Editing Mohamed Atta

{{Short description|Egyptian terrorist and 9/11 hijacker (1968–2001)}}
{{Distinguish|Mohammad Hatta|Mohammed Atef|Mahmoud Mahmoud Atta}}
{{Pp-vandalism|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2023}}
<!--Do NOT add citations to the lead, except for material likely to be challenged, per [[MOS:LEADCITE]] ([[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lead section#Citations)]]. Move unneeded citations to the body.-->
{{Infobox criminal
| name              = Mohamed Atta
| native_name       = {{Lang|ar|محمد عطا}}
| native_name_lang  = ar
| image             = Mohamed Atta.jpg
| caption           = Atta in May 2001
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1968|09|01|df=yes}}
| alma_mater        = [[Cairo University]]<br />[[Hamburg University of Technology]]
| birth_name        = Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta
| birth_place       = [[Kafr El Sheikh]], [[Egypt]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=yes|2001|9|11|1968|9|1}}
| death_place       = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.
| death_cause       = [[Suicide attack|Suicide]] by [[American Airlines Flight 11|plane crash]] during the [[September 11 attacks]]
| known_for         = Ringleader of the [[September 11 attacks|9/11 attacks]] as the [[Aircraft hijacking|hijacker]]-[[Aircraft pilot|pilot]] of [[American Airlines Flight 11]]
| partners          = [[Abdulaziz al-Omari]], [[Wail al-Shehri]], [[Waleed al-Shehri]], and [[Satam al-Suqami]]
| allegiance        = [[al-Qaeda]]
| motive            = [[Motives for the September 11 attacks]]
| fatalities        = ~1,692 (including the 92 victims of AA 11)
| injuries          = 6,000–25,000
| country           = [[United States]]
| states            = [[New York (state)|New York]]
| weapons           = [[Boeing 767-200ER|Boeing 767-223ER]]
| organization      = [[al-Qaeda]]<br>[[Hamburg cell]] (1990s–2001)
| height            = {{convert|5|ft|7|in|m|abbr=on|order=flip}} or {{convert|5|ft|8|in|m|abbr=on|order=flip}}{{efn|In his Florida drivers license, Mohamed Atta is listed as 5 ft 8 in, but in his Temporary Airman Certificate from the FAA, he is listed as 5 ft 7 in, because these are the only two sources for his height, and they both contradict each other, it is unknown exactly how tall he was.}}
| targets           = [[1 World Trade Center (1971-2001)|1 World Trade Center]]
| time              = 08:46 A.M. ([[Eastern Time Zone|EDT]])
}}

'''Mohamed Atta'''{{efn|[[Arabic name|Full name]]: {{lang|ar-Latn|Muḥamad Muḥamad el-Āmir Awad el-Sāyyed Atta}}, {{langx|ar|محمد محمد الأمير عوض السيد عطا}}}} (1 September 1968{{snd}}11 September 2001) was an Egyptian terrorist hijacker for [[al-Qaeda]]. Ideologically a [[Pan-Islamism|pan-Islamist]], he was the ringleader of the [[September 11 attacks]] and served as the [[Aircraft hijacking|hijacker-pilot]] of [[American Airlines Flight 11]], which he crashed into the North Tower of the original [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] as part of the coordinated [[suicide attack]]s. Aged 33, he was the oldest of the [[Hijackers in the September 11 attacks#Hijackers|19 hijackers]] who took part in the mission. Before the attacks, he worked as a [[Construction engineering|construction engineer]].

Born and raised in Egypt, Atta studied architecture at [[Cairo University]], graduating in 1990, and pursued postgraduate studies in Germany at the [[Hamburg University of Technology]]. In Hamburg, Atta became involved with the [[al-Quds Mosque]] where he met [[Marwan al-Shehhi]], [[Ramzi bin al-Shibh]], and [[Ziad Jarrah]], together forming the [[Hamburg cell]]. Atta disappeared from Germany for periods of time, embarking on the [[hajj]] in 1995 but also meeting [[Osama bin Laden]] and other top [[al-Qaeda]] leaders in [[Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996-2001)|Afghanistan]] from late 1999 to early 2000. Atta and the other Hamburg cell members were recruited by bin Laden and [[Khalid Sheikh Mohammed]] for a "planes operation" in the United States.

Atta returned to Hamburg in February 2000 and began inquiring about flight training in the United States, where he, Jarrah, and al-Shehhi arrived in June to learn how to pilot planes, obtaining [[instrument rating]]s in November. Beginning in May 2001, Atta assisted with the arrival of the "muscle" hijackers whose role was to subdue passengers and crew to enable the hijacker-pilots to take over. In July, Atta traveled to Spain to meet with bin al-Shibh to finalize the plot, then in August traveled as a passenger on [[dry run (terrorism)|"surveillance"]] flights to establish in detail how the attacks could be carried out.

On the morning of 11 September 2001, Atta and his team boarded and hijacked [[American Airlines Flight 11]], which Atta crashed into 1 World Trade Center (the North Tower). More than 1,600 people died as a result of the crash, ensuing fire, and subsequent collapse of the tower, making him responsible for the [[List of deadliest aircraft accidents and incidents|single deadliest air crash of all time]], as well as the single deadliest terrorist attack of all time.

== Aliases ==
{{main article|Arabic name}}
Mohamed Atta had varied his name on documents, also using "Mehan Atta", "Mohammad El Amir", "Muhammad Atta", "Mohamed El Sayed", "Mohamed Elsayed", "Muhammad al-Amir", "Awag Al Sayyid Atta", and "Awad Al Sayad".<ref>{{cite news |author=Cherry, Alan |title=The Trail of Terror |work=Sun-Sentinel |date=28 September 2001}}</ref> In Germany, he registered his name as "Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta", and went by the name Mohamed el-Amir at the [[Hamburg University of Technology]].<ref name="hooper">{{cite news |url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/waronterrorism/story/0,,556630,00.html |title=The shy, caring, deadly fanatic |date=23 September 2001 |author=Hooper, John |work=The Guardian |access-date=16 September 2008 |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080125070524/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/waronterrorism/story/0,,556630,00.html |archive-date=25 January 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> In his will, written in 1996, Atta gives his name as "Mohamed the son of Mohamed Elamir awad Elsayed".<ref name="will">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/network/personal/attawill.html |title=Mohamed Atta's Last Will and Testament |publisher=PBS Frontline |access-date=1 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080930214842/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/network/personal/attawill.html |archive-date=30 September 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> He was known as Abd al-Rahman al-Misri by al-Qaeda. Atta also claimed different nationalities, sometimes Egyptian and other times telling people he was from the [[United Arab Emirates]].<ref name="hooper"/>

== Early life ==
Mohamed Atta was born on 1 September 1968, in [[Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate|Kafr el-Sheikh]], located in the [[Nile Delta]] region of [[Egypt]] (then a part of the [[United Arab Republic]]).<ref>{{cite web |title=Personal Stories – Who Were They? § Mohamed Atta |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/network/personal/whowere.html |publisher=[[PBS]] |access-date=5 February 2023}}</ref> His father, Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta, was a lawyer, educated in both [[Civil law (legal system)|civil law]] and ''[[sharia]]''. His mother, Buthayna Mohamed Mustafa Shiraqi, came from a wealthy farming and trading family and was also educated. Buthayna and Mohamed married when she was 14, via an [[arranged marriage]]. The family had few relatives on the father's side and kept their distance from Buthayna's family. In-laws characterized Atta's father as "austere, strict, and private", and neighbors viewed the family as reclusive.{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|pp=9–11}} Atta was the only son; he had two older sisters who are both well-educated and successful in their careers – one as a medical doctor and the other as a professor.<ref name="cloud">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101011008-176917,00.html |title=Atta's Odyssey |magazine=Time |date=30 September 2001 |author=Cloud, John |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210050403/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101011008-176917,00.html |archive-date=10 December 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

When Atta was ten, his family moved to the [[Cairo]] neighborhood of Abdeen, situated near the city center. His father, who kept the family ever insulated, forbade young Atta to fraternize with the other children in their neighborhood. Having little else to do, he mostly studied at home and easily excelled in school.{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|pp=12–14}}<ref name="abc-20011112">{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/transcript.htm |title=Transcript: A Mission to Die For |publisher=Four Corners / ABC (Australia) |date=12 November 2001 |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917001606/http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/transcript.htm |archive-date=17 September 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1985, Atta enrolled at [[Cairo University]] and focused his studies on engineering. He was among the highest-scoring students; by his senior year, he was admitted to an exclusive architecture program. After he graduated in 1990 with an architecture degree,<ref name="newsweek">{{cite news |title=The Day That Changed America |work=Newsweek |date=31 December 2001}}</ref> he joined the Engineers Syndicate. He then worked for several months at the Urban Development Center in [[Cairo]], where he joined various building projects and dispatched diverse architectural tasks.<ref name="timeline">{{cite web |url=http://www.911myths.com/index.php/File:Hijackers_Timeline_OCR.pdf |title=Hijackers' Timeline |author=Federal Bureau of Investigation |publisher=9/11 Myths |date=4 February 2008 |access-date=1 August 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607150225/http://www.911myths.com/index.php/File:Hijackers_Timeline_OCR.pdf |archive-date=7 June 2011}}</ref> Also in 1990, Atta's family moved into the eleventh floor of an apartment building in the Egyptian city of [[Giza]].<ref name="newsweek"/><ref>{{cite news |title=In Egypt, some see war on terror as a war on Islam |author=Adams, Paul |work=Globe and Mail |location=Canada |date=4 September 2002 |url=http://www.ctv.ca/special/sept11/hubs/muslim/adams.html |access-date=19 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080314225345/http://www.ctv.ca/special/sept11/hubs/muslim/adams.html |archive-date=14 March 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Atta also got engaged to a woman lined up by his father and her family in Cairo, in late 1999, after coming back from Germany the same year. Although the marriage never happened, Atta's father said they liked each other.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jan-27-mn-25005-story.html|title = A Perfect Soldier| website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date = 27 January 2002}}</ref>

== Germany ==
[[File:Mohammed Atta Pekka Tanner TUHH.jpg|thumb|Mohamed Atta (left) as a student in Germany, May 1993]]
Atta graduated from Cairo University with marks insufficient for the graduate program. As his father insisted that he go abroad for [[Graduate school|graduate studies]], Atta, to this end, entered a German-language program at the [[Goethe-Institut]] in Cairo.{{Sfn|Fouda|Fielding|2003|p=78}} In 1992, his father overheard a German couple who were visiting Egypt's capital. The couple explained at dinner that they ran an exchange program and invited Atta to continue his studies in Germany; they also offered him room and board at their home in the city. Atta accepted and arrived in Germany two weeks later, in July.

