Nawaf Muhammad Salim al-Hazmi (; August 9, 1976 – September 11, 2001)9/11 Commission Report, 9/11 Commission, p. 166 was a Saudi terrorist hijacker who was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which they crashed into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks.
Al-Hazmi and a long-time friend, Khalid al-Mihdhar, left their homes in Saudi Arabia in 1995 to fight for Muslims in the Bosnian War. Al-Hazmi later traveled to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban against the Afghan Northern Alliance. He returned to Saudi Arabia in early 1999.
Already long-time affiliates of al-Qaeda with extensive fighting experience, al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar were chosen by Osama bin Laden for an ambitious terrorist plot to pilot commercial airliners into designated targets in the United States. Al-Hazmi arrived in Los Angeles, California, on 15 January 2000, alongside al-Mihdhar. The two settled in San Diego, staying at the Parkwood Apartments until May 2000. While in San Diego, they attended its mosque, led by Anwar al-Awlaki. The two took flying lessons in San Diego, but due to their poor English skills they did not perform well during their flight lessons and their flight instructor regarded them as suspicious.
Al-Mihdhar left al-Hazmi in California for Yemen in June 2000. Al-Hazmi stayed in California until he met up with Hani Hanjour in December 2000, and they both traveled to Phoenix, Arizona. They later moved to Falls Church, Virginia, in April 2001, where the rest of the hijackers began to join them. Al-Hazmi met frequently with Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the attacks, during the summer of 2001. The CIA reportedly received al-Hazmi's name on a list of 19 persons suspected of planning an attack in the near future. Al-Hazmi was one of the four names on the list who were known for certain. A search for al-Hazmi and other suspected terrorists commenced, but they were not located until after the attacks.
The day before the September 11 attacks, al-Hazmi, al-Mihdhar, and Hanjour checked into a hotel in Herndon, Virginia. The next morning, al-Hazmi and four other terrorists, including al-Hazmi's younger brother, Salem al-Hazmi, boarded American Airlines Flight 77 at Dulles International Airport and hijacked the plane so that Hanjour could pilot and crash it into the Pentagon, as part of the attacks. The crash killed all 64 passengers aboard the aircraft and 125 in the Pentagon. Following the attacks, al-Hazmi's participation was initially dismissed as that of a "muscle hijacker", but he was later revealed to have played a larger role in the operational planning than previously believed."Document links al Qaeda paymaster, 9/11 plotter", Los Angeles Times, September 27, 2002
Early life and activities
Nawaf al-Hazmi was born in Mecca in Saudi Arabia to Muhammad Salim al-Hazmi, a grocer. He traveled to Afghanistan as a teenager in 1993. CNN's preliminary report following the attacks claimed that an unnamed acquaintance relayed '"He told me once that his father had tried to kill him when he was a child. He never told me why, but he had a long knife scar on his forearm", and claimed that his older brother was a police chief in Jizan.
In 1995, he and his childhood friend, Khalid al-Mihdhar, joined a group that went to fight alongside Bosnian Muslims in the Bosnian War. Afterwards, Nawaf al-Hazmi returned to Afghanistan along with his brother Salem, and al-Mihdhar. In Afghanistan, they fought alongside the Taliban against the Afghan Northern Alliance, and joined up with al-Qaeda. Al-Hazmi returned to Saudi Arabia in early 1999.
Selected for the 9/11 plot
Osama bin Laden held al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar in high respect, with their experience fighting during the 1990s in Bosnia and elsewhere. Al-Qaeda later referred to al-Hazmi as al-Mihdhar's "Second-in-command".Videotape of recorded will of Abdulaziz al-Omari and others When bin Laden committed to the "planes operation" plot in spring 1999, he personally selected al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar to be involved in the plot as pilot hijackers. In addition to al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar, two Yemenis were selected for a southeast Asia component of the plot, which was later scrapped for being too difficult to coordinate with the operations in the United States. Known as Rabi'ah al-Makki during the preparations, al-Hazmi had been so eager to participate in operations within the United States, he already had a US visa when bin Laden selected him. Al-Hazmi obtained a B-1/B-2 tourist visa on 3 April 1999, from the US consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, using a new passport he acquired a few weeks earlier. Al-Hazmi's passport did have indicators of al-Qaeda association, but immigration inspectors were not trained to look for those.
In the autumn of 1999, these four attended the Mes Aynak training camp in Afghanistan, which provided advanced training. Al-Hazmi went with the two Yemenis, Tawfiq bin Attash (Khallad) and Abu Bara al Yemeni, to Karachi, Pakistan, where Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the plot's coordinator, instructed him on western culture, travel, as well as taught some basic English phrases. Al-Mihdhar did not go with him to Karachi, but instead left for Yemen. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed then sent al-Hazmi and the other men to Malaysia for a meeting. Before leaving for Malaysia, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed doctored al-Hazmi's Saudi passport in order to conceal his travel to Pakistan and Afghanistan, and make it appear that al-Hazmi had come to Malaysia from Saudi Arabia via Dubai.
