A week after he returned from meeting Binalshibh in Spain, Atta traveled to
Newark, probably to coordinate with Hazmi and give him additional funds.
Atta spent a few days in the area before returning to Florida on July 30.The
month of August was busy, as revealed by a set of contemporaneous Atta-
Binalshibh communications that were recovered after September 11.
ment of muscle hijackers to individual teams. Atta and Binalshibh also revis-
ited the question of whether to target the White House.They discussed targets
in coded language, pretending to be students discussing various fields of study:
"architecture" referred to the World Trade Center, "arts" the Pentagon, "law"
the Capitol, and "politics" the White House.
Atta agreed to include the White House but suggested they keep the Capitol
as an alternate target in case the White House proved too difficult. Atta also
suggested that the attacks would not happen until after the first week in Sep-
tember, when Congress reconvened.
above), whom Hawsawi was sending the next day as "the last one" to "com-
plete the group." On August 4,Atta drove to the Orlando airport to meet Kah-
tani. Upon arrival, however, Kahtani was denied entry by immigration officials
because he had a one-way ticket and little money, could not speak English, and
could not adequately explain what he intended to do in the United States. He
was sent back to Dubai. Hawsawi contacted KSM, who told him to help Kah-
tani return to Pakistan.
who had been living in New Jersey with Hazmi and Hanjour, flew to
Miami--probably signifying that the four hijacking teams had finally been
assigned.While Atta was in New Jersey, he, Hazmi, and Hanjour all purchased
tickets for another set of surveillance flights. Like Shehhi, Jarrah, Atta, and
Waleed al Shehri before them, Hazmi and Hanjour each flew in first class on
the same type of aircraft they would hijack on 9/11 (a Boeing 757), and on
transcontinental flights that connected to Las Vegas. This time, however, Atta
himself also flew directly to Las Vegas, where all three stayed on August 1314.
Beyond Las Vegas's reputation for welcoming tourists, we have seen no credi-
ble evidence explaining why, on this occasion and others, the operatives flew
to or met in Las Vegas.