Wail al-Shehri

] Wail al-Shehri accompanied his brother on September 9 to the Travelex at Logan International Airport, where Waleed attempted to wire $5,000 to the United Arab Emirates. Waleed had insufficient documentation, so Wail and Waleed returned the next day to complete the transaction. Mustafa Ahmed received the funds on September 11 at Al-Ansari Exchange in Sharjah. When Wail and Waleed al-Shehri checked out, a sheet of instructions for flying a jet was left behind in their hotel room.

The attack

Wail al-Shehri, his brother Waleed, and Satam al-Suqami arrived together at Logan Airport at 06:45 on the morning of September 11, 2001, having left their rental car in the airport parking facility.cite book |title=9/11 Commission Report |url=http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch1.htm |chapter=Chapter 1.1 - "We Have Some Planes", Inside the Four Flights |publisher=National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States |date=2004 |pages=pp. 1–13 |accessdate=2008-09-30] Upon check-in, Wail al-Shehri was selected by the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS), as was his brother Waleed, and Flight 11 hijacker Satam al-Suqami. Mohamed Atta, the pilot hijacker on Flight 11 had also been selected in Portland. Being selected by CAPPS meant that their checked baggage were subject to extra screening. As the CAPPS was only for luggage, the three hijackers did not undergo any extra scrutiny at the passenger security checkpoint.cite web |url=http://www.9-11commission.gov/staff_statements/staff_statement_3.pdf |title=The Aviation Security System and the 9/11 Attacks - Staff Statement No. 3 |publisher=National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States |date=2004 |format=pdf] One of the five Globe Aviation security screeners on-duty later reported that either Wail or Waleed had been using a crutch when they passed through security - and that the crutch had been X-rayed as per regulations. [cite news |title=Logan's Baggage Screeners Defended Workers Unfairly Blamed, Company Supervisor Says |date=2001-10-10 |publisher=Boston Globe |author=Murphy, Shelley]

By 07:40, all five hijackers were aboard the flight, which was scheduled to depart at 07:45. Wail and Waleed al-Shehri sat together in first class in seats 2A and 2B respectively. The aircraft taxied away from Gate 26, and departed Logan International Airport at 07:59 from runway 4R, following a 14-minute delay. [cite news |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5bTYljW4k |archivedate=2008-10-10 |url=http://www.boston.com/news/packages/underattack/news/planes_reconstruction.htm |title=Probe reconstructs horror, calculated attacks on planes |last=Johnson |first=Glen |date=2001-11-23 |work=Boston Globe] cite web |url=http://www.ntsb.gov/info/Flight_%20Path_%20Study_AA11.pdf |format=PDF| title=Flight Path Study - American Airlines Flight 11 |publisher=National Transportation Safety Board |date=2002-02-19 |accessdate=2008-05-25] The hijacking of Flight 11 began at approximately 08:14, which is when the pilot stopped responding to air traffic control. Once the hijacking began, the brothers are suspected of having stabbed two flight attendants. At 08:46:40, Mohamed Atta deliberately crashed Flight 11 into the northern facade of the North Tower (Tower 1) of the World Trade Center. The damage caused to the North Tower destroyed any means of escape from above the impact zone, trapping 1,344 people.Cite news |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5bTftBx4s |archivedate=2008-10-10 |last=Dwyer |first=Jim |coauthors= Lipton, Eric et al |title=102 Minutes: Last Words at the Trade Center; Fighting to Live as the Towers Die |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E6DC153BF935A15756C0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=4 |date=2002-05-26 |work=The New York Times |accessdate=2008-05-23] The North Tower collapsed at 10:28, after burning for approximately 102 minutes.cite web |url=http://wtc.nist.gov/NISTNCSTAR1-8.pdf |title=NIST NCSTAR 1-8 - The Emergency Response |author=Lawson, J. Randall, Robert L. Vettori |publisher=National Institute of Standards and Technology |month=September | year=2005 |pages=p. 37|format=PDF]

