Shehhi just wanted to pick up Atta's international driver's license and some
money.This story is not credible.Atta already had the license with him and pre-
sented it during a traffic stop on April 26 while Shehhi was still abroad. Sheh-
hi spent about two weeks in Egypt, obviously more time than would have been
needed just to meet with Atta's father. Shehhi could have traveled elsewhere
during this time, but no records indicating additional travel have been discov-
ered.
office in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, to get Florida driver's licenses. Back in Vir-
ginia, Hazmi and Hanjour were about to leave for Connecticut and New Jer-
sey.As the summer approached, the lead operatives were settled in Florida and
New Jersey, waiting for the rest of their contingent to join them.
leaders in Afghanistan started selecting the muscle hijackers--the operatives
who would storm the cockpits and control the passengers. Despite the phrase
widely used to describe them, the so-called muscle hijackers were not at all
physically imposing; most were between 5' 5" and 5' 7" in height.
Twelve of the 13 muscle hijackers (excluding Nawaf al Hazmi and Mihdhar)
came from Saudi Arabia: Satam al Suqami, Wail al Shehri, Waleed al Shehri,
Abdul Aziz al Omari, Ahmed al Ghamdi, Hamza al Ghamdi, Mohand al
Shehri, Majed Moqed, Salem al Hazmi, Saeed al Ghamdi,Ahmad al Haznawi,
and Ahmed al Nami. The remaining recruit, Fayez Banihammad, came from
the UAE. He appears to have played a unique role among the muscle hijack-
ers because of his work with one of the plot's financial facilitators, Mustafa al
Hawsawi.
and societal backgrounds. All were between 20 and 28 years old; most were
unemployed with no more than a high school education and were unmarried.
region, an isolated and underdeveloped area of Saudi Arabia, and shared the
same tribal affiliation. None had a university degree.Their travel patterns and
information from family members suggest that the four may have been in con-
tact with each other as early as the fall of 1999.