[8] He then worked for several months at the Urban Development Center in Cairo, where he joined various building projects and dispatched diverse architectural tasks. They board a commuter flight to Boston Logan International Airport, they then board American Airlines Flight 11.. 7:59 AM - Flight 11 takes off from Boston, headed for Los Angeles, California. On Oct. 6, 2021, a new episode of the "Your Mom's House" podcast was released . Instead, he went to Central Office & Travel in Pompano Beach to purchase a ticket for a flight to Newark, leaving on the evening of August 7 and schedule to return in the evening on August 9. This was the last transmission heard from Flight 11. At 8:26 a.m., Flight 11 makes . Don't try to make any stupid moves." He said he wanted to visit the World Trade Center and asked Bryant about the security there. Mohamed Atta, right, and Abdulaziz al-Omari pass through security at the Portland jetport ahead of a commuter flight to Boston on Sept. 11. After a week, they were asked to leave because they were rude. [38] 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. He said they wanted advice on trying to restart the plane. [79], On August 23, Atta's driver license was revoked in absentia after he failed to show up in traffic court to answer the earlier citation for driving without a license. Newsweek is reconstructing the road to 9/11 as it was constructed 20 years ago, day by day. 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. During that time Atta flew out of Briscoe Field in Lawrenceville with a pilot, and Atta and either the pilot or Shehhi flew around the Atlanta area. Here's some background information about the 19 hijackers of September 11, 2001.. Timeline September 11, 2001 - Nineteen men hijack four commercial airlines loaded with fuel for cross country . This claim has been disputed; 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). Statements entered at . 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. Had his conversations been monitored, the NSA would have heard the conversations of a husband and wife, talking about day-to-day life, in the German language, probably raising no suspicions. He was the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11 which he crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the coordinated 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. Mohamed Atta, one of the key organizers among the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks, left behind a five-page handwritten document in Arabic that includes Islamic prayers . Mohammed Atta sat in seat 8D in Business Class. There was some confusion regarding who Mohamed Atta was, and cases of mistaken identity. [66][67], Atta began flight training on July 6, 2000, and continued training nearly every day. But none of them were so flagged. This call was apparently to confirm that the attacks were ready to begin. [48] 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. Atta flew Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The night before, Atta went to Portland, Maine, a trip that has mystified terrorism experts for five years. [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. The two other "muscle men," intended to take over the plane, were also Saudi citizens: Abdulaziz al-Omari (A. al-Omari on the flight manifest) and Satam al-Suqami. On July 26, Atta traveled via Continental Airlines to Newark, New Jersey, checked into the Kings Inn Hotel in Wayne, New Jersey, and stayed there until July 30 when he took a flight from Newark back to Fort Lauderdale. And that may have been what he was doing. Realizing they were facing a suicide mission, flight 93 passengers fought for control of the plane. He mentioned Al Qaeda and said the organization "could use memberships from Americans". [69], On June 27, Atta flew from Fort Lauderdale to Boston, Massachusetts, where he spent a day, and then continued to San Francisco for a short time, and from there to Las Vegas. Photocopy of Jarrah's passport, made by Rina Bernard when she rented out one of her apartments at 1816 Harding St. Jarrah was on board United Airlines flight 93 when it crashed in Pennsylvania. [30], In Hamburg, Atta was intensely drawn to al-Quds Mosque which adhered to a "harsh, uncompromisingly fundamentalist, and resoundingly militant" version of Sunni Islam. The second chapter showed Atta and Ziad Jarrah reading their wills together ten days later on January 18. [13][14] In 1985, Atta enrolled at Cairo University and focused his studies on engineering. Skies, Plot Leader Met bin Laden", "Video of 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta posted by British news site", "FBI Informant Says Agents Missed Chance to Stop 9/11 Ringleader Mohammed Atta", "Flight Path Study American Airlines Flight 11", "Personal Stories Who Were They? Then at 8:50pm, he checked into the Hotel Diana Cazadora in Barajas, a town near the airport. "[105][106], 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. On September 11 we'll live tweet the events of the day, minute by minute, starting at 4:45 a.m. EST, @RoadTo911. [16], On August 4, 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." On August 6, Atta booked a flight on Spirit Airlines from Fort Lauderdale to Newark, leaving on August 7 and returning on August 9. He would soon post a note forbidding pilots from flying into Miami International. He criticized how the newfangled skyscrapers and other modernizing projects were disrupting the fabric of communities by blocking common streets and altering the skyline. Jarrah was the first of the Hamburg group to enter the United States, settling in Venice, Florida, where he began flight training. 