Osama bin Laden’s Hand-picked Hijacker Was Almost Fired from 9/11 Plot

In the months leading up to the September 11 attacks, Marwan al-Mihdhar and Mohammed Atta, two of the hijackers, made their way to the United States. Al-Mihdhar, a Saudi national and one of the first al-Qaeda pilots selected, initially failed to attend flight school in San Diego, but returned to the Middle East in June 2000. He claimed to be visiting his wife and newborn son, though he was actually on his way to Yemen to meet up with another potential pilot, Nawaf al-Hazmi.

Al-Mihdhar's return allowed him to bypass English class and flight school, as he had already been paired with Hani Hanjour to target the Pentagon. Despite al-Qaeda central in Afghanistan insisting al-Mihdhar participate, Atta ultimately decided to remove him from the plot. However, al-Mihdhar applied for a new visa in Saudi Arabia on June 13, stating he had never been to the U.S. before.

Although the CIA suspected al-Mihdhar of being affiliated with al-Qaeda and had even orchestrated a covert operation to obtain a copy of his old passport, al-Mihdhar was not flagged on any watch lists. He was granted a visa and eventually boarded American Airlines Flight 77, which struck the Pentagon on September 11.