In this series, Newsweek maps the road to 9/11 as it unfolded 25 years ago, capturing events day by day. Yesterday, we discovered the secretive code used by the operatives: ‘Architecture’ referred to the World Trade Center, ‘arts’ was the Pentagon, ‘law’ represented the U.S. Capitol building, and ‘politics’ signified the White House.
August 20, 2001: German citizen Said Bahaji booked an airline ticket on August 20, departing from Hamburg to Karachi, Pakistan with a layover in Istanbul scheduled for September 3.
Bahaji, a former roommate of Mohammed Atta in Hamburg, aided the 9/11 hijackers during their time in the United States. He vacated Germany days before the attacks and remained a fugitive until reports of his death near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border emerged in 2013.
Bahaji stood out as the only German citizen among the Hamburg group. He received his education in Morocco before returning to Germany for higher studies at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg. He experienced a brief stint in the German Army, exiting with a medical discharge after five months.
Bahaji befriended Atta at the university, where they collectively petitioned for the establishment of a Muslim prayer room in 1999. The al-Quds mosque in Hamburg served as a common ground for Bahaji and the 9/11 hijackers. A notable video of Bahaji’s wedding on October 9, 1999, later retrieved after the 9/11 attacks, featured Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, and bin al-Shibh among the attendees.
The FBI commented on this video in an intelligence report, noting, “On the recording, at roughly the eleventh minute, Ramzi BINALSHIBH delivers a speech more political than congratulatory. BINALSHIBH concludes his address with a Palestinian ‘war poem’ in Arabic. Around the fifteenth minute, MARWAN ALSHEHHI sings a song inciting war. By the thirtieth minute, four guests, including ALSHEHHI, perform a song celebrating an ancient warrior and foreign conquests. Following a customary wedding song, ALSHEHHI and others sing another with a third Arab focusing on ‘Jihad.’ The wedding guests respond with ‘Allah is great!’ at the song’s conclusion.”
In the summer of 2001, Bahaji set his sights on Afghanistan with intentions to join al-Qaeda. The 9/11 Commission described him as “insecure,” with “no personality and limited knowledge of Islam.” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed advised Bahaji to travel to Afghanistan promptly due to imminent occurrences that could hinder travel.
Post-9/11, German authorities issued arrest warrants for Bahaji, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Zakariya Essabar for alleged terrorist group affiliations and crimes including murder and aircraft piracy. Investigations showed Atta and bin al-Shibh utilized Bahaji’s computer for online research, although his involvement appeared minimal beyond this.
Bahaji’s departure from Germany marked the beginning of a series of operatives traveling to Pakistan and eventually to Afghanistan ahead of the attacks.
Tomorrow, we will explore a critical intelligence oversight by the FBI and CIA. The mistaken identity issue, entangling Khalid al-Mihdhar, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and “Khallad,” inadvertently permitted 9/11 mastermind KSM to elude surveillance.