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. On December 22, Atta and Shehhi applied to Eagle International for large jet and simulator training for McDonnell Douglas DC-9 and Boeing 737-300 models. Atta took control of the plane and crashed it into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46a.m.[6] The crash led to the collapse of the skyscraper and the deaths of more than 1,600 people. 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. Having little else to do, he mostly studied at home and easily excelled in school. As it turned out, the employee said, a spark plug had needed tightening and the two pilots had probably flooded the engine. He was the only pilot who was married, to a German national of Turkish descent. 3", "Ticket agent recalls anger in Atta's eyes", "9/11 victim calmly describes hijack on haunting tape", https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-jun-18-na-introflight18-story.html, "102 Minutes: Last Words at the Trade Center; Fighting to Live as the Towers Die", "TWO YEARS LATER: THE 91ST FLOOR; The Line Between Life and Death, Still Indelible", "FBI affidavit: Flight attendant made call to report hijacking", "A Case of Mistaken Identity: Mohammad Atta Not Linked to Bus Bombing", "2nd Witness Arrested; 25 Held for Questioning", "A Tale of Two 'Attas': How spurious Czech intelligence muddied the 9/11 probe", "Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00", "Officer Says 2 Others Are Source of His Atta Claims", "Hijackers Were Not Identified Before 9/11, Investigation Says", "Exclusive: Witnesses in Defense Dept. On April 3, Atta and Shehhi rented a postal box in Virginia Beach, Virginia. In January, after flying from Miami to Madrid, he was allowed to re-enter the United States despite overstaying his previous visa. [8], Atta was born on September 1, 1968, in Kafr el-Sheikh, located in the Nile Delta region of Egypt (then a part of the United Arab Republic). He mentioned Osama bin Laden and said "this man would someday be known as the world's greatest leader." Investigators believe the call was to confirm the attacks were ready to begin. 5:45 AM - Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz al-Omari, two of the intended hijackers, pass through security at the Portland International Jetport in Maine. The date for the planes operation is set. [55], A video surfaced in October 2006. "Might have just been doing surveillance detection just to see if somebody might have been following him up in that area, Drumhiller said. The date for the planes operation is set. The men who would become the pilots of the four hijacked planes began working on the plot in 1999, traveled to the US in 2000, and enrolled in flight training schools. Since these were domestic flights, there was no particular means at the time for the intelligence community to receive a tip-off of a reservation. Protection against purely domestic hijackers primarily was lodged with check-in personnel at the airport counter, then with security screeners, and finally with attendants at the gate. He inquired about flight training, "Dear sir, we are a small group of young men from different Arab countries. Bin Laden also asked that other operatives not be informed of the specific data until the last minute. Mohamed Atta Flight Record. There seem to be two primary reasons for his choosing that particular day: that it fell after Labor Day when most Americans (and the George W. Bush administration) would be back at work, maximizing the impact in terms of killing people; and that it was a Tuesday when air travel was easier and the planes less full (that is, fewer hostile passengers to deal with). [16][60] On July 6, 2000, Atta, Jarrah and Shehhi enrolled at Huffman Aviation in Venice, where they entered the Accelerated Pilot Program. Report Suggest Cover-Up of 9/11 Findings", "Father Denies 'Gentle Son' Could Hijack Any Jetliner", "Father insists alleged leader of attack on WTC is still alive", "He Never Even Had a Kite" Mohamed Atta's father talks about his son, the alleged hijacker, " 11 ", New video shows 9/11 hijackers Mohammed Atta, Ziad Jarrah at Al-Qaida meeting., Interviews with those who interacted with Atta prior to 9/11, October 2001 interview with Dittmar Machule, "MUGSHOTS: Mohammed Atta - Soldier of Terror", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mohamed_Atta&oldid=1140797922, Four Corners, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, broadcast November 12, 2001, Documentary series from Court TV (now TruTV), This page was last edited on 21 February 2023, at 21:12. Footage shows the five hijackers who flew American Flight 77 into the Pentagon progressing through security checks at Washington's