TIMELINE (Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta)

ABC DOT NET DOT AU ^ | 8-2005

[doug from upland]

http://www.abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/printfriendly.pl?/4corners/atta/maps/timeline.htm

ABC's Four Corners

Timeline

[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/maps/timeline.htm]

Broadcast Monday, 12 November 2001

Timeline

The early years
1968	Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta is born (he gives his birthdate as September 1), in Kafr el Sheikh, a city on the Nile delta in Egypt to a middle class, educated family. His father is a lawyer and he hastwo sisters (also educated, one is now a professor and the other is a doctor).The family moves to Abdeen in Cairo where Atta grows up and attends the Mustafa Kamal Middle School. Those who knew him as a young boy describe him as calm, quiet and shy with few friends. His father, Mohammed El Amir says "in his behaviour, my son was almost like an angel".
1985–90	Atta studies architecture in the Engineering Faculty at Cairo University. According to his peers, he is an average student. In 1990, Atta joins the Engineers Syndicate, which is one of three professional associations controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, although he later says that he was not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
1992	Atta obtains a visa to study in Hamburg at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg (TUHH). He enrols in a degree in urban planning in the faculty of engineering. Two months after his arrival, Atta secures a part-time job at Plankontor, an urban planning consultancy in Ottensen, Hamburg.
1993	Atta befriends Volker Hauth.
1994	Ralph Bodenstein joins Mohamed Atta and Volker Hauth in a project sponsored by the German government, writing a report on the renovation work being undertaken by the Egyptian government on the old city gates. The subsequent report is deemed excellent. The same year, Atta goes on a student trip to Istanbul. Atta and Volker Hauth go to Aleppo, Syria on a field trip for several weeks to research what would become his thesis, the conflict between Islam and modernity as reflected in the planning of historical cities. Atta takes six months off from Plankontor to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, sending them a postcard from the holy city.
December 1994	Mohamed Atta returns to Syria and makes contact with members in the committee of the project to revive old Aleppo.
August 1995	Atta grows a distinctive beard shortly before he takes a three-month trip to Egypt with Volker Hauth and Ralph Bodenstein in order to conduct research for their project.
11 April 1996	Atta writes his last will and testament, which is witnessed by two Arab men who attend Friday prayers with Atta at the mosque.
1997	Atta leaves Plankontor and drops out of university for 15 months. From mid-1997 to October 1998, Atta seems to disappear from Hamburg, telling his thesis advisor that he was gone for family reasons. Investigators speculate that this is when Atta went to Afghanistan for training with Al Qaeda.
1998	Atta returns to the university with a "carefully shaved beard". He shares an apartment at 54 Marienstrasse with Marwan Al-Shehhi (believed to have piloted the second plane to crash into the World Trade Centre) and Ziad Jarrah (one of the men on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania). Neighbours note frequent visitors, many shoes by the door, and prayers being recited loudly in Arabic. Al-Shehhi is a language student at the university, but rarely attends classes. Jarrah studies aeronautical engineering. During this time Atta abandons his Western style of dress.
1999
January	University officials give Atta permission to create an Islamic student group.
June	Atta starts going through his thesis with his professor's assistant, Chrilla Wendt, who says he had now developed a thick bushy beard. He presents his thesis and avoids shaking the hand of his female assessor.
Late 1999	A German news item says that Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah report their passports had been stolen. The German Interior Ministry says this may have been a plan to clear any record of travel to Afghanistan.
2000
May 18	CNN reports that Atta uses his new passport in Berlin to obtain a tourist visa for the United States.
June 2	According to Czech officials, Mohamed Atta arrives in Prague by bus and stays there for 24 hours.
June 3	Atta arrives in Newark, New Jersey aboard a Czech Airlines flight from Prague with a six month tourist visa for the US. He has shaved off his beard, has begun to wear western style clothing again and appears to have a large amount of money at his disposal.
June–July	Atta and several other men tour the Airman flight school in Norman, Oklahoma.
July–December 21	Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi enrol in flying lessons in Venice, Florida at Huffman Aviation, saying that they are cousins who want to be commercial pilots in the United Arab Emirates. They pay some US $40 000 for about 300 hours of flying time.
December 21	Atta and Al-Shehhi get their pilot licenses. Around this time, Atta and other hijackers purchase global-positioning devices known as GPS-3s from Tropic-Aero, an aviation-supply shop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
December 27	Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi abandon their broken-down small private plane on a taxiway at Miami International Airport.
