refused to refund the deposit, Mihdhar became belligerent. The landlord
remembers him "ranting and raving" as if he were "psychotic."
the future hijackers moved in on May 10, 2000. Mihdhar moved out after only
about a month. On June 9, he left San Diego to return to Yemen. Hazmi, on
the other hand, stayed at this house for the rest of his time in California, until
mid-December; he would then leave for Arizona with a newly arrived 9/11
hijacker-pilot, Hani Hanjour.
munity for help.At least initially, they found well-meaning new acquaintances
at the Islamic Center of San Diego, which was only a stone's throw from the
apartment where they first lived. For example, when they purchased a used car
(with cash), they bought it from a man who lived across the street from the
Islamic Center and who let them use his address in registering the vehicle, an
accommodation "to help a fellow Muslim brother." Similarly, in April, when
their cash supply may have been dwindling, Hazmi persuaded the administra-
tor of the Islamic Center to let him use the administrator's bank account to
receive a $5,000 wire transfer from someone in Dubai, in the United Arab Emi-
rates (this was KSM's nephew, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali).
Mohdar Abdullah helped them. Translating between English and Arabic, he
assisted them in obtaining California driver's licenses and with applying to lan-
guage and flight schools.Abdullah also introduced them to his circle of friends;
he shared an apartment with some of those friends near the Rabat mosque in
La Mesa, a few miles from the hijackers' residence.
charges), he was deported to Yemen on May 21, 2004, after the U.S. Attorney
for the Southern District of California declined to prosecute him on charges
arising out of his alleged jailhouse admissions concerning the 9/11 operatives.
The Department of Justice declined to delay his removal pending further inves-
tigation of this new information.
acquainted with known extremists. For example, immediately after 9/11,
Osama Awadallah, a Yemeni whose telephone number was found in Hazmi's
Toyota at Washington Dulles International Airport, was found to possess pho-
tos, videos, and articles relating to Bin Ladin.Awadallah also had lived in a house
where copies of Bin Ladin's fatwas and other similar materials were distributed