Satam al-Suqami

Satam al-Suqami
Born	(1976-06-28) June 28, 1976 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Died	September 11, 2001(2001-09-11) (aged 25)
Occupation(s)	Terrorist, hijacker
Known for	Hijacker aboard American Airlines Flight 11 during the September 11 attacks

Satam Muhammad Abd al-Rahman al-Suqami (; June 28, 1976 – September 11, 2001) was a Saudi national involved in terrorism and served as one of the five hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11 during the 2001 September 11 attacks.

Around 1999, al-Suqami was recruited into al-Qaeda alongside Majed Moqed, who later participated in the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 77. He traveled to Afghanistan, then under Taliban control, where he underwent training and was selected for the 9/11 operation. Al-Suqami entered the United States in April 2001 and subsequently boarded Flight 11 on September 11. He played a role in commandeering the aircraft, which was ultimately flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. It is believed that he fatally stabbed passenger Daniel Lewin during the takeover and perished when the plane crashed.

Early life

Details regarding al-Suqami’s early years remain scarce. Originating from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, his formal education was minimal. Reports indicate he worked as a security guard at a hospital in Ta'if and demonstrated a lack of religious commitment, engaging in alcohol consumption and possibly substance abuse. Saudi officials did not classify him as an extremist, although he had a minor criminal history.

In contrast to several other Saudi hijackers who developed radical affiliations within Saudi Arabia, al-Suqami likely became involved with extremist groups around 1999 after traveling to Afghanistan with Moqed. Both men trained at the Khalden camp located in Paktia province, which was managed by Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi. Prior to their training, neither had known ties to al-Qaeda operatives.

Career

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), al-Suqami arrived in the United States on April 23, 2001, holding a visa valid through May 21. Nonetheless, multiple residents of the Spanish Trace Apartments in San Antonio reported seeing al-Suqami and Salem al-Hazmi, younger sibling of hijacker Nawaf al-Hazmi, residing there earlier that year. Some witnesses suggested that FBI images of al-Suqami and al-Hazmi were mistakenly swapped. Additional accounts indicated that al-Suqami stayed with Waleed al-Shehri in Hollywood, Florida and leased a black Toyota Corolla from Alamo Rent-A-Car.

On May 19, al-Suqami accompanied Waleed al-Shehri on a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Freeport, Bahamas. They were refused entry due to insufficient documentation and returned to Florida on the same day, where they rented a red Kia Rio from an Avis Car Rental location.

He was one of nine hijackers who established a SunTrust bank account around June 2001 with an initial cash deposit. On July 3, he secured both a Florida State ID card and a driver’s license by presenting his Saudi license; both documents listed the same Boynton Beach address as Wail al-Shehri. Despite this evidence, the 9/11 Commission reported that al-Suqami was unique among hijackers for lacking any official US identification.

During the summer months of 2001, al-Suqami along with brothers Wail and Waleed al-Shehri purchased monthly memberships at a gym in Boynton Beach owned by Jim Woolard. (Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi also frequented Woolard's gym located in Delray Beach.)

Referred to as Azmi during the planning phase, al-Suqami was identified as one of the "muscle" hijackers whose role did not include piloting the aircraft. Later remarks by CIA director George Tenet indicated that these individuals "probably were told little more than that they were headed for a suicide mission inside the United States."

September 11 attacks and death

On the evening of September 10, 2001, al-Suqami shared accommodations at Boston’s Milner Hotel with three other hijackers from Flight 175: Marwan al-Shehhi, Fayez Banihammad, and Mohand al-Shehri.

The following day, al-Suqami presented his Saudi passport while checking in at Logan International Airport and boarded American Airlines Flight 11. He was flagged by the CAPPS program, which mandated additional screening for his checked luggage but did not require further passenger checkpoint inspections.

Occupying seat 10B in business class, al-Suqami was seated directly behind Daniel Lewin, co-founder of Akamai Technologies and a former member of Israeli special forces. He was also two rows behind fellow hijackers Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz al Omari. The hijacking commenced around 8:14 a.m., during which flight attendants were stabbed and Lewin was fatally wounded—an act reportedly carried out by al-Suqami. Lewin is recognized as the first casualty of the attacks. One hypothesis proposes that Lewin attempted to intervene against the hijackers seated ahead without realizing al-Suqami was positioned behind him.

Al-Suqami perished when pilot Mohamed Atta deliberately crashed Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. Remarkably, al-Suqami's passport was discovered near Vesey Street prior to the collapse of the towers, making it one of only four hijacker passports recovered intact after the attacks. Digital versions of other passports were uncovered during post-9/11 investigations. Testimony before the 9/11 Commission revealed that al-Suqami’s passport had been fraudulently altered in methods associated with al-Qaeda, a strategy intended to conceal terrorists’ travel routes through Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

In popular culture

Swedish-Lebanese actor Dani Jazzar took on the role of Al-Suqami in the BBC docudrama Zero Hour specifically in Season 1: Episode 2 (2004), titled "The Last Hour of Flight 11."

See also

• PENTTBOM
• Hijackers in the September 11 attacks

External links

• The Final 9/11 Commission Report