December 29–30	Atta and Al-Shehhi train for three hours each at a cost of $1500, on the Boeing 727 simulator belonging to Simcenter Inc. at Opa-Locka Airport outside Miami. Each spends about 90 minutes per day on the simulator which has controls similar to a 767 See a simulator similar to the one used by Atta (Requires RealPlayer.)
2001
January 4	Airline records show that Atta flies into Madrid from Miami.
January 10	Atta returns to the USA even though his visa has expired. He is detained briefly at the airport but is cleared into the country as a tourist.
February	Atta and Al-Shehhi rent a single-engine Piper Warrior from a Gwinnett County, Georgia flight school.
February–March	Atta and several other men inquire at South Florida Crop Care about crop-dusting planes.
April	Czech Interior Minister, Stanislav Gross says a meeting between Atta and Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani, an Iraqi intelligence agent took place in Prague, several weeks before Al-Ani was expelled from the country April 22, 2001, for conduct incompatible with his diplomatic status. There are reports that this was possibly the third or fourth meeting between Atta and Al-Ani.
April 26	Atta is stopped in Broward County, Florida, for a traffic violation and is given a citation for driving without a license.
May 2	Atta gets a Florida drivers license
May 13–June 13	Atta and Al-Shehhi live in Jackson Street, Hollywood, Florida.
mid-June	Atta and Al-Shehhi move into a Tara Gardens condo in Coral Springs.
June 29–July 1	Atta travels to Las Vegas, Nevada and stays at the Econo Lodge. Investigators say that Atta met with two other hijackers, Salem Alhazmi and Hani Hanjour during this trip and that both Marwan Al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah were also in Las Vegas. Four of these five men were on separate flights on September 11, leading investigators to believe that the meetings in Vegas took place in order to finalise the details of the attack.
June 4	A warrant is issued for Atta's arrest due to his no-show at his hearing for his traffic offence.
June 27	Atta flies from Fort Lauderdale to Boston.
July 1	Atta flies from Boston to NY.
July 3	Atta flies from Newark to Fort Lauderdale
July 7	Spanish Police say that according to airline records, Atta flies into Madrid, where he rents a car and then checks into a seaside hotel about 375 miles away, near Barcelona. He visits Spain extensively, logging more than 1200 miles in a rented car, and intelligence officials believe there were meetings with suspected members of bin Laden's network (who were recently arrested in Spain on charges unrelated to September 11). Hotel records confirm that Atta spends his last night at the Monstsant Hostal in Salou, where he pays with visa and registers under his own name. There are also reports that Atta went to a prison in southern Spain, where he asked to visit an Algerian being held on murder charges. the Guardian reports that this trip included a brief visit to Switzerland.
July 19	Atta departs Madrid and enters the US for the last time.
August	Atta and several other men ask about crop-dusting planes at an airstrip in Belle Glade, Florida. They want to know how much fuel and chemicals the planes can carry and whether special skills are needed to pilot them. They also approach South Florida Crop Care again, where Atta leaves an impression of being "real persistent".
August 6–13	Atta and Al-Shehhi rent a white Ford Escort from Warrick's Rent-a-Car, Pompano Beach Read the rental car documents.
August 13–14	Mohammed Atta goes to Las Vegas and stays in the Econo Lodge. Both Hani Hanjour and Nawaf Alhazami are also in Las Vegas at this time.
August 14	Atta flies from Las Vegas to Houston.
August 15–19	Atta and Al-Shehhi rent a blue Chevy Corsica from Warrick's Rent-A-Car, in Pompano Beach, Florida, and return it with almost 3,000 miles logged Read the rental car documents.
August 16–19	Atta rents a single engine, four seater Piper Archer from the Palm Beach County Airport at Lantana for three consecutive days of flying.
August 23	Atta's drivers license is suspended indefinitely when he fails to appear in traffic court.
August 28	Atta flies from Baltimore to Fort Lauderdale. He buys two tickets for American Airlines Flight 11 on the Internet, for himself and Al-Omari.
September 4	Security cameras capture a white Mitsubishi sedan casing a parking lot at Logan International Airport in Boston several times within the space of a few days.
September 7	Atta goes to Shuckum's Oyster Bar and Grill in Hollywood, Florida with Marwan Al-Shehhi. According to bar staff, Atta spends almost 4 hours at the pinball machine drinking cranberry juice, while Al-Shehhi drinks alcohol with an unidentified male companion.
September 10	Atta and another alleged hijacker, Abdul Aziz Al-Omari, check into the Comfort Inn in South Portland, Maine. They are caught on security cameras visiting a gas station, two ATMs and shopping at a Wal-Mart in Scarborough.
September 11	The last picture of Atta is taken around 5:45am at the airport in Portland, Maine, as he passes through security before boarding a flight to Boston. At 7:59am, American Airlines Flight 11 departs Boston for Los Angeles, with Atta and Al-Omari on board. At 8:45am the plane strikes the northern tower of the World Trade Centre.
Sources: CNN www.cnn.com Time Magazine www.time.com/time/ The Guardian Unlimited www.guardian.co.uk Associated Press www.ap.org/ Sun-Sentinel News www.sun-sentinel.com/ Miami Herald www.miami.com/herald/ New York Times www.nytimes.com/ FBI www.fbi.gov

