The existence of previously unknown, suspected accomplices to the September 11, 2001, attacks has surfaced as a result of a classified State Department cable published by WikiLeaks.

 

According to the communiqué dated February 11, 2010, three men from Qatar flew to the U.S. on August 15, 2001, to conduct surveillance of targets in New York and Washington, including the World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty and the White House, before flying to Los Angeles.

 

The men, Meshal Alhajri, Fahad Abdulla and Ali Alfehaid, stayed at hotel near Los Angeles International Airport. Inside their room they kept pilot-type uniforms, several laptop computers, one of which was attached to a mobile phone by a wire, a smashed mobile phone and pin-feed computer printouts with headers listing pilot names, airlines, flight numbers and flight times.

 

Originally, the threesome planned to fly to Washington, DC, on September 10, 2001, via American Airlines flight 144—the same plane that was hijacked the next day by terrorists and crashed into the Pentagon. But instead the men decided to board a British Airways flight to London, from which they caught another plane to Qatar.

 

In addition to the three Qataris, the cable writer recommended that a fourth man with whom they stayed and traveled, Mohamed al-Mansoori of the United Arab Emirates, be placed on a watch list as a threat to aviation.

 

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, government officials uncovered evidence of al Qaeda’s plans to carry out a second wave of attacks in the U.S. It is unknown if the three Qataris were involved in such a plot.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Visas Viper Meeting and Submission  (WikiLeaks)

Leaked Cable Tells of 3 Previously Undisclosed Members of 9/11 Plot (by Peter Finn and Julie Tate, Washington Post)

Wikileaks: 9/11 Gang with Pilot Uniforms Fled to London (by Gordon Rayner and Steven Swinford, The Telegraph)