In Germany, he enrolled in the [[urban planning]] graduate program at the [[Hamburg University of Technology]].<ref name="cloud" /> Atta initially lived with two high school teachers; however, they eventually found his closed-mindedness and introverted personality to be too much for them. Atta began adhering to the strictest [[Islamic dietary laws|Islamic diet]], frequenting the most conservative [[mosque]]s, socializing seldom, and acting disdainfully towards the couple's unmarried daughter who had a young child. After six months, they asked him to leave.<ref>{{cite news |title=9/11 haunts hijacker's sponsors; German couple talks of living with pilot Atta |work=Chicago Tribune |date=7 March 2003 |author=Swanson, Stevenson}}</ref><ref name="mcdermott-20020127">{{cite news |title= A Perfect Soldier; Mohamed Atta, whose hard gaze has stared from a billion television screens and newspaper pages, has become, for many, the face of evil incarnate |author=McDermott, Terry |work=Los Angeles Times |date=27 January 2002}}</ref>{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|pp=22–23}}

By early 1993, Atta had moved into university housing with two roommates, in Centrumshaus. He stayed there until 1998. During that period, his roommates grew annoyed with him. He seldom bathed, and they could not bear his "complete, almost aggressive insularity".{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|p=25}} He kept to himself to such an extent that he would often react to simple greetings with silence.

===Academic studies===
At the Hamburg University of Technology, Atta studied under the guidance of the department chair, Dittmar Machule, who specialized in the Middle East.{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|p=24}} Atta was averse to modern development. This included the construction of [[high-rise building]]s in Cairo and other ancient cities in the region. He believed that the drab and impersonal [[Tower block|apartment blocks]], built in the 60s and 70s, ruined the beauty of old neighborhoods and robbed their people of privacy and dignity. Atta's family moved into an apartment block in 1990; it was to him but "a shabby symbol of Egypt's haphazard attempts to modernize and its shameless embrace of the West."<ref name="newsweek" /> For his thesis, Atta concentrated on the ancient Syrian city of [[Aleppo]]. He researched the history of the urban landscape in relation to the general theme of conflict between Arab and modern civilization. He criticized how the newfangled skyscrapers and other modernizing projects disrupted the fabric of communities by blocking common streets and altering the [[skyline]].

Atta's professor, Dittmar Machule, brought him along on an archaeological expedition to Aleppo in 1994.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/interviews/machule.htm |title=Interview with Professor Dittmar Machule |publisher=ABC (Australia) |date=18 October 2001 |access-date=1 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618213410/http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/interviews/machule.htm |archive-date=18 June 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The invitation had been for a three-day visit, but Atta ended up staying several weeks that August, only to visit Aleppo yet again that December.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/maps/europe/default.htm |title=A Mission to Die For – Europe Map |publisher=ABC (Australia) |date=18 October 2001 |access-date=1 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080930145530/http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/maps/europe/default.htm |archive-date=30 September 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> While in Syria, he met Amal, a young [[Palestinian people|Palestinian]] woman who worked for a planning bureau in the city. Volker Hauth, who was traveling with Atta, described Amal as "attractive and self-confident. She observed Muslim customs, taking taxis to and from the office so as not to come into close physical contact with men on buses. But she was also said to be 'emancipated' and 'challenging'. Atta and Amal appeared to be attracted to each other, but Atta soon decided that "she had a quite different orientation and that the emancipation of the young lady did not fit." His nascent infatuation with her, begrudgingly realised, was the closest thing Atta knew to romance.<ref name="hooper"/>

In mid-1995, he stayed for three months in Cairo, on a grant from the Carl Duisberg Society, along with fellow students Volker Hauth and Ralph Bodenstein. The academic team inquired into the effects of redevelopment in the [[Islamic Cairo]], the old quarter, which the government undertook to remodel for [[Tourism in Egypt|tourism]]. Atta stayed in Cairo awhile with his family after Hauth and Bodenstein flew back to Germany.{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|pp=29–31}}{{Sfn|Corbin|2003|p=122}}

While in Hamburg, Atta held several positions, including a part-time job at the urban planning firm Plankontor beginning in 1992. He was let go from the firm in 1997, however, because its business had declined and "his draughtsmanship was not needed" after it bought a [[computer-aided design|CAD]] system.<ref name="hooper"/>{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|p=47}} Among other odd jobs to supplement his income, Atta sometimes worked at a cleaning company and sometimes bought and sold cars.<ref name="Washpost">{{cite news |title=A Fanatic's Quiet Path to Terror; Rage Was Born in Egypt, Nurtured in Germany, Inflicted on U.S. |newspaper=The Washington Post|date=22 September 2001 |author=Finn, Peter}}</ref> Atta had harbored a desire to return to his native city ever since he finished his studies in Hamburg, but he was prevented by the dearth of job prospects in Cairo, his family lacking the "right connections" to avail the customary [[nepotism]].<ref name="cbs-20030305">{{cite news |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-mastermind/ |title=The Mastermind |date=5 March 2003 |publisher=CBS News |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080930153018/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/09/60II/main524947.shtml |archive-date=30 September 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="prospect">{{cite news |url=http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=5362 |title=Portrait: Atta in Hamburg |work=Prospect |date=29 August 2002 |author=Lappin, Elena |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080930205629/http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=5362 |archive-date=30 September 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> Further, after the Egyptian government had imprisoned droves of [[Activism|political activists]], he knew better than to trust it not to target him too, with his social and political beliefs being such as they were.{{Sfn|Corbin|2003|p=123}}

===Religious zeal and Hamburg cell===
{{further|Hamburg cell}}
After coming to Hamburg in 1992, Atta grew more religiously fanatical and frequented the mosque with greater regularity.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/childhood-clues-to-what-makes-a-killer-748415.html |title=Childhood clues to what makes a killer |last=Buncombe |first=Andrew |work=The Independent |date=12 October 2001 |access-date=8 September 2010 |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100119084047/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/childhood-clues-to-what-makes-a-killer-748415.html |archive-date=19 January 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> His friends in Germany described him as an intelligent man in whom religious convictions and political motives held equal sway. He harbored anger and resentment toward the U.S. for its policy in Islamic nations of the Middle East, with nothing inflaming his ire more than the [[Oslo Accords]] and the [[Gulf War]] in particular.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/interviews/hauth.htm |title=Four Corners – Volker Hauth interview |publisher=ABC (Australia) |date=18 October 2001 |access-date=1 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618181916/http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/interviews/hauth.htm |archive-date=18 June 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/interviews/bodenstein.htm |title=Four Corners – Ralph Bodenstein interview |publisher=ABC (Australia) |date=18 October 2001 |access-date=1 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080617121230/http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/interviews/bodenstein.htm |archive-date=17 June 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> He was also angry and bitter at the elite in his native Egypt, who he believed hoarded power for themselves, as well as at the Egyptian government, that cracked down on the dissident [[Muslim Brotherhood]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/network/etc/script.html |title=Inside the Terror Network |work=Frontline |publisher=PBS |date=17 January 2002 |last=Loeterman |first=Ben |author2=Hedrick Smith |access-date=8 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110224023851/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/network/etc/script.html |archive-date=24 February 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> Atta was [[Antisemitism|anti-Semitic]], believing that [[Jews]] controlled the world's media, financial, and political institutions from [[New York City]].{{sfn|Wright|2006|p=Chapter 18 ("Boom")}} These beliefs were even stronger during [[Operation Infinite Reach]], as he believed that [[Monica Lewinsky]] was a Jewish agent influencing American president [[Bill Clinton]] against aiding Palestine, which would later play a key role in creating the Hamburg cell.{{sfn|Wright|2006}}

On 1 August 1995, Atta returned to Egypt for three months of study.{{Sfn|Fouda|Fielding|2003|p=82}} Before this trip he grew out a beard to show himself as a devout Muslim and also to make a political gesture.<ref name="Washpost"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/interviews/hauth.htm |title=Volker Hauth interview |date=18 October 2001 |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) |work=Four Corners |access-date=8 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100504181217/http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/interviews/hauth.htm |archive-date=4 May 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Atta returned to Hamburg on 31 October 1995,{{Sfn|Fouda|Fielding|2003|p=82}} only to join the pilgrimage to [[Mecca]] shortly thereafter.<ref name="Washpost"/>

In Hamburg, Atta was intensely drawn to [[al-Quds Mosque]] which adhered to a "harsh, uncompromisingly [[Islamic fundamentalism|fundamentalist]], and resoundingly militant" version of [[Sunni Islam]].{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|pp=2–3}} He made acquaintances at al-Quds, some of whom visited him on occasion at Centrumshaus. He also began teaching classes both at Al-Quds and at a Turkish mosque near the [[Harburg, Hamburg|Harburg]] district. Atta also started and led a prayer group, which Ahmed Maklat and [[Mounir El Motassadeq]] joined. [[Ramzi bin al-Shibh]] was also there, teaching occasional classes, and became Atta's friend.{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|pp=34–37}}

On 11 April 1996, Atta signed his [[Will (law)|last will and testament]]<!-- it was apparently a "standardized" will from Al-Quds, according to Lawrence Wright//--> at the mosque, officially declaring his Muslim beliefs and giving 18 instructions regarding his burial.<ref name="will"/>{{Sfn|Fouda|Fielding|2003|p=77}} This was the same day that [[Israel]], much to Atta's fury, attacked [[Lebanon]] in [[Operation Grapes of Wrath]]; signing the will "offering his life" was his response.{{sfn|Wright|2006|p=Chapter 18 ("Boom")}} The instructions in his last will and testament reflect both [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] funeral practices along with some more puritanical demands from [[Salafism]], including asking people not "to weep and cry" and to generally refrain from showing emotion. The will was signed by el-Motassadeq and a second person at the mosque.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://old.911digitalarchive.org/crr/documents/1017.pdf |title=Will Gives a Window into Suspect's Mind |author=Finn, Peter and Charles Lane |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] and 9/11 Digital Archive |date=6 October 2001 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080228003140/http://old.911digitalarchive.org/crr/documents/1017.pdf |archive-date=28 February 2008}}</ref>

