January 17, 2001: 9/11 Hijacker Atta Wires Money from US to Bin Al-Shibh in Germany

Lead hijacker Mohamed Atta uses the name variant Mahmoud Elsayed to wire $1,500 to Ramzi bin al-Shibh in Germany. The money is wired from a Western Union office in Temple Terrace, near Tampa on Florida’s Gulf Coast. The 9/11 Commission will comment, “There is no known explanation for this transaction, which seems especially odd because bin al-Shibh had access to [hijacker Marwan] Alshehhi’s German account at the time.” [9/11 Commission, 8/21/2004, pp. 143 ; US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, 7/3/2006 ]