers used the names

• Marwan Alshehhi
• Fayez Banihammad
• Mohald Alshehri
• Hamza Al Ghamdi
• Ahmed Al Ghamdi

Marwan Alshehhi is believed to have flown Flight 175 into the South Tower.

The hijackers aboard American Airlines flight 77 used the names

• Khalid al-Mihdhar
• Majed Moqued
• Nawaf al-Hazmi
• Salem Al Hazmi
• Hani Hanjour

Hani Hanjour is believed to have flown Flight 77 into the Pentagon.

The hijackers aboard United Airlines flight 93 used the names

• Ahmed Al Haznawi
• Ahmed Alnami
• Ziad Jarrah
• Saeed Alghamdi

Ziad Jarrah is believed to have been at the controls when Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania.

see also Ramzi Binalshibh and Zacarias Moussaoui

The Hamburg Cell and other conspirators

Three of the hijackers, along with Ramzi Binalshibh, Said Bahaji, and Zakariyah Essabar were members of the Hamburg, Germany 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.

Related topics

See also: "War on Terrorism" -- U.S. invasion of Afghanistan -- 2001 anthrax attack -- World Trade Center -- The Pentagon -- New York City -- Washington, D.C. -- AA Flight 11 -- UA Flight 175 -- AA Flight 77 -- UA Flight 93 -- U.S. Department of Defense -- Operation Bojinka -- terrorism -- domestic terrorism -- Osama bin Laden -- Taliban -- Islamism -- Afghanistan -- collective trauma -- September 11

External Links and References

• A Terrorist Profile Emerges That Confounds the Experts The New York Times 15-September-2001
• F.B.I. Documents Detail the Movements of 19 Men Believed to Be Hijackers The New York Times 15-September-2001 To be incorporated
• FLIGHT SCHOOL: Learning Where Suspects Studied Is 'Trickier Than It Sounds' The New York Times 15-September-2001 To be incorporated
• The Immigration and Naturalization Service's Contacts With Two September 11 Terrorists: A Review of the INS's Admissions of Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi, its Processing of their Change of Status Applications, and its Efforts to Track Foreign Students in the United States U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General 20-May-2002 To be incorporated
• portal.telegraph.co.uk (report that not all of the "hijackers" were actually on the planes)

• Saudis Say Cash to Friend of Hijackers Was Charity, The New York Times, November 24, 2002 to be incorporated

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