After leaving Plankontor in the summer of 1997, Atta disappeared again and did not return until 1998. He had made no progress on his thesis. Atta phoned his graduate advisor, Machule, and mentioned family problems at home, saying, "Please understand, I don't want to talk about this."<ref>{{cite news |title=In hindsight, more suspicion called for; Hamburg was early hotbed for plotters |work=Chicago Tribune |date=21 September 2001 |author=Sly, Liz}}</ref>{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|p=Chapter 5}} At the winter break in 1997,<!-- clarify time, Dec 1997-1998? //--> Atta left and did not return to Hamburg for three months. He said that he went on pilgrimage to [[Mecca]] again, just 18 months after his first time. This claim has been disputed; American journalist [[Terry McDermott (journalist)|Terry McDermott]] has argued that it is unusual for someone to go on pilgrimage so soon after the first time and to spend three months there (more than [[Hajj]] requires). When Atta returned, he claimed that his passport was lost and applied for a new one, which is a common tactic to erase evidence of travel to places such as [[Afghanistan]].{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|p=57}} When he returned in spring 1998, after disappearing for several months, he had grown a thick long beard, and "seemed more serious and aloof" than before to those who knew him.<ref name="Washpost"/>
[[File:Marienstraße 54.JPG|thumb|upright|The apartment Atta, Bahaji, and bin al-Shibh shared from 1998 until 2001 in Marienstrasse, [[Hamburg]], Germany]]
By mid-1998, Atta was no longer eligible for university housing in Centrumshaus. Atta, Bahaji and Ramzi moved into a Hamburgian apartment, which they supposedly named {{Transliteration|ar|bayt al-ansar}}.{{Sfn|Rapoport|2006|p=326}} By early 1999, Atta had completed his thesis, and formally defended it in August 1999.{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|p=Chapter 5}}

In mid-1998, Atta worked alongside Shehhi, bin al-Shibh, and Belfas, at a warehouse, packing computers in crates for shipping.{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|p=58}} The Hamburg group did not stay in Wilhelmsburg for long. The next winter, they moved into an apartment at Marienstrasse 54 in the [[Harburg, Hamburg|borough of Harburg]], near the [[Hamburg University of Technology]],{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|p=63}} at which they enrolled. It was here that the [[Hamburg cell]] developed and acted more as a group.<ref>{{cite news|author=Bernstein, Richard Bernstein |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/10/national/10PLOT.html?ei=5070&en=81b2bc66ebffd6b4&ex=1139374800 |title=On Path to the U.S. Skies, Plot Leader Met bin Laden |work=The New York Times |date=10 September 2002 |access-date=16 September 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601202151/http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/10/national/10PLOT.html?ei=5070&en=81b2bc66ebffd6b4&ex=1139374800 |archive-date=1 June 2009 }}</ref> They met three or four times a week to discuss their anti-American feelings and to plot possible attacks. Many [[al-Qaeda]] members lived in this apartment at various times, including hijacker [[Marwan al-Shehhi]], [[Zakariya Essabar]], and others.

In late 1999, Atta, Shehhi, Jarrah, Bahaji, and bin al-Shibh decided to travel to [[Chechnya]] to fight against the Russians, but were convinced by [[Khalid al-Masri]] and [[Mohamedou Ould Salahi]] at the last minute to change their plans. They instead traveled to [[Afghanistan]] over a two-week period in late November. On 29 November 1999, Mohamed Atta boarded [[Turkish Airlines]] Flight TK1662 from [[Hamburg]] to [[Istanbul]], where he changed to flight TK1056 to [[Karachi|Karachi, Pakistan]].<ref name="Yosri">{{cite news |last=Fouda |first=Yosri |date=1 October 2006 |title=Chilling message of the 9/11 plots |work=The Sunday Times |location=London |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article656440.ece |url-status=dead |access-date=24 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706181828/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article656440.ece |archive-date=6 July 2008}}</ref> After they arrived, they were selected by al-Qaeda leader [[Mohammed Atef]] as suitable candidates for the "planes operation" plot. They were all well-educated, had experience of living in western society, along with some English skills, and would be able to obtain visas.{{sfn|Wright|2006|p=Chapter 18 ("Boom")}} Even before bin al-Shibh had arrived, Atta, Shehhi, and Jarrah were sent to the House of Ghamdi near bin Laden's home in [[Kandahar]], where he was waiting to meet them. Bin Laden asked them to pledge loyalty and commit to suicide missions, which Atta and the other three Hamburg men all accepted. Bin Laden sent them to see Atef to get a general overview of the mission, and then they were sent to Karachi to see [[Khalid Sheikh Mohammed]] to go over specifics.{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|p=180}}{{additional citation needed|date=August 2023}}

German investigators said that they had evidence that Mohamed Atta trained at [[Afghan training camp|al-Qaeda camps]] in Afghanistan from late 1999 to early 2000. The timing of the Afghanistan training was outlined on 23 August 2002, by a senior investigator. The investigator, Klaus Ulrich Kersten, was the director of Germany's federal anticrime agency, the [[Federal Criminal Police Office (Germany)|Bundeskriminalamt]]. He provided the first official confirmation that Atta and two other pilots had been in Afghanistan, and he also provided the first dates of the training. Kersten said in an interview at the agency's headquarters in [[Wiesbaden]] that Atta was in Afghanistan from late 1999 until early 2000,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2213701.stm |title=Atta 'trained in Afghanistan' |publisher=BBC |date=24 August 2002 |access-date=7 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812184933/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2213701.stm |archive-date=12 August 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/24/world/germans-lay-out-early-qaeda-ties-to-9-11-hijackers.html |title=Germans Lay Out Early Qaeda Ties to 9/11 Hijackers |last=Frantz |first=Douglas |author2=Desmond Butler |date=24 August 2002 |access-date=7 September 2010 |work=The New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140417113847/http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/24/world/germans-lay-out-early-qaeda-ties-to-9-11-hijackers.html |archive-date=17 April 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> and that there was evidence that Atta met with [[Osama bin Laden]] there.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/10/national/10PLOT.html?pagewanted=all |title=On Path to the U.S. Skies, Plot Leader Met bin Laden |last=Bernstein |first=Richard |date=10 September 2002 |work=The New York Times |access-date=7 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140417114220/http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/10/national/10PLOT.html?pagewanted=all |archive-date=17 April 2014 }}</ref>

A video surfaced in October 2006. The first chapter of the video showed bin Laden at [[Tarnak Farms]] on 8 January 2000. The second chapter showed Atta and [[Ziad Jarrah]] reading their wills together ten days later on 18 January.<ref name="Yosri" /><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15082633 |title=Video showing Atta, bin Laden is unearthed |author=Popkin, Jim |publisher=NBC News |date=1 October 2006 |access-date=28 January 2008}}</ref> On his return journey, Atta left Karachi on 24 February 2000, by flight TK1057 to [[Istanbul]] where he changed to flight TK1661 to Hamburg.<ref name="Yosri" /><ref>{{cite news |last=Bernstein |first=Richard |date=10 September 2002 |title=On Path to the U.S. Skies, Plot Leader Met bin Laden |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/10/national/10PLOT.html?ex=1221624000&en=30bc6f683535b59f&ei=5070 |url-status=dead |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090417085506/http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/10/national/10PLOT.html?ex=1221624000&en=30bc6f683535b59f&ei=5070 |archive-date=17 April 2009}}</ref> Immediately after returning to Germany, Atta, al-Shehhi, and Jarrah reported their passports stolen, possibly to discard travel visas to Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/network/etc/script.html |title=Inside the Terror Network |work=Frontline |publisher=PBS |date=17 January 2002 |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080930214837/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/network/etc/script.html |archive-date=30 September 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>

== United States ==
On 22 March 2000, Atta was still in Germany when he sent an [[Email|e-mail]] to the Academy of Lakeland in [[Florida]]. He inquired about flight training, "Dear sir, we are a small group of young men from different Arab countries. Now, we are living in Germany since a while for study purposes. We would like to start training for the career of airline professional pilots. In this field, we haven't yet any knowledge but we are ready to undergo an intensive training program (up to [[Airline transport pilot licence|ATP]] and eventually higher)." Atta sent 50–60 similar e-mails to other [[Flight training|flight training schools]] in the United States.<ref name="moussaoui-march7">{{cite web |url=http://cryptome.org/usa-v-zm-030706-02.htm |title=Zacarias Moussauoi v. the United States (trial testimony) |date=7 March 2006 |access-date=16 September 2008 |publisher=Cryptome / United States District Court – Eastern District of Virginia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131223174907/http://cryptome.org/usa-v-zm-030706-02.htm |archive-date=23 December 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

On 17 May Atta applied for a United States visa. The next day, he received a five-year [[B visa|B-1/B-2]] (tourist/business) visa from the [[Embassy of the United States, Berlin|United States embassy in Berlin]]. Atta had lived in Germany for approximately five years and also had a "strong record as a student". He was therefore treated favorably and not scrutinized.<ref name="travel">{{cite web |url=http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/staff_statements/911_TerrTrav_Monograph.pdf |title=9/11 and Terrorist Travel |work=Staff Report |publisher=National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States |year=2004 |access-date=26 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916110951/http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/staff_statements/911_TerrTrav_Monograph.pdf |archive-date=16 September 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> After obtaining his visa, Atta took a bus on 2 June from Hamburg to [[Prague]] where he stayed overnight before traveling on to the United States the next day. Bin al-Shibh later explained that they believed it would contribute to operational security for Atta to fly out of Prague instead of Hamburg, where he traveled from previously. Likewise, Shehhi traveled from a different location, in his case via [[Brussels]].<ref name="911-ch7">{{cite book |author=9/11 Commission |chapter-url=http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch7.htm |title=9/11 Commission Report |chapter=Chapter 7 |date=June 2004 |publisher=National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023214223/http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch7.htm |archive-date=23 October 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{Sfn|McDermott|2005|p=194}}

