Chapter 7 "The Attack Looms" Summary and Analysis

The first two of the eventual 19 hijackers arrived in California from Southeast Asia on

January 15, 2000. These two, Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdar, spoke almost no English and knew little of life in the West. KSM denies that al-Qaeda agents were in place to assist these two. Little is known of their movements in their first two weeks in California. It appears likely that they received help from the Muslim community around the King Fahd mosque in Culver City. One imam at this mosque, Fahad al Thumairy, who was also a diplomat at the Saudi consulate, was associated with an extremist faction that was said to approve of the events of 9/11. Thumairy had contacts in other U.S. cities.

In early February 2000, Hazmi and Mihdar moved to San Diego with the assistance...