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9.23.2001
A trail of terror dates back to '91
1991:
Saudi Arabia expels Osama bin Laden, a wealthy militant who bought arms for Afghans fighting the Soviet Union in the 1980s, after he criticizes their decision to bring in American troops for the 1990 Persian Gulf war. He leaves for Sudan and begins setting up terrorist troops.
1992:
Bin Laden says he has carried out attacks on U.S. troops in Somalia.
1993:
The eventual leader of a terrorist cell, Egyptian-born Mohamed al-Amir Awad al-Sayed Atta, studies at a technical University in Hamburg, Germany.
Feb. 26, 1993:
A car bomb explodes in the basement of the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring about 1,000. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the mastermind of the operation, tells a Secret Service agent that the bomb was designed to topple the 110-story buildings. The attacks are linked to a group that has since become increasingly allied with bin Laden.
Dec. 11, 1994:
A Philippine Airlines jet is bombed while in the air, killing one passenger, in a test run for a plot to bomb a dozen American jumbo jets.
Christmas Eve 1994:
The Armed Islamic Group in Algeria, a group with ties to bin Laden, hijacks an Air France plane to blow it up over Paris in an effort that was eventually foiled. Three passengers are killed.
January 1995:
A conspiracy to bomb a dozen American jumbo jets as they fly over the Pacific is foiled.
November 1995:
Bin Laden backs bombing of military training headquarters in Saudi Arabia that kills five American servicemen.
1996:
Planning to train suicide pilots begins.
June 1996:
Sudan, bowing to U.S. pressure, forces bin Laden to leave the country. Bin Laden goes to Afghanistan. He backs another bombing in Saudi Arabia that shatters the Khobar Towers barracks for American servicemen, killing at least 19.
September 1996:
Native Saudi Arabian Hani Hanjour takes up residence in the Phoenix, Ariz., area and enrolls at the CRM Airline Training Center in Scottsdale. He quits in November.
1997:
Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing, testifies at the bombing trial that potential terrorists learned the 110-story towers could withstand being hit by a Boeing 707. Other trial testimony reveals that bin Laden had formed plans to attack New York landmarks.
1997:
Waleed M. Alshehri graduates from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla.
December 1997:
Hanjour re-enrolls in the Scottsdale, Ariz., fligth school but quits again after a month.
1998:
Bin Laden calls on Muslims to kill Americans around the world.
Aug. 7, 1998:
Bombs at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania kill 224 people, including 12 Americans, and injure thousands. The coordinated attacks are linked to bin Laden.
Late 1998:
Bassam A. Kanj and Raed M. Hijazi, two taxi drivers with links to bin Laden who had been living in the Boston area for nearly 15 years, suddenly leave for the Middle East. Kanj is killed in the militant group's attack against Lebanon's army. Hijazi is arrested in Jordan for planning to destroy a hotel there filled with Americans and Israelis.
1999:
Hanjour finally receives his pilot's license. NYT. In germany, Atta begins an Islamic prayer group and apparently begins to recruit members to his fundamentalist cause.
December 1999:
U.S. border agents arrest Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian man living in Montreal, crossing into Washington state with a trunk-load of explosives in a foiled plot targeting the Los Angeles airport and other American sites. The plot is linked to bin Laden.
Unclear:
At least four terrorists said to be linked to bin Laden are believed to get flight training in Florida. The four are:
Atta
, Marwan Al-Shehhi, Abdulaziz Alomari and Alshehri.
Atta moves to Florida, but over the next several months makes at least two trips to Spain, apparently to meet with others involved in terrorism.
July-November 2000:
Some hijackers learn how to fly in Venice, Fla. Atta and Al-Shehhi receive training at Huffman Aviation, a private flight training school there.
October 2000:
The American destroyer Cole is attacked in Aden harbor in Yemen, killing 17 American sailors in a suicide bombing linked to bin Laden.
Winter 2000:
Some hijackers learn how to fly a jet, presumably at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., and FlightSafety International in Vero Beach, Fla., which often trains foreign pilots on jumbo jets.
December 2000:
Atta and Al-Shehhi rent a Boeing 727 flight simulator at Opa-Locka Airport near Miami in December. They practice for three hours on two consecutive days.
Months ago:
Planning begins for attacks on World Trade Center. As many as 50 infiltrators involved.
June 2001:
"With small capabilities, and with our faith, we can defeat the greatest military power of modern times," says Osama bin Laden, in a two-hour videotape delivered to a Kuwaiti newspaper. "America is much weaker than it appears." He also says the Cole bombing was a prelude to new strikes against American targets.
August:
Hanjour attempts to rent a single-engine plane at an airport near Washington, but is declined when he cannot demonstrate proper flying skills.
Aug. 16 and 19:
Atta brushes up on flying skills at Palm Beach County Park Airport by renting a Piper Archer plane three times.