On 6 June 2002, [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s ''[[ABC World News Tonight|World News Tonight]]'' broadcast an interview with Johnelle Bryant, former loan officer at the [[United States Department of Agriculture|U.S. Department of Agriculture]] in south Florida, who told about her encounter with Mohamed Atta. This encounter took place "around the third week of April to the third week of May of 2000", before Atta's official entry date into the United States (see below). According to Bryant, Atta wanted to finance the purchase of a crop-duster. "He wanted to finance a twin-engine, six-passenger aircraft and remove the seats," Bryant told ABC's ''World News Tonight''. He insisted that she write his name as ATTA, that he originally was from Egypt but had moved to Afghanistan, that he was an engineer and that his dream was to go to a flight school. He asked about [[the Pentagon]] and the [[White House]]. He said he wanted to visit the World Trade Center and asked Bryant about the security there. He mentioned Al Qaeda and said the organization "could use memberships from Americans". He mentioned Osama bin Laden and said "this man would someday be known as the world's greatest leader." Bryant said "the picture that came out in the newspaper, that's exactly what that man looked like."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130304&page=1|date=6 June 2002|access-date=10 August 2010|title=Transcript of Johnelle Bryant Interview|publisher=ABC News|location=United States |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131222652/https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130304&page=1|archive-date=31 January 2011|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130305&page=1|date=6 June 2002|access-date=10 August 2010|title=Transcript: Bryant Interview, Part 2|publisher=ABC News|location=United States |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131220655/https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130305&page=1|archive-date=31 January 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> Bryant contacted the authorities after recognising Atta in news reports.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2031563.stm|date=7 June 2002|access-date=10 August 2010|title=Twin towers hijacker 'sought US loan'|publisher=BBC News|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407102108/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2031563.stm|archive-date=7 April 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> Law enforcement officials said Bryant passed a lie-detector exam.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/20020607/atta07/hijacker-tried-to-get-us-loan-to-buy-plane|date=7 June 2002|access-date=10 August 2010|title=Hijacker tried to get U.S. loan to buy plane|work=The Seattle Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004083900/http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20020607&slug=atta07|archive-date=4 October 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to official reports, Atta flew from Prague to [[Newark Liberty International Airport|Newark International Airport]], arriving on 3 June 2000. That month, Atta and Shehhi stayed in hotels and rented rooms in New York City on a short-term basis. Jarrah had arrived in the United States on 27 June 2000, after his flight landed at [[Newark, New Jersey]], and Jarrah had decided to go with Shehhi and Atta to search for different flight schools in the US. They continued to inquire about flight schools and personally visited some, including Airman Flight School in [[Norman, Oklahoma]], which they visited on 3 July 2000. Days later, Shehhi, Jarrah and Atta ended up in [[Venice, Florida]].<ref name="timeline"/> Atta and Shehhi established accounts at [[SunTrust Banks|SunTrust Bank]] and received wire transfers from [[Ammar al-Baluchi|Ali Abdul Aziz Ali]], Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's nephew in the [[United Arab Emirates]].<ref name="timeline"/><ref name="911-ch7"/> On 6 July 2000, Atta, Jarrah and Shehhi enrolled at [[Huffman Aviation]] in [[Venice, Florida|Venice]], where they entered the Accelerated Pilot Program.<ref name="timeline"/> When Atta and Shehhi arrived in Florida, they initially stayed with Huffman's bookkeeper and his wife in a spare room of their house. After a week, they were asked to leave because they were rude. Atta and Shehhi then moved into a small house nearby in [[Nokomis, Florida|Nokomis]] where they stayed for six months.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sptimes.com/News/100201/Floridian/The_terrorists_next_d.shtml |title=The terrorists next door |author=Allison, Wes |date=2 October 2001 |work=St. Petersburg Times |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080930182654/http://www.sptimes.com/News/100201/Floridian/The_terrorists_next_d.shtml |archive-date=30 September 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Landlord: Steve Kona |author=Whittle, Patrick |date=10 September 2006 |work=Herald Tribune (Sarasota, Florida) |url=http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20060910/NEWS/609100876/-1/MULTIMEDIA0201 |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080930184836/http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20060910/NEWS/609100876/-1/MULTIMEDIA0201 |archive-date=30 September 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
[[File:Atta Huffman Personnel Folder 11A Page 26 (his FAA Temporary Airmen Certificate).jpg|thumb|Mohamed Atta's FAA Temporary Airman Certificate, issued December 21, 2000]]
Atta began flight training on 6 July 2000, and continued training nearly every day. By the end of July, both Atta and Shehhi did solo flights. Atta earned his private pilot certificate in September, and then he and Shehhi decided to switch flight schools. Both enrolled at Jones Aviation in [[Sarasota, Florida|Sarasota]] and took training there for a brief time. They had problems following instructions and were both very upset when they failed their Stage 1 exam. They inquired about multi-engine planes and told the instructor that "they wanted to move quickly, because they had a job waiting in their country upon completion of their training in the U.S." In mid-October, Atta and Shehhi returned to Huffman Aviation to continue training. In November 2000, Atta earned his instrument rating, and then a commercial pilot's license in December from the [[Federal Aviation Administration]].<ref name="timeline"/>

Atta continued with flight training that included solo flights and simulator time. On 22 December, Atta and Shehhi applied to Eagle International for large jet and simulator training for [[McDonnell Douglas DC-9]] and [[Boeing 737 Classic|Boeing 737-300]] models. On 26 December, Atta and Shehhi needed a tow for their rented [[Piper Cherokee]] on a taxiway of [[Miami International Airport]] after the engine shut down. On 29 and 30 December, Atta and Marwan went to the [[Opa-locka Airport]] where they practiced on a [[Boeing 727]] simulator, and they obtained [[Boeing 767]] simulator training from Pan Am International on 31 December. Atta purchased [[cockpit]] videos for [[Boeing 747#747-200|Boeing 747-200]], [[Boeing 757#757-200|Boeing 757-200]], [[Airbus A320]] and [[Boeing 767|Boeing 767-300ER]] models via mail-order from [[Clermont County Airport|Sporty's Pilot Shop]] in [[Batavia, Ohio]], in November and December 2000.<ref name="timeline"/>

Records on Atta's cellphone indicated that he phoned the [[Embassy of Morocco, Washington, D.C.|Moroccan embassy]] in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] on 2 January 2001, just before Shehhi flew to the country. Atta flew to Spain two days later, on 4 January, to coordinate with bin al-Shibh, and returned to the United States on 10 January. He then traveled to [[Lawrenceville, Georgia]], where he and Shehhi visited an LA Fitness Health Club. During that time Atta flew out of [[Gwinnett County Airport|Briscoe Field]] in Lawrenceville with a pilot, and Atta and either the pilot or Shehhi flew around the Atlanta area.
[[File:Mohamed Atta Drivers Licence.jpg|thumb|Mohamed Atta's Florida driver's license, which he received on 2 May 2001]]
On 11 April, Atta and Shehhi rented an apartment at 10001 Atlantic Blvd, Apt. 122 in [[Coral Springs, Florida]], for $840 per month,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.coralsprings.com/frontpage2/attacoralsprings.htm |title=Terrorist amongst us |access-date=25 January 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207000314/http://www.coralsprings.com/frontpage2/attacoralsprings.htm |archive-date=7 February 2009}}</ref> and assisted with the arrival of the muscle hijackers. On 16 April, Atta was given a citation for not having a valid driver's license, and he began steps to acquire one. On 2 May, Atta received his driver's license in [[Lauderdale Lakes, Florida]]. While in the United States, Atta owned a red 1989 [[Pontiac Grand Prix]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/01/911/Florida__terror_s_lau.shtml |title=Florida: Terror's Launching Pad |work=The St. Petersburg Times |last=Tobin |first=Thomas C. |date=1 September 2002 |publisher=St. Petersburg Times |access-date=5 September 2002 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020905151317/http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/01/911/Florida__terror_s_lau.shtml |archive-date=5 September 2002 }}</ref>
On 11 May, Atta visited Logan International Airport in Boston with another man, and took a lot of photographs and footage inside. Airport employees became suspicious of two persons and they alarmed security, but this was ignored. One technical worker complained about Atta's behavior and spoke to him, but did not stop him.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sperry |first=Paul |date=2014-10-05 |title=Exclusive {{!}} 9/11 terrorists caught testing airport security months before attacks |url=https://nypost.com/2014/10/05/airport-security-ignored-pre-911-warnings-on-hijackers-court-docs/ |access-date=2024-10-25 |language=en-US}}</ref>

On 27 June, Atta flew from [[Fort Lauderdale, Florida|Fort Lauderdale]] to [[Boston|Boston, Massachusetts]], where he spent a day, and then continued to [[San Francisco]] for a short time, and from there to [[Las Vegas Valley|Las Vegas]]. On 28 June, Atta arrived at [[McCarran International Airport]] in Las Vegas to meet with the three other pilots. He rented a [[Chevrolet Malibu]] from an [[Alamo Rent A Car]] agency. It is not known where he stayed that night, but on the 29th he registered at the Econo Lodge at 1150 South [[Las Vegas Boulevard]]. Here he presented an [[American Automobile Association|AAA]] membership for a discount, and paid cash for the $49.50/night room. During his trip to Las Vegas, he is thought to have used a video camera that he had rented from a Select Photo outlet back in [[Delray Beach, Florida]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2001/Sep-29-Sat-2001/news/17113504.html |title=Algerian accused in Britain of training hijackers |newspaper=Las Vegas Review-Journal |date=29 November 2001 |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618104558/http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2001/Sep-29-Sat-2001/news/17113504.html |archive-date=18 June 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>

FBI operative Elie Assaad became suspicious of Atta in early 2001 as he was supposedly seen with al-Qaeda fugitive [[Adnan Gulshair el Shukrijumah|Adnan Shukrijumah]].<ref name="ABC News">{{cite news |last=Ross |first=Brian |date=10 September 2009 |title=FBI Informant Says Agents Missed Chance to Stop 9/11 Ringleader Mohammed Atta |publisher=ABC News|location=United States |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Whistleblowers/911-ringleader-mohammed-atta-stopped-fbi-informant/story?id=8540605 |url-status=live |access-date=10 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230234554/https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Whistleblowers/911-ringleader-mohammed-atta-stopped-fbi-informant/story?id=8540605 |archive-date=30 December 2013}}</ref>

