- No Link Between Iraq and 9/11, U.S. Investigators Say (May 1, 2002)
...02 11:39 a.m. EDT) - U.S. investigators no longer believe suicide hijacker Mohammed Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Europe last year, eliminating the... - Key Figure in Sept. 11 Plot Held in Secret Detention in Syria (June 18, 2002)
...rs that he and another fugitive from Germany, Said Bahaji, first recruited Mohamed Atta and other Hamburg-based hijackers into al Qaeda, Arab sources said. And he... - Prague Clears Iraq of Last Connection to al Qaeda (October 21, 2002)
...he has concluded that there is no evidence to confirm earlier reports that Mohamed Atta, the leader in the Sept. 11 attacks, met with an Iraqi intelligence office... - Report: Congress Was on Sept. 11 List (September 9, 2002)
...sts. U.S. officials say Binalshibh belonged to a Hamburg-based cell led by Mohammed Atta, an Egyptian suspected of leading the Sept. 11 hijackers. ``I am the h... - INS Misses Mark in Nationwide Arrests (December 24, 2002)
...rity. For example, Egyptians, the nationality of lead Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta, are not required to report to INS offices. Citizens of Kuwait, where U.S.... - Sept. 11 Commission Finds US Security Gaps (January 26, 2003)
... The report also found that at least six hijackers, including ringleader Mohamed Atta, violated U.S. immigration laws either while in the United States or while... - Qaeda Uses Teeming Karachi as New Base, Pakistanis Say (November 1, 2002)
...g with his laptops." Mr. bin al-Shibh said in the interview that he and Mohamed Atta, the leader of the Sept. 11 hijackers, had used an elaborate code to remai... - Bush Continues the 'Big Lie' in the Face of Mountains of Contrary Evidence (June 22, 2004)
...y on 9/11.” Also, he keeps dredging up the now discredited allegation that Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the 9/11 plot, met with an Iraqi intelligence official... - America Rattles Saddam's Cage, Hoping He Will Lash Out (July 13, 2002)
...cks, the CIA and the Pentagon seemed if anything to play down reports that Mohamed Atta, the hijackers' ringleader, met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague ea... - Britain arrests suspected Al Qaeda leader (October 25, 2002)
...cassettes with Qatada's religious teachings in the last known apartment of Mohamed Atta, a leader of the 19 hijackers. Qatada was granted asylum in Britain in... - Report: Iraq, Al Qaeda Run Extremist Group In Kurdish Territory (March 18, 2002)
...tes of the supposed Hussein-bin Laden axis cite a supposed meeting between Mohamed Atta, a leader of the Sept. 11 hijackers, and an Iraqi agent in the Czech Repub... - Terror Ties Refuted in German Arrests (September 7, 2002)
...an reportedly admitted sharing an apartment in 1994 with Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta, Spiegel reported. ... - War's Newest Target, Kids (February 7, 2002)
...d smoking a joint at a party is the moral equivalent of Osama bin Laden or Mohammed Atta. In the single largest ad buy the federal government has ever made, the... - German Judge Frees Qaeda Suspect, Citing US Secrecy (December 12, 2003)
...who said only four members of the Hamburg cell — the three suicide pilots, Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad al-Jarrah, and an associate, Mr. bin al-Shibh —... - Va. Student Held for Months in Saudi Prison (November 22, 2003)
... an al Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia and that he aspired to be a planner like Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers. Abu Ali's family and... - Investigation of the claim that Atta also blew up a bus in Israel, snopes.com
- Six Degrees of Mohamed Atta (Subscription required)
- Social Network Map of Mohamed Atta and 9-11 hijackers
- Prague Discounts an Iraqi Meeting, The New York Times, October 21, 2002 (requires login to read online)
Mohammed Atta
(Redirected from Mohamed Atta)
Mohammed Atta (September 1, 1968 - September 11, 2001) (also Mohamed, Mohammad), was one of five men identified by the U.S. Justice Department as hijackers of the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center in the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks. He is now believed to have been the leader of the attacks.
Atta was born 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 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.
Initially, Mohammed 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 US 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 invalidated his extradition and set him free; his whereabouts are unknown. He is 14 years older than Mohammed Atta. After the September 11 attacks, a general furor arose over the supposed failure of immigration authorities and the US intelligence community to stop a known terrorist from entering the country under his true name. Eventually, the Boston Globe factually reported details from records at the US Circuit Court of Appeals detailing the detention and subsequent extradition of Mahmoud Mahmoud Atta from the US.
In Germany, the real Mohammed 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 Process and the Gulf War. MSNBC in its special "The Making of the Death Pilots" interviewed German friend Ralph Lodenstien who traveled, worked and talked a lot with Mohammed Atta. Ralph said, "He (Atta) was most imbued actually about Israeli politics in the region and about US protection of these Israeli politics in the region. And he was to a degree personally suffering from that."
While in Germany, Mohammed Atta became more and more religious, especially after a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1995, started attending an Islamic prayer group in 1999 at the university and is thought to have recruited for fundamentalist causes there. In late 1999, he reported his passport stolen, possibly to erase travel visas to Afghanistan. In July 2000, Atta enrolled at Huffman Aviation International in Venice, Florida. He was always accompanied by Marwan Alshehhi, a hijacker of United Airlines flight 175; Atta claimed to be of royal Saudi descent and presented Alshehhi as his bodyguard. In December, he went to the Miami area to practice on a Boeing 727 simulator. He returned to Germany and left again in May 2001, first travelling to Spain and then on to Florida.
US investigators claim 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, Osama bin Laden's terror organization.
In the week before the attack, he was seen drinking and playing video games in a Florida sports bar. (Note: Many people question this element of the biography of Atta since it is highly unlikely that a devout, religiously extreme man would violate fundamental rules of his religion as he prepared himself for "martyrdom.") Atta spent the day before the attack with another hijacker, Abdulaziz Alomari, in South Portland and Scarborough, Maine. In the morning of September 11, they drove to the Portland International Jetport (PWM), flew to Logan International Airport in Boston and boarded American Airlines flight 11.
Because the flight from Portland to Boston had been delayed, his bags did not make it onto Flight 11. When later found by US 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 tranquillity, 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 Alomari.
It is believed that Atta was a ringleader of the terrorist attacks, and probably piloted the plane. In a video released by the US government, Osama bin Laden points to Atta as the leader of the attacks (see videos of bin Laden). Atta's father, a retired lawyer in Egypt, characterized this accusation in an interview as ridiculous, calling his son gentle and shy.
External Links and References