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[doug from upland]

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT

In Washington, the FBI moved to quiet the Prague connection by telling journalists that it had car rentals and records that put Atta in Virginia Beach, Va., and Florida close to, if not during, the period when he was supposed to be in Prague. The New York Times, citing information provided by "federal law enforcement officials," reported that Atta was in Virginia Beach on April 2, 2001, and by April 11, "Atta was back in Florida, renting a car." Newsweek reported that, "the FBI pointed out Atta was traveling at the time [in early April 2001] between Florida and Virginia Beach, Va.," adding, "The bureau had his rental car and hotel receipts." And intelligence expert James Bamford, after quoting FBI Director Robert Mueller as saying that the FBI "ran down literally hundreds of thousands of leads and checked every record we could get our hands on," reported in USA Today, "The records revealed that Atta was in Virginia Beach during the time he supposedly met the Iraqi in Prague."

All these reports attributed to the FBI were, as it turns out, erroneous. There were no car rental records in Virginia, Florida, or anywhere else in April 2001 for Mohamed Atta, since he had not yet obtained his Florida license. His international license was at his father's home in Cairo, Egypt (where his roommate Marwan al-Shehhi picked it up in late April). Nor were there other records in the hands of the FBI that put Atta in the United States at the time. Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet testified to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in June 2002, "It is possible that Atta traveled under an unknown alias" to "meet with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague." Clearly, it was not beyond the capabilities of the 9/11 hijackers to use aliases.

[M Kehoe]

Let's use this thread as a reference point to discuss the Prague connection.

I wonder what happened to the video of Atta meeting al-Ani [Iraqi intel for those of you in Palm Beach] at the Prague airport? I saw it twice, and can't recall where now.

5.56mm

[Ann Archy]

Man, how do we have so much info on Atta, even knowing he took a BUS in Germany??? Was this info contemporaneous or after 9-11??

[TVenn]

"in the Carl-Duisburg Society."

I think it is spelled wrong above.Here's more information about CDS.

http://www.cdsintl.org/

[fantom]

is to good. this site is smokin ! now we know there must be more. all the info on atta is dated 1or 2 day's after the attack. this is more than hearsay. these are places and timelines. someone built this intel profile some time ago. by the way what is the commisions position on all this today? ha.

[openotherend]

If Able Danger supports Czech intelligence, which at the moment remains just speculation, it will prove tremendously explosive.

That's a big "if" but it will be the key. Thanks for your hard work. I'm not so confused now.

[popdonnelly]

June 3
Atta arrives in Newark, New Jersey aboard a Czech Airlines flight from Prague with a six month tourist visa for the US. He has shaved off his beard, has begun to wear western style clothing again and appears to have a large amount of money at his disposal.

Where did he get the money from?

[TVenn]

"1994—ATTA applies for a fellowship in development policy with the Carl-Duisburg Society, an organization dedicated to development issues. ATTA will attend many seminars within Germany for the next several years, owing to this fellowship."

http://www.cdsintl.org/about/index.htm

Our History

In the 1920's, Carl Duisberg, General Director of Bayer AG in Germany, envisioned sending German students to the United States on work-study programs. Duisberg was convinced that international practical training was critical to the growth of German industry. Many of the returning trainees later rose to prominent positions at AEG, Bayer, Bosch, Daimler Benz, and Siemens, bringing with them new methods for mass production, new ideas, and new business practices.