=== July 2001 summit in Spain ===
In July 2001, Atta again left for [[Spain]] in order to meet with bin al-Shibh for the last time. On 7 July 2001, Atta flew on [[Swissair]] Flight 117 from Miami to [[Zürich]], where he had a [[Layover|stopover]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov/notablecases/moussaoui/exhibits/prosecution/OG00013.pdf |title=Hijackers' True Name Usage |publisher=U.S.D.C. Eastern District of Virginia |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090512160457/http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov/notablecases/moussaoui/exhibits/prosecution/OG00013.pdf |archive-date=12 May 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref> On 8 July, Atta was recorded on surveillance video when he withdrew 1700 [[Swiss franc]]s from an [[Automated teller machine|ATM]]. He used his credit card to purchase two [[Swiss Army knife|Swiss Army knives]] and some chocolate in a shop at the [[Zurich Airport]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0110/20/cp.00.html |title=Investigating Terror |publisher=CNN|date=20 October 2001 |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080930143429/http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0110/20/cp.00.html |archive-date=30 September 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> After the stopover in Zürich, he arrived in Madrid at 4:45&nbsp;pm on Swissair Flight 656, and spent several hours at the airport. Then at 8:50&nbsp;pm, he checked into the Hotel Diana Cazadora in [[Madrid–Barajas Airport|Barajas]], a town near the airport. That night and twice the next morning, he called Bashar Ahmad Ali Musleh, a Jordanian student in Hamburg who served as a liaison for bin al-Shibh.<ref name="irujo">{{cite news |url=http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/Atta/recibio/Tarragona/joyas/miembros/comando/11-S/hiciesen/pasar/ricos/saudies/elpepiesp/20040321elpepinac_11/Tes/ |title=Atta recibió en Tarragona joyas para que los miembros del 'comando' del 11-S se hiciesen pasar por ricos saudíes |work=El País |date=21 March 2004 |author=Irujo, José María |access-date=16 September 2008 |language=es |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520112621/http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/Atta/recibio/Tarragona/joyas/miembros/comando/11-S/hiciesen/pasar/ricos/saudies/elpepiesp/20040321elpepinac_11/Tes |archive-date=20 May 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

On the morning of 9 July, Mohamed Atta rented a silver [[Hyundai Accent]], which he booked from SIXT Rent-A-Car for 9 to 16 July, and later extended to the 19th.<ref name="irujo"/><ref name="stip">{{cite web |url=http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov/notablecases/moussaoui/exhibits/prosecution/ST00001A.pdf |title=Stipulation |publisher=U.S.D.C. Eastern District of Virginia |access-date=27 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090513193219/http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov/notablecases/moussaoui/exhibits/prosecution/ST00001A.pdf |archive-date=13 May 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He drove east out of Madrid towards the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] beach area of [[Tarragona]]. On the way, Atta stopped in [[Reus Airport|Reus]] to pick up Ramzi bin al-Shibh at the airport. They drove to [[Cambrils]], where they spent a night at the Hotel Monica. They checked out the next morning, and spent the next few days at an unknown location in Tarragona.<ref name="irujo"/> The absence of other hotel stays, signed receipts or credit card stubs has led investigators to believe that the men may have met in a safe house provided by other al-Qaeda operatives in [[Spain]]. There, Atta and bin al-Shibh held a meeting to complete the planning of the attacks. Several clues have been found to link their stay in Spain to Syrian-born [[Abu Dahdah|Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas]] (Abu Dahdah), and Amer el Azizi, a Moroccan in Spain. They may have helped arrange and host the meeting in Tarragona.<ref name="madrid">{{cite news |title=War Without Borders – The Madrid Bombing |publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) |work=The Fifth Estate |date=1 December 2004 |url=http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/warwithoutborders/bombing.html |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202182629/http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/warwithoutborders/bombing.html |archive-date=2 December 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Yosri Fouda]], who interviewed bin al-Shibh and [[Khalid Sheikh Mohammed]] (KSM) before the arrest, believes that [[Said Bahaji]] and KSM may have also been present at the meeting. Spanish investigators have said that Marwan al-Shehhi and two others later joined the meeting. Bin al-Shibh would not discuss this meeting with Fouda.{{Sfn|Fouda|Fielding|2003|p=216}}

During the meetings in Spain, Atta and bin al-Shibh had coordinated the details of the attacks. The [[9/11 Commission]] obtained details about the meeting, based on interrogations of bin al-Shibh in the weeks after his arrest in September 2002. Bin al-Shibh explained that he passed along instructions from Osama bin Laden, including his desire for the attacks to be carried out as soon as possible. Bin Laden was concerned about having so many operatives in the United States. Atta confirmed that all the muscle hijackers had arrived in the United States, without any problems, but said that he needed five to six more weeks to work out details. Bin Laden also asked that other operatives not be informed of the specific date until the last minute. During the meeting, Atta and bin al-Shibh also decided on the targets to be hit, ruling out a strike on a [[nuclear power|nuclear plant]]. Bin al-Shibh passed along bin Laden's list of targets; bin Laden wanted the [[United States Capitol]], [[the Pentagon]], and the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] to be attacked, as they were deemed "symbols of America." If any of the hijackers could not reach their intended targets, Atta said, they were to crash the plane. They also discussed the personal difficulties Atta was having with fellow hijacker [[Ziad Jarrah]]. Bin al-Shibh was worried that Jarrah might even abandon the plan. The ''[[9/11 Commission Report]]'' speculated that the now-convicted terrorist conspirator [[Zacarias Moussaoui]] was being trained as a possible replacement for Jarrah.<ref name="travel"/><ref name="911-ch7"/>

From 13 to 16 July, Atta stayed at the Hotel Sant Jordi in Tarragona.<ref name="irujo"/><ref name="stip"/> After bin al-Shibh returned to Germany on 16 July 2001, Atta had three more days in Spain. He spent two nights in [[Salou]] at the beachside Casablanca Playa Hotel, then spent the last two nights at the Hotel Residencia Montsant.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E0DA1431F932A35756C0A9649C8B63 |title=Search for 11 Sept. Suspect Focuses on a Visit to Spain |work=The New York Times |date=1 May 2002 |author=Frantz, Douglas |access-date=17 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090204182951/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E0DA1431F932A35756C0A9649C8B63 |archive-date=4 February 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> On 19 July, Atta returned to the United States, flying on [[Delta Air Lines]] from Madrid to Fort Lauderdale, via [[Atlanta]].<ref name="stip"/>

=== Final plans in the U.S. ===
On 22 July 2001, Atta rented a [[Mitsubishi Galant]] from [[Alamo Rent a Car]], putting {{convert|3836|mile|km}} on the vehicle before returning it on 26 July.<!-- return date is unclear; payment was made on 5 August, NCIC query on the vehicle on 3 August //--> On 25 July, Atta dropped Ziad Jarrah off at [[Miami International Airport]] for a flight back to Germany. On 26 July, Atta traveled via [[Continental Airlines]] to [[Newark, New Jersey]], checked into the Kings Inn Hotel in [[Wayne, New Jersey]], and stayed there until 30 July when he took a flight from Newark back to Fort Lauderdale.<ref name="timeline"/>

On 4 August, Atta is believed to have been at [[Orlando International Airport]] waiting to pick up suspected "20th Hijacker" [[Mohammed al-Qahtani]] from [[Dubai]], who ended up being held by immigration as "suspicious." Atta was believed to have used a payphone at the airport to phone a number "linked to al-Qaeda" after Qahtani was denied entry.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.hijackers27jan27,0,3333483.story |title=Sept. 11 hijacker raised suspicions at border |author=Sullivan, Laura |date=27 January 2004 |work=Baltimore Sun |access-date=16 September 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927193334/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.hijackers27jan27%2C0%2C3333483.story |archive-date=27 September 2007 }}</ref>

On 6 August, Atta and Shehhi rented a white, four-door 1995 [[Ford Escort (North America)|Ford Escort]] from Warrick's Rent-A-Car, which was returned on 13 August. On 6 August, Atta booked a flight on [[Spirit Airlines]] from Fort Lauderdale to Newark, leaving on 7 August and returning on 9 August. The reservation was not used and canceled on 9 August with the reason "Family Medical Emergency". Instead, he went to Central Office & Travel in [[Pompano Beach, Florida|Pompano Beach]] to purchase a ticket for a flight to Newark, leaving on the evening of 7 August and scheduled to return in the evening on 9 August. Atta did not take the return flight. On 7 August, Atta checked into the Wayne Inn in [[Wayne, New Jersey]] and checked out on 9 August. The same day, he booked a one-way first-class ticket via the Internet on America West Flight 244 from [[Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport]] <!-- or Dulles? //-->to Las Vegas.<ref name="timeline"/> Atta traveled twice to Las Vegas on "surveillance flights" rehearsing how the 9/11 attacks would be carried out. Other hijackers traveled to Las Vegas at different times in the summer of 2001.

Throughout the summer, Atta met with [[Nawaf al-Hazmi]] to discuss the status of the operation on a monthly basis.<ref name="lats">Los Angeles Times, [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-sep-27-na-intel27-story.html Document links al Qaeda paymaster, 9/11 plotter], 27 September 2002</ref>

On 23 August, Atta's [[driver’s license|driver license]] was revoked [[trial in absentia|''in absentia'']] after he failed to show up in [[traffic court]] to answer the earlier citation for driving without a license.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://newsmine.org/archive/9-11/flight-schools/hijackers-traced-to-huffman-aviation.txt|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20051228121415/http://newsmine.org/archive/9-11/flight-schools/hijackers-traced-to-huffman-aviation.txt|url-status=dead|title=NewsMine.org – hijackers traced to huffman aviation.txt|archivedate=28 December 2005}}</ref><!--{{Dubious|date=November 2008}} Newsmine is a dubious source. //--><ref>{{cite web |last1=Ross |first1=Brian |title=While America Slept: The True Story of 9/11 |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/ten-years-ago-today-countdown-911/story?id=14191671 |publisher=ABC News|location=United States |date=29 July 2011|access-date=14 June 2022}}</ref> The same day, the [[Mossad]] gave his name to the CIA as one of 19 belonging to US residents suspected of planning an imminent attack against the United States; only four of the names are publicly known, the others belonging to fellow 9/11 hijackers Marwan al-Shehhi, Nawaf al-Hazmi, and Khalid al-Mihdhar. It is not known if the 19 names were all those of the hijackers who would carry out the 9/11 attacks or if the list length is just a coincidence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a082301mossad |others=23 August 2001: Mossad Reportedly Gives CIA List of Terrorist Living in US; at Least Four 9/11 Hijackers Named |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930031428/http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a082301mossad |archive-date=30 September 2007 |title=Context of 'August 23, 2001: Mossad Reportedly Gives CIA List of Terrorist Living in US; at Least Four 9/11 Hijackers Named' |work=History Commons}}</ref>

