Osama bin Laden Told His Team: The Hell With Taliban Leader Mullah Omar
Even al-Qaeda leaders didn't know the date of the planned attack. When told, they had objections—but bin Laden overruled them.
On August 29, 2001, Mohammed Atta contacted Ramzi Bin al-Shibh in Germany, informing him of the exact date for the upcoming attacks: September 11. Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi had already purchased their flight tickets, with the four teams subsequently gathering near their respective airports for departure. This marked the first definitive heads-up outside their circle about the intended date of the attack.
Nonetheless, only a few key individuals in al-Qaeda leadership were aware of the details regarding the plane operation. After receiving the date, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh sent Zakariya Essabar, a former roommate of Mohammed Atta's and a member of the Hamburg cell, to deliver a sealed letter to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) in Karachi, divulging the date.
Essabar traveled to Karachi on August 30. Just five days before the attack, KSM journeyed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, from Karachi to personally inform Osama bin Laden of the impending assault. Upon hearing the news, bin Laden convened the al-Qaeda Shura council, the ruling body of al-Qaeda. However, several members opposed the plan, asserting that bin Laden had previously pledged to Mullah Omar, head of the Taliban, that no more attacks would transpire without his consent.
Bin Laden countered that Mullah Omar lacked the authority to impede al-Qaeda from engaging in jihad outside Afghanistan. Consequently, KSM began disseminating instructions to al-Qaeda members and their families in Afghanistan to prepare for potential U.S. military incursions. Orders were also dispatched to al-Qaeda cells in Europe and other Western nations, urging individuals to evacuate within the next two weeks, though precise details were scarce.
A document extracted from a computer seized from KSM in Pakistan revealed that Atta chose a date after the first week of September to ensure the U.S. Congress would be in session. Just prior to the 9/11 attacks, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh traveled from Germany to Pakistan, where he subsequently crossed the border into Afghanistan multiple times prior to and after the 9/11 attacks.
It was only after the 9/11 attacks that Ramzi Bin al-Shibh entered Afghanistan, while the United States initiated airstrikes on October 7.
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