Alshhehi travelled to Afghanistan in November/December 1999?

[KJF]

The 9/11 Commission claims that three of the hijacker pilots visited Afghanistan and joined both Al Qaeda and the 9/11 plot in November/December 1999. However, this is surprising, as it would mean that, immediately on joining the organisation, they were entrusted with command of its largest operation and even the Commission comments, “In retrospect, the speed with which Atta, Shehhi, Jarrah and Binalshibh became core members of the 9/11 plot ... is remarkable” and goes on to speculate that Atta had previously travelled to Afghanistan.

There is allegedly hard evidence that pilots Atta and Jarrah and plot facilitator Bin al-Shibh went to Afghanistan at this time, although most of it has not yet been made public. However, the situation with Marwan Alshehhi is different. The Commission discusses their travel on page 166:

“... Atta and Jarrah left Hamburg during the last week of November 1999, bound for Karachi. Shehhi left for Afghanistan around the same time; Binalshibh, about two weeks later”. In Kandahar “Binalshibh rejoined Atta and Jarrah, who said they already had pledged loyalty to Bin Ladin and urged him to do the same. They also informed him that Shehhi had pledged as well and had already left for the United Arab Emirates to prepare for the mission.”

First, I'm going to establish the period when Al Shehhi is not definitely somewhere else, then I'm going to look at the evidence for him being in Afghanistan in this period, and finally I'm going to say what I think this means.

Time Frame
He was still in Hamburg on 24 November 1999; Terrorist Finance says:
“Mounir Motassadeq, the Hamburg friend of the hijackers, held power of attorney over Shehhi's Dresdner Bank account, from November 24, 1999, until at least January 2001.” (p. 132).
Terrorist Finance link: http://www.9-11commission.gov/staff_statements/911_TerrFin_Monograph.pdf

He was at home in the United Arab Emirates in January. DCI Tenet said, “Al-Shehhi obtained a new passport and a US visa in the UAE in January 2000.”
Link: http://cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/2002/dci_testimony_06182002.html

Here we can be more specific. This is Al Shehhi's application for admission at Eagle Jet International:

He gives his passport issue date as 2 January 2000.

Also, he ordered something over the internet at the start of January 2000. Author Terry McDermott writes that, “On January 3, 2000, he ordered a pilot-training video online.” (Perfect Soldiers, 180)

So the period over which he might have travelled to Pakistan and then overland to Afghanistan is 25 November 1999 – 1 January 2000.

Evidence
I'm going to set aside the fact that this period isn't long enough for him to go to Afghanistan and get basic training, let alone advanced training and look at the evidence the 9/11 Commission produces for him being there.

The only piece of evidence I have been able to find indicating that Al Shehhi was in Afghanistan in December 1999 is the statement made by Bin Al Shibh, reported by the 9/11 Commission: “Binalshibh rejoined Atta and Jarrah, who said they already had pledged loyalty to Bin Ladin and urged him to do the same. They also informed him that Shehhi had pledged as well and had already left for the United Arab Emirates to prepare for the mission.” (p. 166) What this means is that the CIA, which interrogated Bin Al Shibh, told the 9/11 Commission that Ramzi Bin Al Shibh told it that Atta and Jarrah told him Shehhi had been there. The CIA obviously couldn't check that Atta and Jarrah had actually said this, because they were dead. Neither did the 9/11 Commission check that Bin Al Shibh actually said this to the CIA – the 9/11 Commission didn't really check any information obtained from detainees via the CIA.

I'd put it like this: the only evidence Al Shehhi was in Afghanistan in December 1999 is an unchecked hearsay statement made by a person I consider a notorious liar. Therefore, I'm kind of suspicious of it.

OK, so much for the 9/11 Commission, what does the FBI say? Here's a passage from the Moussaoui trial where an FBI agent is discussing the hijackers' travel to Afghanistan:

Q. Which was the first of these three individuals to travel from Hamburg to Karachi and when?
A. Ziad Jarrah, he traveled on the 25th of November, 1999.
Q. Who is the next of the three to travel from Hamburg to Karachi?
A. Mohamed Atta traveled about four days later, on the 29th of November, 1999.
Q. And the third was Ramzi Bin al-Shibh. When did he travel?
A. He traveled about one week after Mohamed Atta, and he traveled on the 6th of December, 1999, from Hamburg through Istanbul, Turkey, to Karachi, Pakistan.
Q. Now, the other individual you said lived in Hamburg was Marwan al-Shehhi. Did he also travel to Pakistan?
A. Yes, he did.
Q. When did he travel to Pakistan?
A. On February 23rd of 2000.
Link: http://cryptome.quintessenz.at/mirror/usa-v-zm-030706-02.htm

I'm going to go with the FBI here and say Al Shehhi didn't go to Pakistan in November/December 1999, but on 23 February 2000. The FBI seem to have done their homework on this and checked flight records, whereas the 9/11 Commission, as usual, just believed what the detainees said.

Conclusion
So what? What difference does it make whether Al Shehhi went to Afghanistan in December 1999 or a couple of months later?

(1) It's an(other) error in the 9/11 Commission Report and anyone who wished to cast doubt on the report might wish to refer to it.

(2) The thing is that, in the 9/11 Commission's telling, Al Shehhi reported his passport lost, got a new one, a US visa and ordered a pilot-training video in the UAE in January after joining the plot. However, if the trip on 23 February 2000 was Al Shehhi's first to Afghanistan, on which he joined Al Qaeda, then that would mean he was still not a member of the plot in January, when he acquired a US visa, making him the fourth hijacker to coincidentally obtain a US visa before joining the plot (after Al Mihdhar and the Al Hazmi brothers). The purchase of the flight-training video would be doubly odd. Nevertheless, I think the best solution would be to conclude that Al Shehhi had previously visited Afghanistan, joined Al Qaeda and got involved with the planes operation. For example, he disappeared for three months in the autumn of 1998 after withdrawing USD 5,000 from his bank account, which was not used between 3 September 1998 and early December, and may well have been in Afghanistan during this period, which certainly was long enough for him to do basic and some more advanced training. This means that the 9/11 Commission's story of the hijackers' recruitment in Hamburg, which has a couple of holes anyway, is false. If they got it wrong, then why did they get it wrong? Was it just incompetence – not enough resources, not enough staff, not enough determination, or are they trying to hide something?