November 5, 1998-September 24, 2000: 9/11 Hijacker Al Suqami Frequently Travels around Middle East and Asia

Satam Al Suqami. [Source: US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division]On August 11, 1998, 9/11 hijacker Satam Al Suqami is issued a Saudi Arabian passport. [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 10/2001, pp. 29 ] This passport will allegedly be discovered in the wreckage of the 9/11 attacks in New York (see After 8:46 a.m. September 11, 2001), allowing investigators an unusually detailed glimpse into the movements of one of the hijackers. While a majority of the hijackers seem to have traveled little prior to coming to the US, Al Suqami travels widely:
November 5, 1998: He enters and departs Jordan, enters Syria.
November 11, 1998: departs Syria; enters and departs Jordan.
November 12, 1998: enters Saudi Arabia.
February 19, 1999: enters Saudi Arabia.
February 24, 1999: enters and departs Jordan; enters Syria.
February 25, 1999: departs Saudi Arabia.
March 7, 1999: departs Syria.
March 8, 1999: enters Jordan.
May 13, 1999: departs Bahrain.
May 15, 1999: enters Saudi Arabia.
January 18, 2000: enters United Arab Emirates (UAE).
April 4, 2000: enters UAE.
April 6, 2000: departs UAE.
April 7, 2000: enters Egypt.
April 18, 2000: departs Oman, enters UAE.
July 11, 2000: departs Egypt.
July 12, 2000: enters Malaysia. [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 10/2001, pp. 33, 37-39, 42, 59-62, 75 ]
On September 24, 2000, Al Suqami enters Turkey and stays there for most of the next six months (see September 24, 2000-April 1, 2001). Then he will travel to Malaysia again before finally flying to the US. The above records are obviously incomplete as there are sometimes records of him leaving a country without entering it or vice versa. His travels to Afghanistan and Pakistan are also not mentioned, as there was probably an effort to keep them out of his passport. In 2007, al-Qaeda leader Luai Sakra will claim that Al Suqami was not just another hijacker but led a group of the hijackers. The release of Al Suqami’s passport records in 2008 will help corroborate that claim. [London Times, 11/25/2007]