Dulles International Airport. A spokesman for the F.A.A. Wail's ticket was purchased over the phone with a debit card. He led the team of hijackers who took control of American Airlines flight 11 and flew it into the north tower of New York City's World Trade Center. Passengers must leave the secured area, go outdoors, cross a covered roadway, and enter another building before going through security once again. His nascent infatuation with her, begrudgingly realised, was the closest thing Atta knew to romance. But with more than 200,000 warrants pending on minor offenses in Broward County, he was never picked up. [23] He kept to himself to such an extent that he would often react to simple greetings with silence. And we came up empty.". [97] After 9/11, there also were reports stating that Mohamed Atta had attended International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. Atta, an Egyptian, and Omari, a Saudi, held $2,400 first-class tickets to fly from Portland to Boston to Los Angeles. Volker Hauth, who was traveling with Atta, described Amal as "attractive and self-confident. . of 20-25 sons of Mohamed bin Laden, who had 52-54 children in total.2 Originally an immigrant from Yemen, Muhamed bin Laden, by befriending the royal family, had established a major construction company and had amassed a fortune of some 2-3 billion dollars by the time of his death in a 1967 plane crash. "[62][63] Bryant contacted the authorities after recognising Atta in news reports. 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. Mohammed AttaUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (U.S. v. Moussaoui) Mistakenly broadcasting over the air traffic control channel instead of the public-address system, flight 11 hijacker Mohammad Atta, who is piloting the plane, announces, "We have some planes. The timing of the incident also apparently came near the end of the time Mr. Atta and Mr. Shehhi spent in Venice and the start of the months they spent in South Florida before the attacks. So why did UA Flight 93 prove to be the only plane that failed to reach its intended target, retaken by its passengers and forced to crash? [94], On October 1, 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 six months earlier at a training camp in Afghanistan. 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. According to Bryant, Atta wanted to finance the purchase of a crop-duster. Here he presented an AAA membership for a discount, and paid cash for the $49.50/night room. Jan 28, 2004 at 3:00 am. It's hard to tell.". Drumhiller said it could have been "to make the final arrangements, to sort of close out everything they were doing to wrap up their time in the states.". About a minute later, he turned the plane southbound, on a course pointed in the direction of New York City. His mother, Bouthayna Mohamed Mustapha Sheraqi, came from a wealthy farming and trading family and was also educated. September 9, 2021 at 12:30 p.m. EDT. Both enrolled at Jones Aviation in Sarasota and took training there for a brief time. Days later, Shehhi, Jarrah and Atta ended up in Venice, Florida. [58], On May 17, Atta applied for a United States visa. 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. On August 6, Atta and Shehhi rented a white, four-door 1995 Ford Escort from Warrick's Rent-A-Car, which was returned on August 13. 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. Atta and Jarrah appear in high spirits, laughing and smiling in front of the camera. He had vacationed often as a child (and would continue to take vacations with his wife while he was in the United States) and was the best English speaker and student of the four. A voice believed to be that of al Qaeda hijack leader Mohamed Atta urged passengers to . In the summer of 2001, Mohamed Atta, the operational leader of the 9/11 conspiracy, drove another conspirator, Ziah Jarrah, to Miami's main airport so that Mr. Jarrah could fly to Germany to visit . Flesh or bone from 13 of the 19 Al Qaeda terrorists who flew passenger jets into . "This begs the question of why the pilots had not punched in the hijack code of 7500, also known as Squawking, if things were happening on the plane before the hijackers gained entry to the . The luggage included a copy of Atta's will, written in Arabic, as well as a list of instructions, called "The Last Night". While in South Portland, they were seen making two ATM withdrawals and stopping at Wal-Mart. We hate America and all that it stands for. It was Atta who took control of the first hijacked aircraft, American Airlines Flight 11, and told passengers, "Nobody move, everything will be OK. [12] Atta initially lived with two high school teachers; however, they eventually found his closed-mindedness and introverted personality to be too much for them. They drove to Cambrils, where they spent a night at the Hotel Monica. 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. Atta said, he was to crash the plane. Abdulaziz al Omari (22), Saudi Arabia - Airport security guard. [39], On August 1, 1995, Atta returned to Egypt for three months of study. [91] The angle at which Atta crashed into the North Tower severed all means of escape from Floor 92 or higher, ensuring that no one on those floors was able to make it out alive before the building collapsed 102 minutes later at 10:28 A.M.