Paul Thompson’s The Terror Timeline is the indispensable research tool for anyone interested in the events leading up to, during, and after the events of September 11th, 2001.
Welcome to the second installment of a weekly “series” that will showcase an item found on the Timeline. Some of you might find this a pointless exercise. Others will find some if not all of the items fascinating.
More below…
February 2001: Two Hijackers Seen Living in San Antonio with Swapped Identities
At least six people with no connections to one another later claim they recognize hijackers Satam Al Suqami (Flight 11) and Salem Alhazmi (Flight 77) living in San Antonio, Texas, until this month.
The management of an apartment building says the two men abandoned their leases at about this time, and some apartment residents recognize them. However, all the witnesses say that Suqami was going by Alhazmi’s name, and vice versa! [San Antonio, Texas, KENS 5 Eyewitness News, 10.1.01]
One pilot shop employee recognizes Alhazmi as a frequent visitor to the store and interested in a 757 or 767 handbook, though he also says Alhazmi used Suqami’s name. [KENS 5 Eyewitness News, 10.3.01]
The apartment-leasing agent also recalls a Ziad Jarrah (Flight 93) who once lived there in June 2001 and looked the same as the hijacker. [San Antonio Express News, 9.22.01; Associated Press, 9.22.01 (B)] Local FBI confirm that a Salem Alhazmi attended the nearby Alpha Tango Flight School and lived in that apartment building, but they say he is a different Salem Alhazmi who is still alive and living in Saudi Arabia. [KENS 5 Eyewitness News, 10.4.01] However, that “Salem Alhazmi” says he has never been to the U.S. and has proven to the authorities that he did not leave Saudi Arabia in the two years prior to 9.11. [Washington Post, 9.20.01]
The FBI does not explain Satam Al Suqami’s presence. Neither hijacker is supposed to have arrived in the U.S. before April 2001.
As with so much of the 9.11 story, there are so many anomalies and incredible coincidences. Why would the hijackers swap their identities? Were they really who they said they were? What are the odds that the same man who supposedly never left the Middle East would be identified in Texas by multiple witnesses? If law enforcement officials are correct in stating that the hijackers weren’t in the country before April, how are they being seen in February? I want to hear what you think.
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