Aftermath

Men named Wail and Waleed were both reported to have been found alive and well, by a BBC News article on September 23, 2001,cite news |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5bTYljW4v |archivedate=2008-10-10 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/1559151.stm |publisher=BBC News |title=Hijack 'suspects' alive and well |date=2003-09-23 |accessdate=2008-09-30] as well as a number of other news reports in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Reports said that the Shehri brothers were the sons of a Saudi diplomat stationed in Bombay. The diplomat's son was trained as a pilot at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, but was the victim of mistaken identity. He was working as a pilot for Saudi Arabian Airlines, and at the the time of the attacks, was in Morocco for a training program. There were also reports that Wail al-Shehri was also a trained pilot. [cite news |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5bTYljW55 |archivedate=2008-10-10 |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1341136/Piecing-together-the-shadowy-lives-of-the-hijackers.html |title=Piecing together the shadowy lives of the hijackers |date=2001-09-20 |publisher=The Telegraph] In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Saudi officials suggested that Wail and Waleed al-Shehri were victims of identity theft. [cite news |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5bTgTVTPL |archivedate=2008-10-10 |url=http://www.boston.com/news/packages/underattack/globe_stories/0915/Hijackers_may_have_taken_Saudi_identities+.shtml |title=Hijackers may have taken Saudi identities |author=Cullen, Kevin and Anthony Shadid |date=2001-09-15 |publisher=Boston Globe]

Jamal Khashoggi, of Al-Watan and ArabNews in Saudi Arabia, spoke with Muhammad Ali Al-Shihri in Khamis Mushait, who said his sons Wail and Waleed had been missing for ten months. Wail al-Shehri's father denied reports that Wail had aeronautics degree, as some news reports said, "My son Wail was 25 years old and had a BA in physical education from the Abha Teacher’s College. He was mentally ill and had gone to numerous clerics for assistance in overcoming this instability. He had asked the school, where he taught, for a 6-month leave to go to Madinah."cite news |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5bTgKrlKS |archivedate=2008-10-10 |url=http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=9454&d=1&m=10&y=2001 |title=Another Saudi ‘hijacker’ turns up in Tunis |publisher=Arab News |date=2001-10-01 |author=Ba-Isa, Molouk Y. and Saud Al-Towaim] His father also told reporters that he dreaded having to believe that Wail and Waleed were involved in the September 11 attacks, "If that turns out to be the truth, then I'll never, never accept it from them. I'll never forgive them for that." [cite news |title=Killers in the cockpit: Who and why? Acts of 19 men shook civilized world to core |publisher=The Washington Times |date=2002-09-10 |author=Murray, Frank J.] Family members also said that Wail and Waleed became very religious in the months before they disappeared, had expressed interest in going to Chechnya, and hoped for martyrdom. In a report entitled "A Saudi Apology" for Dateline NBC aired on August 25, 2002, John Hockenberry traveled to 'Asir, where he interviewed Shehhi's brother, Salah, who agreed that Wail and Waleed were deceased, said they were not very religious, and suggested they had been brainwashed. [cite episode |title=A Saudi Apology |series=Dateline NBC |network=NBC |airdate=2002-08-25]

Saudi officials later stated that the names of the hijackers were in fact correct, and that 15 of the 19 hijackers were indeed Saudi. [cite news |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5bTYljW5F |archivedate=2008-10-10 |url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002/02/06/saudi.htm |title=Official: 15 of 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saud |publisher=USA Today / Associate Press |date=2002-02-06 |accessdate=2008-09-30] In response to 9/11 conspiracy theories surrounding its original news story suggesting hijackers were still alive, the BBC issued a response in 2006, explaining how confusion arose with the Arabic names that were quite common, and that the BBC's later reports on the hijackers superseded the original story. [cite web |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5bTYljW5O |archivedate=2008-10-10 |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2006/10/911_conspiracy_theory_1.html |title=9/11 conspiracy theory |author=Hermann, Steve |date=2006-10-27 |publisher=BBC News |accessdate=2008-09-30]

References

Persondata
NAME=Shehri, Wail al-
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=وائل الشهري (Arabic); Alshehri, Wail (alternate transliteration); Janubi, Abu Mossaeb al- (alias)
SHORT DESCRIPTION=9/11 hijacker
DATE OF BIRTH=unknown
PLACE OF BIRTH=Asir, Saudi Arabia
DATE OF DEATH=September 11, 2001
PLACE OF DEATH=New York City, United States