[92], Because the flight from Portland to Boston had been delayed,[93] his bags did not make it onto Flight 11. Almost all of these points discuss spiritual preparation, such as prayer and citing religious scripture. In the aftermath of the attack, law enforcement agents discovered a four-page document in Mohamed Atta's baggage. And so, we still don't know what he was doing there.". The next winter, they moved into an apartment at Marienstrasse 54 in the borough of Harburg, near the Hamburg University of Technology,[50] at which they enrolled. At 2:12 p.m. on August 25, Mohammed Atta logged into his Travelocity account. Bin al-Shibh was worried that Jarrah might even abandon the plan. He assumed that they had already radioed the tower so he advised them to go to the offices of Signature, the private general aviation operator at the airport. He asked about the Pentagon and the White House. ''I told them to forget it. 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. [108], Atta's father, Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta, a retired lawyer in Egypt, vehemently rejected allegations his son was involved in the September 11 attacks, and instead accused the Mossad and the United States government of having a hand in framing his son. On 12 April 1986, Mahmoud Mahmoud Atta . At 8:25 . As his father insisted that he go abroad for graduate studies, Atta, to this end, entered a German-language program at the Goethe Institute in Cairo. The hour-long tape places him in Afghanistan at a decisive moment in the development of the conspiracy when he was given operational command. At 2:12 p.m. on August 25, Mohammed Atta logged into his . Hijacker Mohamed Atta presses the wrong button when trying to communicate with passengers on Flight 11, reaching out instead to air traffic control and alerting controllers to the attacks. Atta purchased cockpit videos for Boeing 747-200, Boeing 757-200, Airbus A320 and Boeing 767-300ER models via mail-order from Sporty's Pilot Shop in Batavia, Ohio, in November and December 2000.[16]. Several clues have been found to link their stay in Spain to Syrian-born Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas (Abu Dahdah), and Amer el Azizi, a Moroccan in Spain. "[46][47] At the winter break in 1997, Atta left and did not return to Hamburg for three months. Mohamed Atta accepted and was in Germany two weeks later, in July. "[114] By contrast, criminal justice professor, Adam Lankford, has found evidence that indicated Atta was suicidal, and that his struggles with social isolation, depression, guilt, shame, hopelessness, and rage were extraordinarily similar to the struggles of those who commit conventional suicide and murder-suicide. A passenger revolt kept Flight 93 from hitting the Capitol. It is only Jarrah's connection to Bin al-Shibh and others that would have connected him to any plot, including his attendance at the al Quds mosque in Hamburg. 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. Jarrah had arrived in the United States on June 27, 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. Ringleader Mohammed Atta and at least four of the other 19 hijackers made six visits to Las Vegas between late May and mid-August of 2001. The third hijacked plane, American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 that took off from Dulles Airport . American Airlines Flight 11 was hijacked by five al Qaeda terrorists led by Mohamed Atta and was deliberately crashed into the North Tower (on the right) of the World Trade Center at 8:46am local . We will examine that 9/11 mystery in our next report. [38] The instructions in his last will and testament reflect both 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. "I suspect they were casing a fallback position to launch from if, for weather or security, they couldn't get out of Boston, Drumhiller said. The next day, he received a five-year B-1/B-2 (tourist/business) visa from the United States embassy in Berlin. Shower. They may have helped arrange and host the meeting in Tarragona. Atta phoned his graduate advisor, Machule, and mentioned family problems at home, saying, "Please understand, I don't want to talk about this. By early 1999, Atta had completed his thesis, and formally defended it in August 1999.[47]. IE 11 is not supported. [59] After obtaining his visa, Atta took a bus on June 2 from Hamburg to Prague where he stayed overnight before traveling on to the United States the next day. Atta earned his private pilot certificate in September, and then he and Shehhi decided to switch flight schools. There, Atta and bin al-Shibh held a meeting to complete the planning of the attacks. A well-connected Saudi family hosted visits from 9/11 terrorists at their Sarasota, Fla., home, including Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi, who were the hijackers in the cockpit of the plane which . On the morning of September 11, 2001, 46 minutes into United Airlines Flight 93, a nonstop flight from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco, four hijackers took control