Federal prosecutors believe he was supposed to be the 20th hijacker – but on Aug. 17, before he could realize his dream of martydom, Zacarias Moussaoui was detained on immigration charges in Minnesota.
Eight days later, members of the suicide teams began buying tickets for the fateful flights they would hijack on Sept. 11.
Investigators now want to know if the carnage was set in motion by the then-obscure arrest of a man who aroused suspicion because he blurted out that he wanted to learn to fly commercial jetliners but not land them.
Did the terror plotters learn of their cohort’s detention, and – fearing he would talk – decide they had to act immediately?
The indictment released yesterday against Moussaoui, 33, raises intriguing new questions, at the same time illustrating the strikingly similar patterns and actions that connect the hijackers and the supporters who allegedly conspired with them.
The story the indictment tells begins with Moussaoui in Afghanistan in April 1998, when he was present at the Khalden terrorist training camp run by Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terror network.
That same year, and apparently unconnected to Moussaoui, three Middle Eastern men secretly formed an al Qaeda cell in Hamburg, Germany.
The men, Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah, became central players in the Sept. 11 plot, helping to plan it – and then sitting at the controls of three of the hijacked jetliners.
Atta, said to be the ringleader, flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the north tower of the World Trade Center.
Al-Shehhi, Atta’s cousin, flew United Airlines Flight 175 into the south tower.
And Jarrah appears to have been the trained pilot on United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed into a Pennsylvania field after the passengers fought back against the terrorists.
Authorities believe some of the planning for the attacks may have been done in January 2000, at a meeting in Malaysia that was attended by two other hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, who then proceeded on to California, where they enrolled in flight classes.
The plot progressed from that beginning in careful steps.
Atta came to the United States in June, 2000 and al-Shehhi arrived around the same time.
In July, they visited the Airman Flight School in Norman, Okla., but settled in Venice, Fla., where they took courses at Huffman Aviation.
THE 20TH HIJACKER
After training in Afghanistan, Moussaoui didn’t re-enter the picture until another man – who was a close associate of Atta and al-Shehhi – was unable to obtain a U.S. visa.
Authorities believe Ramzi Binalshibh, who shared an apartment with Atta and al-Shehhi in Hamburg, was intended to be the 20th hijacker, rounding out the last of what were to be five-man skyjack teams.
Now they are saying that when Binalshibh was kept out of the United States, Moussaoui became his stand-in.
Four times, from May through October 2000, Binalshibh applied for a visa to enter the United States from Europe or the Middle East. Four times he was rejected.
In September 2000, shortly after Binalshibh’s third visa request had been denied, Moussaoui made his first contact, via e-mail, with the same Norman, Okla., flight school Atta and al-Shehhi had visited over the summer.
In early December, the indictment says, both Binalshibh and Moussaoui were in London.
On Dec. 9, Moussaoui flew from London to Pakistan, returning in February 2000.
Later that month, he got on a plane to Chicago, then traveled to Oklahoma. By Feb. 26, he was in Norman, depositing $32,000 in cash in a new bank account.
He immediately began taking classes at the Airman Flight School.
That March, Moussaoui joined a Norman gym and began working out.
Investigators say this forms a pattern with many of the other hijackers, who began joining gyms in other parts of the country over the spring and summer – apparently intent on becoming physically fit in preparation for their day of terror.
In early April, Alhazmi, one of the central plotters, traveled to Oklahoma.
Beginning that month and continuing through June, the larger hijacking team began to assemble, entering from abroad and settling in various parts of the country.
Moussaoui quit the Airman school, where he was considered a poor student, in May. But he remained in Norman, where the indictment says that in June, he made inquiries about starting a crop-dusting company – similar to inquiries Atta had made in Florida.
After the attacks, investigators found information related to crop-dusting on Moussaoui’s computer, prompting authorities to ground crop-dusting planes nationwide out of fear of a chemical or biological attack.
FLIGHT TRAINING VIDEOS
Last June, the indictment says, Moussaoui bought training videos for Boeing 747s from an Ohio pilot store.
That purchase may also fit a pattern.
In December 2000, Atta bought training videos from the same Ohio store for two popular jetliners, the Airbus A-320 and the Boeing 767 (the type of plane he eventually flew into the World Trade Center).
The following March, Alhazmi bought training videos for Boeing 747s and 777s from the same shop.
The pattern of purchases – and sessions some of the hijackers paid for on 747 simulators – raises another question: Did the hijackers hope to commandeer 747s, the largest commercial jet in the sky, with an eye on even greater destruction?
THE MONEY TRAIL
The money trail connects Moussaoui to Binalshibh and the wider plot that summer, the indictment charges.
From July 29 to Aug. 2, Moussaoui allegedly made several phone calls from public telephones in Norman to a number in Dusseldorf, Germany.
On July 30 and 31, Binalshibh received two wire transfers in Hamburg, totaling $15,000, from the United Arab Emirates, which the indictment says was used as the base of the terror operation’s paymaster, Mustafa Ahmed.
Then, in the first three days of August, Binalshibh wired $14,000 from Hamburg and Dusseldorf to Moussaoui, the indictment says.
With his pockets suddenly full again, Moussaoui went to Oklahoma City and bought two knives.
On Aug. 9 Moussaoui traveled from Oklahoma to Minnesota.
Between Aug. 13 and 15, he took Boeing 747 simulator training at the Pan Am International Flight Academy in Minneapolis.
That’s where he told instructors he wanted to learn only to steer a plane in flight – but had no interest in taking off or landing.
Alarmed, they called federal authorities, who questioned Moussaoui and detained him on Aug. 17 for immigration violations.
Investigators believe the other hijackers soon learned of Moussaoui’s detention.
Probers do not know if Sept. 11 had already been chosen as the date for the terror strike, or if Moussaoui’s arrest accelerated their plans.
But the indictment makes clear the “final preparations” for the attacks began within days of Moussaoui being taken into federal custody.
FINAL PREPARATIONS
On Aug. 21, $4,900 was deposited into a UAE bank account in the name of hijacker Fayez Ahmed, over which terror paymaster Mustafa Ahmed had power of attorney.
Fayez Ahmed, living in Florida, used a Visa card linked to the account to withdraw the money the next day.
Also in Florida, on Aug. 22, Jarrah purchased diagrams of the instrument panels in the cockpit of a Boeing 757 (the jetliner he would later hijack out of Newark).
On Aug. 25 – eight days after Moussaoui was detained – two hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar and Majed Moqed, used cash to buy tickets for American Airlines Flight 77, from Dulles Airport to Los Angeles, on Sept. 11.
With Alhazmi and two others, they would commandeer the jet and fly it into the Pentagon.
Within four days, most of the remaining hijackers had reserved tickets on their assigned planes.
Early on Sept. 11, the 19 hijackers took their seats on four transcontinental jets.
Within hours, the world was a different place.
And Zacarias Moussaoui sat in a Minnesota cell, waiting for someone to call his name.