Aug. 17:
Zacarias Moussaoui, 33, a native of France and a repeated visitor to Afghanistan and Pakistan, is detained in Minnesota by U.S. immigration officials after he seeks training in flying large jet liners. Investigators now believe Moussaoui, already suspected of terrorist connections by the French police, may have been a 20th hijacker, whose detention prevented his involvement in the Sept. 11 attack, leaving one hijacked plane with only four hijackers where the others had five.
Thursday, Sept. 6:
Investors, still unidentified, bought 25 times more options, in effect betting that United Airlines stock would fall rather than rise. Normally, those bets are about even.
Friday, Sept. 7:
Atta, Al-Shehhi and a third man go to a bar in Hollywood, Fla., where Atta and Al-Shehhi have five drinks each in 90 minutes. They argue with a waitress about paying the $48 bill, with one finally taking umbrage at the suggestion he can't pay and saying, "You think I can't pay? I'm a pilot for American Airlines."
Sunday, Sept. 9:
Atta leaves his Vero Beach, Fla., apartment. At least a week earlier, Alomari, a Saudi pilot who was getting advanced flight training at FlightSafety International flight school, moves his family out of their apartment in Vero Beach.
Earlier this month:
Two terrorists enter the United States from Canada, either by car ferry or over land, reportedly at Jackman, Maine. A gas station owner in Jackman says he sold gas to four Arab men on Aug. 17.
Late last week:
Four men try to buy cellular telephones from Unicel, a cellular phone company in Bangor, Maine, but the salesperson refuses to sell them because the men refuse to provide identification. Five Arab men believed to be hijackers try to rent or buy cellular telephones in Bangor, Me., and finally purchase by paying with cash. They then make reservations for two men to fly from Portland, Maine, to Boston on Tuesday.
In recent days: Terrorists spend time in Springfield, Mass. One suspected hijacker rents a Mitsubishi sedan in Springfield and that car is driven to Boston. Between Sept. 5 and Sept. 11, the sedan enters the Logan Airpot parking lot and parks there four or five times.
Sept. 5:
Two terrorists check into Park Inn, in Newton, Mass.
Several days ago:
Atta and Alomari rent a car at Logan airport and drive to Maine.
Monday, Sept. 10:
Two terrorists are believed to stay overnight at a Comfort Inn in South Portland, near the airport. At least three terrorists are believed to have stayed overnight at the Newark Airport Marriott hotel. As many as eight terrorists are believed to have stayed overnight at hotels in the Boston area. Middle Eastern men at a Daytona Beach, Fla., sports and nude bar brag, "America is going to see blood, just wait until tomorrow."
Tuesday, Sept. 11:
Terrorists park a rented Nissan Altima at the Portland, Me., airport. Atta and Alomari fly USAir Flight 5930 at 6 a.m. from the Portland, Maine, airport to Boston.
Other hijackers leave a Mitsubishi sedan at Logan Airport; inside the sedan are a copy of the Koran and a flight-training manual in Arabic explaining how to fly a Boeing 757 and 767. The car was registered to Atta and it was based in Springfield, Mass.
At the last minute, terrorists buy at least five one-way tickets for United Flight 175 from Logan to Los Angeles and at least two one-way tickets for American Airlines Flight 11 to Los Angeles.
Atta's luggage is left behind at Logan because there is not enough time to load it onto his Boston-to-Los Angeles flight. The terrorists also leave luggage behind at Logan with videos showing simulated flights for 757 and 747 aircraft, an instruction booklet for simulated flying of a 757 and 767, six bags of pilot training calendars and a Muslim prayer calendar.
Investigators later estimate that the terrorists spent about $200,000 on the whole operation, a tiny sum compared with billions in damages and thousands of deaths, but up sharply from the $20,000 to $40,000 thought to have been spent on the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Investigators hope now that higher spending will mean a bigger trail to follow in tracing the terrorists.
Albader Alhazmi, 34, a Saudi national and Saudi-trained doctor who was doing a medical residency in radiology at University of Texas Health Science Center, fails to report for work; he will later be arrested on suspicion of complicity.
7:59 a.m.:
On American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston are Atta, Alshehri and Alomari.
8:01 a.m.:
United Airlines Flight 93 leaves Newark Airport for San Francisco.
8:10 a.m.:
American Airlines Flight 77 leaves Dulles International Airport, in Washington, for Los Angeles. Among the hijackers on board is Hanjour.
8:14 a.m.:
On United Flight 175 from Boston is Fayez Ahmed, Ahmed Alghamdi, Hamza Alghamdi, Mohaid Alsheri and Marwan Al-Shehhi.
8:45 a.m.:
Flight 11, possibly with Atta at the controls, flies into the World Trade Center North Tower.
9:03 a.m.:
United Flight 175 hits the South Tower
9:43 a.m.:
American Flight 77 flies over the Pentagon from west to east at 5,000 feet, makes a tight right turn, and crashes into the building.
10:37 a.m.:
Confirmation that United Flight 93 crashed southeast of Pittsburgh.
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Boston Herald, The Boston Globe,
General Accounting Office, The Newark Star-Ledger, MSNBC.Com, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Palm Beach Post, Newsday, The Chicago Tribune and The San Francisco Chronicle.
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