of the Boeing 757-222. Hardball takes a look at the top mysteries surrounding the deadliest terror attack on American soil starting with the activities al-Qaida ring leader Mohammed Atta on the evening of Sept. 10, 2001. Ramzi bin al-Shibh is also identified in the video. [73], On the morning of July 9, Mohamed Atta rented a silver Hyundai Accent, which he booked from SIXT Rent-A-Car for July 9 to 16, and later extended to the 19th. "Nothing they said or did raised any suspicions at all," he told the commission's investigators. Mohamed Atta", "In Egypt, some see war on terror as a war on Islam", "Interview with Professor Dittmar Machule", "Four Corners Ralph Bodenstein interview", "Will Gives a Window into Suspect's Mind", "Germans Lay Out Early Qaeda Ties to 9/11 Hijackers", "Video showing Atta, bin Laden is unearthed", "Zacarias Moussauoi v. the United States (trial testimony)", "Transcript of Johnelle Bryant Interview", "Hijacker tried to get U.S. loan to buy plane", "Algerian accused in Britain of training hijackers", "Atta recibi en Tarragona joyas para que los miembros del 'comando' del 11-S se hiciesen pasar por ricos saudes", "War Without Borders The Madrid Bombing", "Search for Sept. 11 Suspect Focuses on a Visit to Spain", "Sept. 11 hijacker raised suspicions at border", Document links al Qaeda paymaster, 9/11 plotter, "NewsMine.org hijackers traced to huffman aviation.txt", "While America Slept: The True Story of 9/11", "A Mundane Itinerary on the Eve of Terror", "9/11 mystery: What was Atta doing on 9/10? [86][89] The plane's transponder was switched off at 8:21a.m. At 8:24:38a.m., a voice believed to be Atta's was heard by air traffic controllers, saying: "We have some planes. On July 7, 2001, Atta flew on Swissair Flight 117 from Miami to Zrich, where he had a stopover. Now, we are living in Germany since a while for study purposes. [8][29] Among other odd jobs to supplement his income, Atta sometimes worked at a cleaning company and sometimes bought and sold cars. Spanish investigators have said that Marwan al-Shehhi and two others later joined the meeting. [9][44] This was the same day that Israel, much to the outrage of Atta, attacked Lebanon in Operation Grapes of Wrath; signing the will "offering his life" was his response. Mr. Pursell described the incident at the Miami airport as a nuisance more than a serious violation, an assessment shared by many others in general aviation. - United Airlines Flight 175 (traveling from Boston to Los Angeles) strikes the South Tower of the World Trade Center . 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. [24] Atta was averse to modern development. [57], On March 22, 2000, Atta was still in Germany when he sent an e-mail to the Academy of Lakeland in Florida. 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. On Sept. 12, 2001, investigators combed over the field near Shanksville, Pa., where United Flight 93 crashed a day earlier. He believed that the drab and impersonal apartment blocks, built in the 60s and 70s, ruined the beauty of old neighborhoods and robbed their people of privacy and dignity. In mid-1998, Atta worked alongside Shehhi, bin al-Shibh, and Belfas, at a warehouse, packing computers in crates for shipping. Atta flew to Spain on January 4, 2001, to coordinate with bin al-Shibh and returned to the United States on January 10. Some, like the 9/11 plot's ringleader, Mohamed Atta, flew in from Florida, checking into the King's Inn Motel in Wayne for a few days and then leaving and then returning days later. Bin Laden was concerned about having so many operatives in the United States. At 7:59a.m., the plane departed from Boston to Los Angeles International Airport, carrying 81 passengers.[86]. One theory suggests that Mohamed Atta and the other pilots who led the hijacking teams were here planning the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. A secret police intelligence report . In the end though, those international calls and Emails open a window to the falsehood of greater authority to intercept communications. [33], After coming to Hamburg in 1992, Atta grew more religiously fanatical and frequented the mosque with greater regularity. 2) Make sure you know all aspects of the plan well, and expect the . 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. Atta was believed to have used a payphone at the airport to phone a number "linked to al-Qaeda" after Qahtani was denied entry.[78]. The 33-year-old grew up in a strict household in Egypt where he was made to study hard. Waleed purchased his ticket online with his debit card. Ziad Jarrah should demonstrate that intelligence collection needs to be a holistic endeavor and is highly complicated. On April 16, Atta was given a citation for not having a valid driver's license, and he began steps to get the license. Turning toward New York. Shave excess hair from the body and wear cologne. Unidentified sources from both Al-Qaeda and the United States confirmed The Times the video's authenticity. They drove a rented Nissan to Portland, Maine, and arrived at the Comfort Inn Hotel at 5:43 p.m. At the time, Tyler Drumhiller was a top official at the CIA, responsible for all European Operations.