Following World War II, alumni from the first exchanges founded the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft (CDG) in 1949 to help engineers, businessmen and farmers gain international work experience necessary for the rebuilding of Germany. In 1968, the Carl Duisberg Society was founded in New York City as a nonprofit organization to develop more opportunities for Americans to gain international practical training. Our name was changed to CDS International in 1987 to reflect the increasingly international nature of our programs. In addition to our programs with the CDG in Germany, CDS International administers programs with foreign partners and participants in over 50 countries worldwide.

Our Mission

CDS International, Inc. is committed to the advancement of international career training opportunities customized to provide individuals with in-depth practical knowledge of other nations' business practices, cultures, and political traditions. These experiences help strengthen global cooperation and understanding amongst individuals, businesses, organizations and communities.

Our Vision

We believe individuals need to be given opportunities to enhance their professional abilities cross-culturally in order to obtain and maintain the job skills necessary for successful careers in today's global economy. In providing international training opportunities, we contribute to social and economic stability and prosperity in the United States and in those countries where we send and receive participants. We believe international exchange strengthens cooperation between different cultures and nations, reduces conflicts and contributes to better solutions to issues confronting today's societies.

[openotherend]

Atta and several other men ask about crop-dusting planes at an airstrip in Belle Glade, Florida. They want to know how much fuel and chemicals the planes can carry and whether special skills are needed to pilot them. They also approach South Florida Crop Care again, where Atta leaves an impression of being "real persistent".

This just doesn't seem to fit into the scheme of flying airliners into buildings. Were they going to fly crop dusters into buildings but nixed that plan because they couldn't get the crop dusters?

[Sacajaweau]

The following is a quote from the

Report of the Joint Inquiry into the Terrorists Attacks of September 11, 2001-By the House Permanent Select Committee of Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence" dated December 2002.

"Claiming that his passport had been lost, Atta obtained a new Egyptian passport in Hamburg in May 2000. He flew to Newark in June 2000. al-Shehhi had arrived several days earlier". "

Atta and al-Shehhi stayed in the New York area, renting apartments together until the beginning of July...." Then they went to Florida.

The apartments renting bit raises a question. Surely, motel rooms would be cheaper and easier to find for such a short term???

[TVenn]

"Where did he get the money from?"

Acccording to Atta's biography the only place he ever worked was CDS International.He stopped working for CDS in 1998.

I don't think he made enough there to fund his travel.It must have come from al-Qaeda.

[popdonnelly]

I think everyone began to scour their records after 9/11, to see where these guys showed up.

[petitfour]

Interesting timeline. On August 14, Atta went from Vegas to Houston. I wonder what airline he took and if the flight went through Denver. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. On August 14, 2001, President Bush was in Colorado. I can't tell from news reports whether he spent the night there. I imagine he did, but I'm not positive. The next day he was in Albuquerque for the first day of school. I was disappointed that he didn't show up at the school our children attended so the date sticks out in my mind.

[Sacajaweau]

To clear the record of Afghanistan. How about, to clear the record of ANYWHERE they had been.

Now, they're all clean shaven, wearing western clothes, match their new passports, and there's no trace of where they had been....except by corroboration.

[popdonnelly]

He made two trips to Prague before flying on to Newark. What I'm driving at is that the money may have come from someone employed in the Iraqi Embassy in Prague.

[TVenn]

"What I'm driving at is that the money may have come from someone employed in the Iraqi Embassy in Prague."

Good point.

[fantom]

we are getting warmer.

[popdonnelly]

Atta had to have had some kind of business in Prague. He could have flown straight from Germany to New York. I don't think he went there because he liked the city.

[longshadow]

The apartments renting bit raises a question. Surely, motel rooms would be cheaper and easier to find for such a short term???

A speculative answer: motels rooms come with intrusive maids with pass-keys; apartments do not. Also, most motels require a credit card to register, even if you want to pay in cash (so they can bill your CC if you trash the room and split.) Apartment managers are more likely happy to take cash, along with a deposit.

[Yaelle]

Fascinating. I am sure Slate's article meant to portray the administration in a bad light, but in reality, the stops and checks on the FBI and other American agencies were put in place some time before 2001...

I would bet a lot of dinars that Saddam knew of the plot before the planes hit. In fact, he may have provided those dinars.