== 9/11 attacks and death ==
{{Main|American Airlines Flight 11}}
[[File:Atta in airport.jpg|right|thumb|Atta (blue shirt) and Omari in the [[Portland International Jetport]] in [[Portland, Maine]], on the morning of 11 September]]
On 10 September 2001, Atta picked up [[Abdulaziz al-Omari|al-Omari]] from the Milner Hotel in [[Boston|Boston, Massachusetts]], and the two drove [[Mohamed Atta's Nissan|their rented Nissan Altima]] to a [[Choice Hotels|Comfort Inn]] in [[South Portland, Maine]]. On the way, they were seen getting [[gasoline]] at an [[Exxon]] gas station and visited the [[Wadsworth-Longfellow House|Longfellow House]] in Portland that afternoon;<ref>{{Cite book|title=Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Portland : the fireside poet of Maine|last=Babin, John William|others=Levinsky, Allan M.|year=2015|isbn=978-1-62619-499-1|location=Charleston, SC|pages=134–135|oclc=926057150}}</ref> they arrived at the hotel at 5:43&nbsp;p.m. and spent the night in Room 233. While in South Portland, they were seen making two ATM withdrawals and stopping at [[Walmart|Wal-Mart]]. The FBI also reported that two Middle-Eastern men were seen in the parking lot of a [[Pizza Hut]], where Atta is known to have eaten that day.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/05/us/a-nation-challenged-the-night-before-a-mundane-itinerary-on-the-eve-of-terror.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm|title=A Mundane Itinerary on the Eve of Terror|last=Belluck|first=Pam|date=5 October 2001|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=16 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140417203932/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/05/us/a-nation-challenged-the-night-before-a-mundane-itinerary-on-the-eve-of-terror.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm|archive-date=17 April 2014|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=What ISIS Really Wants|first=Graeme|last=Wood|work=The Atlantic|publisher=Atlantic Media|date=March 2015|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/|access-date=5 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150226023536/http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/|archive-date=26 February 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna14686192|title=9/11 mystery: What was Atta doing on 9/10?|publisher=[[NBC News]] |date=7 September 2006|access-date=6 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150227202458/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/14686192/ns/msnbc-hardball_with_chris_matthews/t/mystery-what-was-atta-doing#.VPkQCvnF98E|archive-date=27 February 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

Atta and al-Omari arrived early the next morning, at 5:40&nbsp;a.m., at the [[Portland International Jetport]], where they left their rental car in the parking lot and at 6:00&nbsp;a.m. boarded a [[Colgan Air]] ([[US Airways Express]]) BE-1900C flight to [[Logan International Airport]] in Boston.<ref name="911-ch1">{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/legislative/research/9-11/staff-report-sept2005.pdf |title=Staff Report – "We Have Some Planes": The Four Flights – a Chronology |publisher=[[9/11 Commission|National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States]] |access-date=25 May 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080306021319/http://www.archives.gov/legislative/research/9-11/staff-report-sept2005.pdf |archive-date=6 March 2008 }}</ref> In Portland, Mohamed Atta was selected by the [[Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System]] (CAPPS), which required his checked bags to undergo extra screening for explosives but involved no extra screening at the passenger security checkpoint.<ref name="staff">{{cite web |url=http://www.9-11commission.gov/staff_statements/staff_statement_3.pdf |title=The Aviation Security System and the 9/11 Attacks – Staff Statement No. 3 |publisher=9/11 Commission |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528201527/http://www.9-11commission.gov/staff_statements/staff_statement_3.pdf |archive-date=28 May 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The connection between the two flights at Logan International Airport was within Terminal B, but the two gates were not connected within security. Passengers must leave the secured area, go outdoors, cross a covered roadway, and enter another building before going through security once again. There are two separate concourses in Terminal B; the south concourse is mainly used by US Airways and the north one is mostly used by [[American Airlines]]. It had been overlooked that there would still be a security screen to pass in Boston because of this distinct detail of the terminal's arrangement. A ticket staffer at Portland Airport reported becoming uneasy with Atta's anger upon being told of the additional screening requirements in Boston, but that he did not act on his suspicions after becoming concerned that he was [[Airport racial profiling in the United States|racially profiling]] Atta.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna7117783|title = Ticket agent recalls anger in Atta's eyes| publisher=[[NBC News]] | date=7 March 2005 }}</ref> At 6:45&nbsp;a.m., while at the Boston airport, Atta took a call from Flight 175 hijacker [[Marwan al-Shehhi]]. This call was apparently to confirm that the attacks were ready to begin. Atta checked in for [[American Airlines Flight 11]], passed through security again, and boarded the flight. Atta was seated in business class, in seat 8D. At 7:59&nbsp;a.m., the plane departed from Boston to [[Los Angeles International Airport]], carrying 81 passengers.<ref name="911-ch1"/>
<div style="float:right;">
{{Listen|filename=Mohamed Atta to ATC-1.ogg |title=Mohamed Atta at 08:23|description=Mohamed Atta's first announcement, heard by ATC at 08:23|format=[[Ogg]]}}
{{Listen|filename=Mohamed Atta to ATC-2.ogg |title=Mohamed Atta at 08:33|description=Mohamed Atta's second announcement at 08:33|format=[[Ogg]]}}</div>
The [[Aircraft hijacking|hijacking]] began fifteen minutes into the flight at approximately 8:14 a.m.,{{efn|Although the 9/11 Commission estimated the hijacking to have commenced at 8:14 a.m., the pilots had stopped responding to ATC by 8:13:47, implying the hijacking may have occurred slightly earlier.}} when beverage service would be starting. As this was happening, the pilots stopped responding to air traffic control and the aircraft began deviating from its assigned route;<ref name=ntsb>{{cite web |date=19 February 2002 |title=Flight Path Study – American Airlines Flight 11 |url=https://www.ntsb.gov/about/Documents/Flight_Path_Study_AA11.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151105103018/http://www.ntsb.gov/about/Documents/Flight_Path_Study_AA11.pdf |archive-date=5 November 2015 |access-date=25 May 2008 |publisher=[[National Transportation Safety Board]]}}</ref> the plane's [[transponder]] was switched off several minutes later at 8:21&nbsp;a.m.<ref name=ntsb/> The pilots of [[United Airlines Flight 175]] picked up on a suspicious transmission while leaving the runway around the same time Flight 11 was being hijacked, reportedly hearing the words, "Everyone, stay in your seats." Investigators later determined that this communication was made from the cockpit of Flight 11. This transmission was never heard by ATC, but the context suggests Atta was the one speaking.<ref>{{cite book|last=9/11 Final Report of the National Commission|title="We have some planes"|year=2004|url=https://9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf}}</ref>{{rp|38}} On the phone with American Airlines after the hijackers had assumed control of the plane, flight attendant [[Betty Ong]] reported that the cockpit was unresponsive and inaccessible.<ref name="911-ch1"/><ref name="Ong">{{cite news|last=Sullivan |first=Laura |title=9/11 victim calmly describes hijack on haunting tape |url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/custom/attack/bal-te.terror28jan28,0,6896536.story |date=28 January 2004 |work=[[The Baltimore Sun]] |access-date=22 May 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604182608/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/custom/attack/bal-te.terror28jan28%2C0%2C6896536.story |archive-date=4 June 2011 }}</ref>

At 8:24:38&nbsp;a.m., a voice believed to be Atta's was heard by air traffic controllers, saying: "We have some planes. Just stay quiet and you will be OK. We are returning to the airport." Evidently, he tried to deliver a message over the cabin's PA system instructing the passengers and crew to stay put, but pressed the wrong switch and thereby tipped off ATC that the flight had been hijacked.{{efn|9/11 Commission investigator Miles Kara does not subscribe to the belief that Atta mistakenly keyed the mic and "accidentally" broadcast his message; Kara suggests that Atta was, in part, attempting to sow confusion within the FAA, and was delivering a message to Marwan al-Shehhi on [[United Airlines Flight 175]]. Kara suggests that the hijackers would have known that passengers likely could monitor cockpit communications on Channel 9 of United's onboard entertainment system. Because both Flight 11 and Flight 175 departed on cross-country routes approximately at the same time, Kara explains the hijackers could feel confident that the two cockpits would be using the same radio frequency during the first minutes after takeoff. Under that scenario, Atta's "We have some planes" remark could be viewed as a signal to al-Shehhi that their plan was working and that the Flight 175 group should execute its piece of the attack. Although it is unknown whether al-Shehhi heard Atta's comment or was listening to Channel 9, Kara considers it likely. One piece of evidence he cites is the fact that al-Shehhi waited to initiate the hijacking until after Flight 175 had crossed into the airspace of a different air traffic control center. Kara believes that al-Shehhi knew the crossover took place because he heard the Flight 175 pilots say so. If that was the case, he also would have heard the earlier transmissions from Atta that were picked up in the cockpit of Flight 175 and reported later to air traffic control.<ref name="nypost.com">{{Cite web|url=https://nypost.com/2011/09/11/the-eleventh-day/|title=The eleventh day|first=Anthony|last=Summers|date=11 September 2011|access-date=11 May 2021|archive-date=8 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408022156/https://nypost.com/2011/09/11/the-eleventh-day/|url-status=live}}</ref> Separately, John Farmer, senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission, raised questions about whether the sequence of the hijackings, in which two United flights were hijacked after American flights, might have been influenced by the terrorists' hope to use United Channel 9 to gather real-time intelligence on the other hijackings.}} Seconds later he transmitted another message<!--, still unaware that people on the ground were listening in: we can have this bit back when we have a decent citation for it-->: "Nobody move, everything will be OK. If you try to make any moves you'll endanger yourself and the airplane. Just stay quiet." About a minute later, he turned the plane southbound, on a course pointed in the direction of New York City.<ref name=ntsb/> Atta was not heard from again for nine minutes until 8:33:59<!--, when he made yet another unsuccessful attempt to communicate with the hostages: we can have this bit back when we have a decent citation for it--> when he transmitted, "Nobody move, please. We are going back to the airport. Don't try to make any stupid moves." This was the last transmission from Flight 11.<ref name=ntsb/>
[[File:2001-was-a-project-by-wolfgang-staehle-e28093-on-8-september-2001-two-cameras-would-automatically-take-a-photo-of-the-manhattan-skyline-every-four-seconds.jpg|thumb|At 8:46, Mohamed Atta crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower, the final moments and crash of the flight was captured in frames by two automatic cameras set up in Brooklyn.]]
Twelve minutes later, at 8:46:40&nbsp;a.m.,<ref name="ntsb" /> Atta crashed the plane into the North Tower of the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] in New York City between floors 93 and 99,<ref>{{Cite web |date=18 June 2004 |title=Tracking the Flights Hijacked on 9/11 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-jun-18-na-introflight18-story.html |access-date=14 June 2023 |website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref><ref name="ntsb"/> killing himself and everyone else aboard the plane. Hundreds more inside the North Tower were also killed instantly, while the damage Atta had done to the building severed all escape routes from Floor 92 and higher, trapping more than 800 survivors of the crash in the upper floors of a burning quarter-mile high skyscraper,<ref name="102Mins">{{cite news |last=Dwyer |first=Jim |author2= Lipton, Eric |title=102 Minutes: Last Words at the Trade Center; Fighting to Live as the Towers Die |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/26/nyregion/102-minutes-last-words-at-the-trade-center-fighting-to-live-as-the-towers-die.html |date=26 May 2002 |work=The New York Times |access-date=16 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131114063928/http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/26/nyregion/102-minutes-last-words-at-the-trade-center-fighting-to-live-as-the-towers-die.html |archive-date=14 November 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> thus ensuring that no one above the 91st floor was able to make it out alive before the tower collapsed 102 minutes later at 10:28&nbsp;a.m.<ref>{{cite news|date=10 September 2003|title=TWO YEARS LATER: THE 91ST FLOOR; The Line Between Life and Death, Still Indelible|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/10/us/two-years-later-the-91st-floor-the-line-between-life-and-death-still-indelible.html |access-date=5 December 2022}}</ref>

