November 21, 2000: 9/11 Hijacker Receives US Visa, Consular Officer Apparently Has False Memory of Interview

9/11 hijacker Satam al Suqami obtains a US visa from the American embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He has traveled extensively around Asia in recent years (see November 5, 1998-September 24, 2000) and uses a passport that has fraudulent travel stamps that will later be associated with al-Qaeda, but this is apparently not noticed. The application is incomplete, as Al Suqami does not give the name and address of his current employer. The consular officer who issues the visa will later say that Al Suqami is interviewed and will recall details of the interview—the reason for the interview is because Al Suqami gives his occupation as “dealer,” which Saudis often use to mean businessman, and several questions are asked, including who is paying for his trip. However, the officer will say that notes are always taken during interviews and there are no such notes on Al Suqami’s application. The 9/11 Commission will say that this raises “the possibility that the officer’s memory of having conducted the interview was false.” [9/11 Commission, 8/21/2004, pp. 16 ]