In Court, Two 20th Hijackers Stand Up

On the 12th day of the Zacarias Moussaoui trial, at about 9:45 in the morning, one of the most puzzling riddles of the Sept. 11 conspiracy seemed at last to be laid to rest.

It was then that a top Al Qaeda figure being held in a secret location overseas testified that the 20th hijacker, the man who never made it to the airplanes, was a young Saudi man named Mohammad al-Qahtani, who as it turns out was about as hapless a terrorist as Moussaoui.

He testified that Qahtani was to be the “last one” to join a 19-man sleeper cell already in the U.S., and that he was designated to “complete the group” of five terrorists for each of the four planes.

Mystery solved?

So it would seem, except for a few niggling doubts that have surfaced during the four-week trial. A day earlier, statements made by Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed were read to the jury: There was no 20th hijacker because Al Qaeda could get only 19 into the U.S.

A year ago, Moussaoui claimed he was the mystery man when he signed his guilty plea as the “20th hijacker.” On the witness stand in his ongoing sentencing trial, Moussaoui confessed he signed it that way just as “a bit of fun, that’s all.”

These proceedings have been filled with plot twists. And yet government and defense lawyers now agree that if a 20th hijacker had been intended to join the others, it most likely was Qahtani.

Qahtani said so himself.

In statements made to interrogators at the prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and read aloud to a hushed courtroom, he spun a tale of how Osama bin Laden hand-selected him for “a special mission in America” -- that he was to serve as a “muscle” hijacker on one of the Sept. 11 planes.

But Qahtani, like Moussaoui, had U.S. visa problems and only got as far as the customs checkpoint at the Orlando, Fla., airport, where he was turned back. He went back to the United Arab Emirates about the same time that Moussaoui was being arrested in Minnesota, a few weeks before the attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

The jurors are in the midst of their deliberations, and the question of a 20th hijacker is one they are bound to confront. The nine men and three women listened intently to Qahtani’s testimony. They also were presented fresh details about how Mohamed Atta, the man who would turn out to be the lead Sept. 11 hijacker, was left cooling his heels at the Orlando airport, forced to wait for Qahtani.

“Juries frequently confront contradictory information, especially in criminal trials,” said Carl Tobias, a law school professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia. “Juries then must sort through all of the evidence, sift and weigh it, resolve the contradictions as best they can, and reach a determination.”

Five hijackers were in each of the three planes that hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The fourth plane was commandeered by four hijackers. It never made it to its destination -- which Mohammed identified as the U.S. Capitol, thus providing a credible answer to another unresolved question: whether the Capitol or the White House was the intended target.

Instead, after a struggle with passengers, the plane with just four hijackers spun out of control and smashed into a Pennsylvania field. Had that 20th hijacker been on that plane, would it have reached the Capitol?

These questions are slowly coming into focus during Moussaoui’s trial, where he faces death or life in prison with no parole.

To demonstrate that Moussaoui was not responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, much of the testimony defense lawyers sought was from detainees held in foreign locations. Government officials, saying that they wished to avoid a potential security nightmare, only permitted them to testify through lengthy written statements read to the jury.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is believed to be the Al Qaeda leader who put together the Sept. 11 plot. His testimony was read first, on March 27.

He said Qahtani “was sent alone to round out the number of hijackers for the 9/11 attacks.” But after he was stopped at the Orlando airport, Al Qaeda leaders realized Qahtani was not a good choice because, according to Mohammed, “he possessed no operational or basic knowledge that would qualify him for such an operation.”

He said Qahtani had problems communicating in code. He said he did not understand requirements for a U.S. visa. He spoke no English. So even had Qahtani made it into the U.S., it was likely he would have been cut from the plot.

Qahtani is an “extremely simple man,” Mohammed testified. He was “too much of an unsophisticated ‘bedouin’ to function with ease in a modern, Western society.”

So Al Qaeda cut its losses. “The 9/11 operation was left with only 19 operatives,” Mohammed said.

On March 28, testimony was read from Mustafa al-Hawsawi, the alleged Sept. 11 paymaster. He insisted that Qahtani, warts and all, was definitely No. 20.

Hawsawi said he purchased a one-way plane ticket for Qahtani to fly from London to Florida, all along assuming Qahtani was well-suited for the task at hand because he had extensive terrorist training in Afghanistan. He added that Atta, the hijacking team leader who flew the first plane into the World Trade Center, told him that he “needed al-Qahtani to ‘complete the group’ and that al-Qahtani’s job was to control the passengers.”

The jury next heard from Qahtani. Twenty-five years old in the summer of 2001, he described meeting three times with Bin Laden and said he swore bayat -- allegiance -- to the Al Qaeda leader.

Qahtani said Bin Laden viewed him as “someone who loved to serve his religion.” He said he believed he had been selected for a martyrdom operation but knew no details. He said he tried to learn secret codes for phone numbers and e-mail but “struggled with both.”

He said he obtained a new Saudi passport and a U.S. visitor’s visa, then flew Virgin Atlantic to Orlando on Aug. 4, 2001, only to be denied entry.

He recalled how he could not explain why he had no return ticket and yet had a visitor’s visa for just six days. Nor could he explain why he had $2,800 in cash, seemingly not enough to stay six days and still buy a return ticket.

He said a friend was picking him up at the airport, then changed his story and said no one was waiting for him.

According to government evidence in the Moussaoui trial, Atta had driven a rented Mitsubishi Galant to the airport. Waiting for Qahtani to emerge, Atta several times used a telephone calling card and spoke to Hawsawi in the United Arab Emirates. Finally Atta gave up and left the airport.

In December 2001, Qahtani was captured in Afghanistan. He is being held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay. His testimony marked the first time that he and the other detainees had been heard publicly since their arrests.

A fall 2002 FBI field report from Guantanamo Bay, not provided to the jury, discussed a prisoner later identified as Qahtani and said he had been subjected to “intense isolation for over three months,” kept in a cell “always flooded with light.”

“The detainee was evidencing behavior consistent with extreme psychological trauma, talking to nonexistent people, reporting hearing voices, crouching in a corner of the cell covered with a sheet for hours on end,” the FBI report said.

The Defense Department, however, said in a June 2005 report that Qahtani had been given “humane treatment.”

The military also noted that Qahtani repeatedly offered “various cover stories” during interrogations, even suggesting he had tried to come to the U.S. to buy a used car. Ultimately, however, the military said, interrogators were able to “uncover the truth.”