Because the flight from Portland to Boston had been delayed,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.capecodtimes.com/article/20011005/NEWS01/310059904 |title=FBI affidavit: Flight attendant made call to report hijacking |access-date=25 October 2010 |date=5 October 2001 |last=Karkavy |first=Jerry |newspaper=[[Cape Cod Times]] |publisher=[[GateHouse Media, LLC]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170106233511/http://www.capecodtimes.com/article//20011005/NEWS01/310059904 |archive-date=6 January 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Atta's luggage did not make it onto Flight 11. His bags were later recovered in Logan International Airport, and were found to have contained airline uniforms, flight manuals, and other items. The luggage included a copy of Atta's will, written in Arabic, as well as a list of instructions, called "The Last Night". This document is divided into three sections; the first is a fifteen-point list providing detailed instructions for the last night of a martyr's life, the second gives instructions for travelling to the plane and the third from the time between boarding the plane and martyrdom. Almost all of these points discuss spiritual preparation, such as prayer and citing religious scripture.{{Sfn|Rapoport|2006|p=}}{{page needed|date=November 2023}}

== Family reaction and denial ==
Atta's father vehemently rejected allegations his son was involved in the [[September 11 attacks|9/11 attacks]], and instead accused the [[Mossad]] and the [[Federal government of the United States|United States government]] of having a hand in framing his son.<ref name="prospect" /> Atta Sr. rejected media reports that stated his son was drinking wildly, and instead described his son as a quiet boy uninvolved with [[politics]], shy and devoted to studying [[architecture]].<ref>{{cite news |author=MacFarquhar, Neil |date=19 September 2001 |title=Father Denies 'Gentle Son' Could Hijack Any Jetliner |work=The New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E2D8123BF93AA2575AC0A9679C8B63 |url-status=live |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207201503/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E2D8123BF93AA2575AC0A9679C8B63 |archive-date=7 December 2008}}</ref> The elder Mr. Atta said he had spoken with Mohamed by phone the day after on 12 September 2001. He held interviews with the [[Germany|German]] news magazine ''Bild am Sonntag'' in late 2002, saying his son was alive and hiding in fear for his life, and that [[Christianity in the United States|American Christians]] were responsible for the attacks.<ref>{{cite news |author=Connolly, Kate |date=2 September 2002 |title=Father insists alleged leader of attack on WTC is still alive |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/sep/02/september11.usa |url-status=live |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826155910/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/sep/02/september11.usa |archive-date=26 August 2013}}</ref> In an interview on 24 September 2001, Atta Sr. stated, "My son is gone. He is now with [[God in Islam|God]]. The Mossad killed him."<ref>Alan Zarembo. [http://www.newsweek.com/he-never-even-had-kite-151919 "He Never Even Had a Kite" Mohamed Atta's father talks about his son, the alleged hijacker] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912013012/http://www.newsweek.com/he-never-even-had-kite-151919|date=12 September 2017}}</ref>

In 2021, on the 20th anniversary of the attacks, Atta's mother was interviewed by a Spanish newspaper. His mother, aged 79 at the time, denied her son's involvement in the attacks and said that she feels he is in Afghanistan.<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 September 2021 |title=والدة مصري دشن هجمات 11 سبتمبر تشعر أنه حي وسيظهر |url=https://www.alarabiya.net/last-page/2021/09/11/%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D8%AF%D8%B4%D9%86-%D9%87%D8%AC%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%AA-11-%D8%B3%D8%A8%D8%AA%D9%85%D8%A8%D8%B1-%D8%AA%D8%B4%D8%B9%D8%B1-%D8%A3%D9%86%D9%87-%D8%AD%D9%8A-%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B8%D9%87%D8%B1 |website=العربية |language=ar}}</ref>

== Mistaken identity ==
In the aftermath of 9/11 attacks, the names of the hijackers were released. There was some confusion regarding who Mohamed Atta was, and cases of mistaken identity. Initially, Mohamed Atta's identity was confused with that of a native [[Jordan]]ian, [[Mahmoud Mahmoud Atta]], who bombed an Israeli bus in the [[West Bank]] in 1986, killing one and severely injuring three. Mahmoud Atta was 14 years older than Mohamed Atta.<ref name="ADL2001">{{cite web |publisher=Anti-Defamation League |url=http://www.adl.org/rumors/atta%5Frumors.asp |title=A Case of Mistaken Identity: Mohammad Atta Not Linked to Bus Bombing |access-date=16 September 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917063644/http://www.adl.org/rumors/atta_rumors.asp |archive-date=17 September 2008}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=May 2025}} Mahmoud Atta, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was subsequently deported from [[Venezuela]] to the United States, extradited to Israel, tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. The Israeli Supreme Court later overturned his extradition and set him free.<ref>{{cite news |author=O'Sullivan, Arieh |work=The Jerusalem Post |title=Internet rumors aside, WTC attacker not held by Israel |date=8 November 2001 }}</ref> After the attacks, there were also reports stating that Mohamed Atta had attended the International Officers School at [[Maxwell Air Force Base]] in [[Montgomery, Alabama]]. ''[[The Washington Post]]'' quoted a [[United States Air Force]] official who explained, "discrepancies in their biographical data, such as birth dates 20 years off, indicate we are probably not talking about the same people."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38270-2001Sep15?language=printer |title=2nd Witness Arrested; 25 Held for Questioning |author=Gugliotta, Guy and David S. Fallis |newspaper=The Washington Post|date=15 September 2001 |access-date=16 September 2008
| page=A29
| archive-date=31 March 2009
| url-status=dead | archive-url=https://archive.today/20090331101805/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38270-2001Sep15?language=printer
}}</ref>

=== Prague controversy ===
{{Main|Mohamed Atta's alleged Prague connection}}

In the months following the [[September 11 attacks|11 September attacks]], officials at the Czech Interior Ministry asserted that Atta made a trip to [[Prague]] on 8 April 2001, to meet with an [[Ba'athist Iraq|Iraqi]] intelligence agent named Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani. This piece of information was passed on to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] as "unevaluated raw intelligence".<ref>{{cite news |author=Edward Jay Epstein |url=http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007584 |title=Atta in Prague |publisher=OpinionJournal |date=22 November 2005 |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080930190824/http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007584 |archive-date=30 September 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> Intelligence officials have concluded that such a meeting did not occur. A [[Pakistan]]i businessman named Mohammed Atta had come to Prague from [[Saudi Arabia]] on 31 May 2000, with this second Atta possibly contributing to the confusion. The Egyptian Mohamed Atta arrived at the [[Florenc Central Bus Station|Florenc bus terminal]] in Prague, from [[Germany]], on 2 June 2000. He left Prague the next day, flying on [[Czech Airlines]] to [[Newark, New Jersey]], [[United States|U.S.]] In the [[Czech Republic]], some intelligence officials say the source of the purported meeting was an Arab informant who approached the Czech intelligence service with his sighting of Atta only after Atta's photograph had appeared in newspapers all over the world. United States and Czech intelligence officials have since concluded that the person seen with Ani was mistakenly identified as Atta, and the consensus of investigators is that Atta never attended a meeting in Prague.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.radio.cz/en/article/57782/limit |title=A Tale of Two 'Attas': How spurious Czech intelligence muddied the 9/11 probe |publisher=Radio Praha |date=3 September 2004 |author=Kenety, Brian |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203054004/http://www.radio.cz/en/article/57782/limit |archive-date=3 February 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=In Prague, a tale of 2 Attas; Mistaken identity muddied 9/11 probe |work=Chicago Tribune |date=29 August 2004 |author=Crewdson, John}}</ref><ref name="Burke2005_17">[[#Burke2005|Burke (2005)]], p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=-_FJFFrit8AC&pg=PA17&dq=%22Credit+card+documents+proved+Atta+to+have+been+in+America+at+the+time+of+the+alleged+meeting%22 17.]</ref>

=== Able Danger ===
In 2005, Army Lt. Col. [[Anthony Shaffer (intelligence officer)|Anthony Shaffer]] and Congressman [[Curt Weldon]] alleged that the [[United States Department of Defense|Defense Department]] data mining project, [[Able Danger]], produced a chart that identified Atta, along with [[Nawaf al-Hazmi]], [[Khalid al-Mihdhar]], and [[Marwan al-Shehhi]], as members of a [[Brooklyn]]-based [[al-Qaeda]] cell in early 2000.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/politics/09intel.html?pagewanted=print |title=Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00 |author=Jehl, Douglas |date=9 August 2005 |work=The New York Times |access-date=29 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080406160538/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/politics/09intel.html?pagewanted=print |archive-date=6 April 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> Shaffer largely based his allegations on the recollections of Navy Captain Scott Phillpott,<ref name="wp-20050819">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801751.html |author=Eggen, Dan |title=Officer Says 2 Others Are Source of His Atta Claims |newspaper=The Washington Post|date=19 August 2005 |access-date=29 September 2008
| page=A11
| archive-date=24 July 2008
| url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724132004/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801751.html
}}</ref> who later recanted his recollection, telling investigators that he was "convinced that Atta was not on the chart that we had." Phillpott said that Shaffer was "relying on my recollection 100 percent," and the Defense Department Inspector General's report indicated that Philpott "may have exaggerated knowing Atta's identity because he supported using Able Danger's techniques to fight [[terrorism]]."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/21/AR2006092101831.html |title=Hijackers Were Not Identified Before 9/11, Investigation Says |newspaper=The Washington Post|date=22 September 2006 |author=White, Josh |access-date=29 September 2008
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106151245/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/21/AR2006092101831.html
| url-status=live | archive-date=6 November 2012
}}</ref><ref name="oig">{{cite web |url=http://www.dodig.mil/fo/foia/ERR/r_H05L97905217-PWH.pdf |title=Office Inspector General's Report |publisher=Department of Defense |date=18 September 2006 |access-date=29 September 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216064401/http://www.dodig.mil/fo/foia/ERR/r_H05L97905217-PWH.pdf |archive-date=16 February 2012}}</ref>

