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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[tall_tex]

The cropduster angle still leads me to believe that the Anthrax attacks, later that month, had a connection to Atta.

An interesting thread was posted on FR 8/5/05. Title is Follow up: Anthrax Investigation.

Maybe some could post a link, as I am link posting challenged.

[longshadow]

Have you considered the story, retold by Mark Steyn in a column about a month ago, regarding a Dept. of Agriculture employee in Florida who claims to have had two meetings with Atta BEFORE the FBI thinks he was in the country, in regards to the timeline? It places Atta in the US much earlier that is officially acknowledged, and is backed up by testimony from others who saw him in the same time frame.

here's a link:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1449856/posts

While her claims have heretofore been widely dismissed, it seems prudent, in view of the Able Danger info, to reconsider he claim "... she met Atta,Mohammad 'between the end of April, around the third week of April to the third week of May of 2000.'"

Source: http://911review.org/Sept11Wiki/Bryant,Johnelle.shtml

If nothing else, this claim is consistent with the idea that Atta was using more than one identity, which is consistent with the claims about him sneaking off to the Prague meeting without US officials being able to trace it.

[Yaelle]

Yes. The only evidence that remains "an alibi" for Atta to NOT have been in Prague is that his cell phone was used in FL. But he was apartment hunting with that al-Shehhi guy, and certainly that one could have used Atta's phone.

Another thing: while it's true that a young Arab man in his 20s might resemble another, in this case I would tend to believe the Czech eyewitness, because Atta's face was rather unique.

[doug from upland]

We've been discussing it on this thread

[Yaelle]

Atta visited a pharmacist in FL with something on his body (hand?) that resembled cutaneous anthrax. And very soon after 9/11 came the mailed anthrax. They may have had an anthrax supply and were wondering how to best spread it.

[doug from upland]

Who was the guy arrested, possibly in Belgium, for making fake passports? He apparently made one for Atta.

[popdonnelly]

I think someone pointed out that in 2001, Atta's American cellphone would not have worked in Europe. I think this is true, at least not without some kind of special service.

[Yaelle]

Here is a still from that meeting.

Here is al-Ani photographing the Radio Free Europe headquarters.

[Sacajaweau]

I don't have any doubt that the anthrax was connected to 9-11. A lot of time went into making the envelopes not traceable and the grade of Anthrax was exquisite.

So Atta inquired about crop dusters?? and we should just throw that away as "disconnected" because?? Absurd!!

[M Kehoe]

Thanks. You do good work.

What happened to the video (1-2 minutes in length)?

5.56mm

[SerpentDove]

They forgot the last part of September 11: "Wakes up in Hell."

[doug from upland]

SADDAM OSAMA CONNECTION

[Yaelle]

Can't find the Belgian passport maker. Maybe someone else can get a link.

[doug from upland]

I just read it a few days ago and put it in a post, but I can't find it now.

[CyberAnt]

Did you know that backhoe has been compiling his usual excellant listing of threads ..??

[doug from upland]

Yes. Thanks for the heads up so everyone will know.

[elbucko]

"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.

No it wasn't, but apparently it's beyond the capabilities of the FBI to contemplate these tactics or the FBI is lying. Either way, it's not good for the Republic.

[TomGuy]

from Center for Cooperative Research

Mohamad Atta timeline:

August 1, 2001: Atta, Alshehhi, and Moussaoui Possibly Meet in Oklahoma City Motel

A motel owner in Oklahoma City later claims that Zacarias Moussaoui and hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi all come to his motel on this day. Although the FBI has investigated this lead, they have not commented on it, and prosecutors have not attempted to use the incident as evidence in their case against Moussaoui. It is widely admitted that the case against Moussaoui is not strong (for instance, Newsweek states: “there's nothing that shows Moussaoui ever had contact with any of the 9/11 hijackers” [Newsweek, 8/5/02] ). The LA Weekly speculates the FBI may want to ignore this lead because it “could force the FBI to reopen its investigation of Middle Eastern connections to the 1995 Oklahoma City blast, because convicted bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols reportedly stayed at the same motel, interacting with a group of Iraqis during the weeks before the bombing.” [La Weekly, 8/2/02 (B)]

[doug from upland]

You will be hearing more. JAYNA DAVIS WILL NOT BE SILENCED. We are going to have a post for you here from her on Monday. Count on it --- the Iraqi connection in the OKC bombing is going to be exposed.

THE THIRD TERRORIST

[fhayek]

I seem to recall that the officals at the National Archives knew what Berger took, and that there were backup copies of the documents that he desroyed (by his own admission). Does anyone else have similar recollections?