Perpetrators and planners of the 9/11 attacks

The attacks of September 11, 2001 are forever linked to the name of then al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, reported dpa.

Behind him was a small group of planners and masterminds - and, of course, the 19 terrorists who boarded the planes to use them as fully-fuelled flying bombs.

Preparing and carrying out the attacks - which shocked the entire world, rocked a superpower, and later drove it to war - cost al-Qaeda only a little less than half a million dollars, according to the bipartisan US commission report into the 9/11 attacks.

All 19 bombers died on the planes and other al-Qaeda fighters were later killed by the US military in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Some remain imprisoned in the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay to this day.

The members of the Hamburg terror cell played a crucial role in the attacks. They had come to Germany as students in the 1990s. The Egyptian Mohammed Atta, who later became one of the hijacker-pilots, was considered their leader.

The Muslim students met and talked with increasing intensity about jihad ("holy war") against "infidels." At a terrorist camp in Afghanistan in 1999, members of the group were recruited by bin Laden for his long-planned attack using planes.

THE HIJACKER-PILOTS

- Mohamed Atta flew a hijacked Boeing 767 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The American Airlines plane was the first of the four used in the attacks. Atta, born in 1968, had studied in Hamburg from 1992 to 1999. He came from a middle-class Egyptian family and apparently was only radicalized in Germany. In 1999, he travelled to Afghanistan for "jihad." According to the US commission report, he met bin Laden in person several times during that period. Atta began his pilot training in the US in 2000.

- Marwan al-Shehhi, born in 1978, was the pilot on the United Airlines plane that hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center. The impact of the Boeing 767 was shown live on many TV channels. Atta's confidant, who was from the United Arab Emirates, had first come to Bonn in 1996 on a military scholarship to Germany, he then also studied in Hamburg.

- Hani Hanjour, born in 1972, flew the hijacked plane of American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Defense Department. He had first come to the US from Saudi Arabia in 1991 to study English. In 1999, he gained his US pilot's license. In 2000, he was in Afghanistan, presumably at a terrorist training camp. It was there that al-Qaeda leaders learned about his pilot's license and selected him as another pilot for the attack. He entered the US on a student visa.

- Ziad Jarrah, who was born in Lebanon in 1975 as the son of a wealthy family, began a language course in Greifswald in 1996. Initially, he still attended parties; he had a girlfriend up until the very end. From 1997, he studied aircraft construction at a Hamburg technical college. He flew the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, which was probably headed for the Capitol or the White House in Washington. During the flight, passengers revolted to prevent the terrorists from using the plane for their attack. Just before they were overpowered, Jarrah asked an accomplice, according to the cockpit recorder, "Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?" The plane crashed at full speed into a field in the US state of Pennsylvania a short time later.

THE "MUSCLES" OF THE HIJACKINGS

In addition to the pilots, the execution of the perfidious plan also required accomplices to bring the crew of the planes under control, storm the cockpit, and keep the passengers at bay. In the US commission's review of the attacks, the 15 accomplices were thus referred to as "muscle hijackers." Some barely spoke English. There were four accomplices on three of the hijacked planes. On United Airlines Flight 93, which was brought down in Pennsylvania, there were only three attackers in addition to the pilot.

THE MASTERMINDS

- Osama bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia in 1957, one of as many as 57 children of Mohammed Awad bin Laden, a building contractor who made a fortune there during the construction boom. In 1979 bin Laden joined the Mujahideen, or "God's warriors," who were fighting the Soviet occupiers in Afghanistan. He became more radicalized in the years that followed, a turning point reportedly being the 1991 Gulf War, when US soldiers were stationed in Saudi Arabia. He emigrated to Sudan, then to Afghanistan in 1996, where he became an ally of the Taliban.

In the late 1990s, attacks attributed to al-Qaeda, including those on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, attracted a lot of attention. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation declared bin Laden a wanted terrorist - but with little success; the US was unable to capture him in Afghanistan. The Taliban would not extradite him. Soon after the 9/11 attacks, the US invaded Afghanistan, but bin Laden escaped. Many Islamist militants worshipped him and eagerly recorded his tape and video messages. He was killed by US special forces in 2011 during an operation in Pakistan.

- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed grew up in Kuwait, and his family is believed to be from the Iran-Pakistan border area. He graduated from university in the United States in 1986. The 9/11 report described him as a well-educated organizer and networker, equally at home in a government office as in a terrorist hideout. The report said he won bin Laden over to the idea of attacking buildings in the US with aircraft during a 1996 meeting in Afghanistan. He is said to have formally joined al-Qaeda later. He is considered the chief planner of the attacks - he also arranged communications and financing for the plot.

Sheikh Mohammed was arrested in Pakistan in 2003. He was subsequently interrogated by the US foreign intelligence agency, the CIA. According to a US Senate report, he was tortured during the interrogations. He was subjected to waterboarding 183 times. In this process, water is poured onto the face of the victim, who can no longer breathe and believes he is drowning. In 2006, Sheikh Mohammed was transferred to the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. He is to be tried by a military tribunal there for his role in attacks, although little progress has been made in years on the case.

- Another detainee at Guantanamo Bay is Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a member of the Hamburg cell. Born in 1972, the Yemeni had not been granted a US visa before the attacks. He therefore provided logistical and financial support for the plans from Europe, according to the 9/11 report, and maintained contact with Sheikh Mohammed. He absconded from Hamburg shortly before the attacks. A year later, he was arrested in Pakistan and landed in US custody. He was also tortured by the CIA, and his trial before a military court has been stalled for years.

ON TRIAL IN GERMANY

- Mounir el-Motassadeq, born in 1977, was a student from Morocco and a close friend of the three Hamburg-based hijacker-pilots. Motassadeq was arrested on November 28, 2001 on charges of providing logistical support to the group. On February 19, 2003, the Higher Regional Court in Hamburg sentenced him to 15 years in prison for aiding and abetting murder in more than 3,000 cases and membership of a terrorist organization in the world's first trial dealing with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In March 2004, the verdict was overturned by Germany’s Federal Supreme Court. Several more trials followed until he was ultimately sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 2018, shortly before the end of his prison term, he was deported to Morocco. He is reported to be living in freedom there.

- Abdelghani Mzoudi, born in 1972, is also from Morocco. He was arrested in Hamburg on October 10, 2002. He is said to have maintained close ties with Atta's group and provided them with logistical support. From August 2003 onward, he was charged with 3,066 counts of aiding and abetting murder and membership of a terrorist organization. In 2004, he was acquitted due to a lack of evidence.