Five witnesses who had worked on Able Danger and had been questioned by the Defense Department's Inspector General later told investigative journalists that their statements to the IG were distorted by investigators in the final IG's report, or the report omitted essential information that they had provided. The alleged [[Able Danger#Alleged evidence of IG cover-up|distortions of the IG report]] centered around excluding any evidence that [[Able Danger]] had identified and tracked Atta years before 9/11.<ref name="foxnews.com">{{cite news |first=Catherine |last=Herridge |url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/exclusive-witnesses-in-defense-dept-report-suggest-cover-up-of-9-11-findings/ |title=Exclusive: Witnesses in Defense Dept. Report Suggest Cover-Up of 9/11 Findings |publisher=Fox News|date=4 October 2010 |access-date=11 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150516210737/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/04/exclusive-witnesses-defense-department-report-suggest-cover-findings/ |archive-date=16 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Lt. Col. Shaffer's book also clearly indicates direct identification of the [[Brooklyn]] cell, and Mohamed Atta.<ref>{{cite book|last=Shaffer|first=Anthony|title=Operation Dark Heart|year=2010|publisher=St Martin's Press|pages=170|isbn=978-0-312-60369-4}}</ref>

== Assessment and motivation ==
There are multiple, conflicting interpretations of Atta's behavior and motivation. [[Political psychologist]] [[Jerrold Post]] has suggested that Atta and his fellow hijackers were just following orders from [[al-Qaeda]] leadership, "and whatever their destructive, charismatic leader [[Osama bin Laden]] said was the right thing to do for the sake of the cause was what they would do."<ref>Weaver, Carolyn. (6 October 2004). [http://www.militaryinfo.com/news_story.cfm?textnewsid=2149 “New video shows 9/11 hijackers Mohammed Atta, Ziad Jarrah at Al-Qaida meeting.”] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929172646/http://www.militaryinfo.com/news_story.cfm?textnewsid=2149 |date=29 September 2011}} Voice of America News.</ref> American political scientist [[Robert Pape]] asserts that Atta was motivated by his commitment to the political cause, that he was psychologically normal, and that he was "not readily characterized as depressed, not unable to enjoy life, not detached from friends and society."{{Sfn|Pape|2005|p=220}} By contrast, criminal justice professor, Adam Lankford, has found evidence that indicated Atta was [[suicidal]], and that his struggles with [[social isolation]], [[Depression (mood)|depression]], guilt, shame, hopelessness, and rage were extraordinarily similar to the struggles of those who commit conventional suicide and [[murder-suicide]]. By this view, Atta's political and religious beliefs affected the method of his suicide and his choice of target, but they were not the underlying causes of his behavior.{{Sfn|Lankford|2013}}{{Page needed|date=September 2023}}

On 1 October 2006, ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' released a video it had obtained "through a previously tested channel", purporting to show Mohamed Atta and [[Ziad Jarrah]] recording a martyrdom message at a training camp in [[Afghanistan]].<ref>{{cite news |date=1 October 2006 |title=Video of 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta posted by British news site |work=USA Today |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-10-01-sept11-video_x.htm |url-status=live |access-date=24 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202160747/http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-10-01-sept11-video_x.htm |archive-date=2 December 2008}}</ref><ref name="laughing2">{{cite news |last=Fouda |first=Yosri |date=1 October 2006 |title=The laughing 9/11 bombers |work=The Sunday Times |location=London |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article656683.ece |url-status=dead |access-date=4 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524015512/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article656683.ece |archive-date=24 May 2011}}</ref><ref name="Yosri" /> The video, bearing the date of 18 January 2000, is of good resolution but contains no sound track. [[lip reading|Lip readers]] have failed to decipher it. Atta and Jarrah appear in high spirits, laughing and smiling in front of the camera. They had never been pictured together before.<ref>{{Citation |last=unknown |title=Mohamad Atta and Zyad Jarrah Willing ( 11/9 ) |date=2007 |url=http://archive.org/details/atta-zyad-willing |access-date=29 August 2023}}</ref> Unidentified sources from both al-Qaeda and the United States confirmed the video's authenticity. A separate section of the video shows Osama bin Laden addressing his followers at a complex near [[Kandahar]]. [[Ramzi bin al-Shibh]] is also identified in the video. According to ''The Sunday Times'', "American and German investigators have struggled to find evidence of Atta's whereabouts in January 2000 after he disappeared from Hamburg. The hour-long tape places him in Afghanistan at a decisive moment in the development of the conspiracy when he was given operational command. Months later both he and Jarrah enrolled at flying schools in America."<ref name="laughing2"/><ref>{{cite news |author=Fouda, Yosri |date=1 October 2006 |title=Chilling Message of the 9/11 Pilots |work=The Sunday Times |location=London |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article656440.ece |url-status=dead |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706181828/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article656440.ece |archive-date=6 July 2008}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==
Canadian actor Elie Gemael portrayed Atta in the [[Zero Hour (2004 TV series)#Episodes|second episode]] of the [[BBC]]/Discovery docudrama ''[[Zero Hour (2004 TV series)|Zero Hour]],'' titled "The Last Hour of Flight 11".<ref>{{Citation |title="Zero Hour" The Last Hour of Flight 11 (TV Episode 2004) |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0754391/|access-date=23 March 2025 |language=en-US}}</ref>

Atta was the primary antagonist of the 2004 British-Canadian biographical docudrama film ''[[The Hamburg Cell (film)|The Hamburg Cell]],'' wherein he was portrayed by Egyptian-French actor Maral Kamel.

== See also ==
* [[PENTTBOM]]

== Explanatory notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== General and cited references ==
* ''The 9/11 Commission Report''. W. W. Norton & Company. {{ISBN|0-393-32671-3}}.
* {{Cite book |last=Burke |first=Jason |year=2003 |title=Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam |edition=2006 revised | location=New York |publisher=I. B. Tauris |isbn=978-1-85043-666-9 |ref=Burke2005}}
* {{Cite book |author=''Der Spiegel'' staff |title=Inside 9-11: What Really Happened |publisher=Diane Pub Co. |year=2002 |isbn=0-312-98748-X |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/inside911whatrea00newy}}
* {{Cite book |last=Corbin|first=Jan |title=Al-Qaeda: In Search of the Terror Network that Threatens the Worlde |publisher=Nation Books |year=2003|isbn=1-56025-523-4}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Fouda |first1=Yosri |last2=Fielding |first2=Nick |year=2003 |title=Masterminds of Terror |publisher=Arcade Publishing |isbn=1-55970-717-8 |author-link=Yosri Fouda |author-link2=Nick Fielding}}
* {{Cite book |last=Lankford |first=Adam |title=The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers |year=2013 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-23-034213-2}}
* {{Cite book |author=McDermott |first=Terry |title=Perfect Soldiers: The 9/11 Hijackers: Who They Were, Why They Did It |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Oufo58esZAC |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2005 |isbn=0-06-058469-6 |author-link=Terry McDermott (journalist)}}
* {{Cite book |last=Pape |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Pape |year=2005 |title=Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism |title-link=Dying to Win |location=New York |publisher=Random House |isbn=1-4000-6317-5}}
* {{Cite book |last=Rapoport |first=David C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E1_SxOuUHmIC |title=Terrorism: Critical Concepts in Political Science |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-415-31654-5 |author-link=David C. Rapoport}}
* {{Cite book |last=Stein |first=Ruth |year=201 |title=For Love of the Father: A Psychoanalytic Study of Religious Terrorism |publisher=Stanford Univ. Press0 |isbn=978-0804763059}}
* {{Cite book |last=Wright |first=Lawrence |year=2006 |title=[[The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11]] |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=978-0-375-41486-2 |author-link=Lawrence Wright}}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090531193734/http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/interviews/ Interviews with those who interacted with Atta prior to 9/11] from Australian [[ABC Television (Australian TV network)|ABC TV's]] ''A Mission to Die For'' TV programme
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041211192904/http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/interviews/machule.htm October 2001 interview with Dittmar Machule] – Machule was Atta's thesis supervisor at the University of Hamburg-Harburg
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090708002529/http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/resources/documents/will1.htm Atta's will, written in 1996]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070305174018/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,176917,00.html "Atta's Odyssey"] – October 2001 biography of Atta printed in ''Time'' magazine
* [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/04/24/the-last-days-of-muhammad-atta "The Last Days of Muhammed Atta"] – A short story printed in ''The New Yorker''
* Documentary series from Court TV (now TruTV) [https://web.archive.org/web/20171006212214/http://filmrise.com/mugshots-mohammed-atta-soldier-of-terror/ ''MUGSHOTS'': "Mohammed Atta—Soldier of Terror"] episode (2002) at [[FilmRise]]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/30/terrorism.september113 Last words of a terrorist from ''The Guardian'']

{{9-11 hijackers}}
{{GermanTerrorism}}
{{AmericanTerrorism}}
{{Al-Qaeda}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atta, Mohamed}}
[[Category:Mohamed Atta| ]]
[[Category:1968 births]]
[[Category:2001 deaths]]
[[Category:2001 suicides]]
[[Category:American Airlines Flight 11 hijackers]]
[[Category:Cairo University alumni]]
[[Category:Egyptian al-Qaeda members]]
[[Category:Egyptian expatriates in Germany]]
[[Category:Egyptian expatriates in the United States]]
[[Category:Egyptian mass murderers]]
[[Category:Egyptian Muslims]]
[[Category:Hamburg cell]]
[[Category:Hamburg University of Technology alumni]]
[[Category:Islamic terrorism in Germany]]
[[Category:Islamists from Cairo]]
[[Category:Male murderers]]
[[Category:People from Kafr El Sheikh Governorate]]