After the attacks, the Associated Press would re-publish a "bizarre" story by the Cody Enterprise that quoted witnesses stating that al-Hazmi entered the United States during the autumn of 1999, crossing along the Canada–US border as one of two men delivering skylights to the local high school in Cody, Wyoming. Leaving the city 45 minutes later with the remaining cardboard boxes, the men allegedly asked "how to get to Florida".One 11 Sept. Terrorist in Cody Two Years Ago, The Associated Press, 23 October 2001
Malaysia summit
Based on information uncovered by the FBI in the 1998 United States embassy bombings case, the National Security Agency (NSA) began tracking the communications of al-Mihdhar's father-in-law, Ahmad Muhammad Ali al-Hada, who was facilitating al-Qaeda communications, in 1999. Authorities also became aware of al-Hazmi, as a friend and associate of al-Mihdhar. Saudi Intelligence was also aware that Hazmi was associated with al-Qaeda, and associated with the 1998 African embassy bombings and attempts to smuggle arms into the kingdom in 1997. He also said that he revealed this to the CIA, saying "What we told them was these people were on our watch list from previous activities of al-Qaeda" The CIA strongly denies having received any such warning.
In late 1999, the NSA informed the CIA of an upcoming meeting in Malaysia, which al-Hada mentioned would involve "Khalid", "Nawaf", and "Salem". On 5 January, al-Hazmi arrived in Kuala Lumpur, where he met up with al-Mihdhar, bin Attash, and Abu Bara. The group was in Malaysia to meet with Hambali for the 2000 al-Qaeda Summit, during which key details of the attacks may have been arranged. At this time, there was an East Asia component to the 11 September attacks plot, but bin Laden later canceled it for being too difficult to coordinate with operations in the United States. Ramzi bin al-Shibh was also at the summit, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed possibly attended the summit. In Malaysia, the group stayed with Yazid Sufaat, a local member of Jemaah Islamiyah, who provided accommodations at request of Hambali. Both al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were secretly photographed at the meeting by Malaysian authorities, who provided surveillance at the request of the CIA. Malaysian authorities reported that al-Mihdhar spoke at length with Tawfiq bin Attash, one of the Yemenis, and others who were later involved in the USS Cole bombing. Al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar also met with Fahd al-Quso, who was later involved in the USS Cole bombing. After the meeting, al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi traveled to Bangkok in Thailand on 8 January, and left a week later on 15 January to travel to the United States.
In the United States
Enters the United States with Mihdhar
On January 15, 2000, al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar arrived together at Los Angeles International Airport from Bangkok, and were admitted for a six-month period. On February 1, 2000—17 days upon entering the United States—the two men encountered Omar al-Bayoumi and Caysan Bin Don at a halal food restaurant on Venice Boulevard in Culver City.9/11 Commission Report, 9/11 Commission, p. 217 Al-Bayoumi claims he was merely being charitable in helping the two seemingly out-of-place Muslims to move to San Diego where he helped them find an apartment near his own, co-signed their lease, and gave them $1,500 to help pay their rent. FBI documents declassified in 2022 demonstrate that al-Bayoumi was an agent of Saudi intelligence, with the FBI concluding that there was a "50/50 chance" that he (and thus the Saudi government) had foreknowledge of the attacks.
In the beginning of February 2000, al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi rented an apartment at the Parkwood Apartments, a 175-unit complex in the Clairemont Mesa section of San Diego, near the Balboa Drive Mosque. In February, al-Mihdhar purchased a used 1988 Toyota Corolla. While living at the Parkwood Apartments, neighbors thought that al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were odd. Months passed without them getting any furniture for the apartment. Instead, the men slept on mattresses on the floor, yet they carried briefcases, were frequently on their mobile phones, and were occasionally picked up by a limousine. After the attacks, their neighbors told the media that the pair constantly played flight simulator games. Authorities say the two regularly attended the Masjid Ar-Ribat al-Islami mosque that Anwar Al-Awlaki led as the imam in San Diego, having many closed-door meetings with the imam, although Al-Awlaki told authorities their conversations were trivial in nature.> While in San Diego, witnesses told the FBI he and al-Mindhar had a close relationship with Anwar Al-Awlaki. Al-Hazmi got a part-time job through the mosque at a nearby car wash.
On 4 April 2000, al-Hazmi took a one-hour introductory flight lesson at the National Air College in San Diego. Both al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi took flight lessons in May 2000 at the Sorbi Flying Club, located at Montgomery Field in San Diego. On 5 May, al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar took a lesson for one hour, and additional lessons on 10 May at the Sorbi Flying Club, with al-Hazmi flying an aircraft for 30 minutes. However, their English skills were very poor, and they did not do well with flight lessons. The first day that they showed up, they told instructors that they wanted to learn how to fly Boeings. Al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi raised some suspicion when they offered extra money to their flight instructor, Richard Garza, if he would train them to fly jets. Suspicious of the two men, Garza refused the offer but did not report them to authorities. Garza described the two men as "impatient students" who "wanted to learn to fly jets, specifically Boeings."
Adel Rafeea received a wire transfer of $5,000, on 18 April, from Ali Abdul Aziz Ali in the UAE, which he later claimed was money al-Hazmi had asked him to accept on his behalf.
At the end of May 2000, al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar moved out of Parkwood Apartments, and moved to nearby Lemon Grove, California.Hijackers' Timeline p.66 Two days later—on 2 June—al-Mihdhar transferred his vehicle's registration to al-Hazmi,Hijackers' Timeline p.67 and departed the U.S. for Frankfurt, Germany on 10 June 2000.Hijackers' Timeline p.69 Al-Mihdhar returned to Yemen, which angered Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who did not want al-Hazmi to be left alone in California.