Fayez Ahmed. Did he board United 175? Did he exist?

[Kevin Fenton]

Fayez Ahmed (the name he was initially given in the FBI’s September 14 press release) is one of the lesser-known hijackers. In fact, probably less is known about him than any other hijacker. For example, (a) he’s supposed to be an Emirati, but there’s no indication of where in the UAE (i.e. which Emirate, Al Shehhi is from Ras Al Khaimah) he’s supposed to be from, all the other hijackers are from specific places and have histories before they got involved with Al Qaeda; (b) I can find no interview with or comment by any family member, friend or acquaintance from his country of origin (the UAE), although there is an interesting one claiming he is a Saudi (a claim made by lots of people); I can find such comments by at least 8 of the other hijackers’ families/friends/acquaintances who have given interviews to the western press; others have been quoted in the Arabic press.

Anyway here he is:



(1) The first problem is that he sometimes has another name:
“The FBI believes that Al-Shehhi was helped in the hijacking operation by Fayez Ahmad (Fayez Ahmed). According to local information, a youth called Fayez Ahmad Al-Shehri left his home in Asir last Eid Al-Adha saying he intended to join a holy war or relief operation. The FBI does not have any more information about him nor could we obtain his photograph.”
http://www.arabview.com/articles.asp?article=98
This is from the Arab News, which summarises Arab language news in Saudi Arabia for western consumption.

“Fayez Mohamed AlShehri (aka Fayz Ahmed) was part of an official relief agency. He left the country approximately late 2001 to what his family thought was Chechnya, but he went to Pakistan then to Afghanistan. His last call to his family was in March 2001 from undisclosed location believed to be from the United States. He was on board United Airlines #175 that crashed into South Tower of World Trade Center.”
http://www.arabianews.org/english/article.cfm?qid=12&sid=6
“late 2001” should probably be “late 2000”. This is from a Washington-based independent Saudi news agency (i.e. it’s not connected to the House of Saud and, judging by the contents of its main page when I looked, it doesn’t like them very much). It’s from a summary of hijacker info carried by the Saudi press and was released for the first anniversary of 9/11.

This story was subsequently picked up by the Washington Post:
“Fayez Ahmad Al Shehri, first identified by the FBI as Fayez Ahmed, who was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. He left his home in the Asir region more than a year ago, his father, Muhammad Al Shehri, a school principal, told the Arab News, an English language newspaper in Jidda. The younger Al Shehri told his family that he was going to join the International Islamic Relief Organization, and his last contact with his family was a phone call earlier this year.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A19549-2001Sep24¬Found=true

And also the Saint Petersburg Times:
“About July 2000: An alleged hijacker originally identified as Fayez Ahmed, whose birth name is believed to be Fayez Ahmad Al Shehri, leaves home in the Asir region of Saudi Arabia and tells his family he's joining the International Islamic Relief Organization.”
http://www.sptimes.com/News/092701/Worldandnation/The_trail_of_the_terr.shtml

The name was even repeated in a witness statement to the 9/11 Commission:
“When leaving home, September 11 hijacker Fayez Ahmed Al-Shehri told his father he was going to work for IIRO and subsequently joined Al-Qaeda.”
http://www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/hearing3/witness_emerson.htm

Some of the hijackers have different names in the west and in the Arab world, for example Majid Moqed is usually referred to as Majid Al Sharbi in Saudi Arabia, but there’s no way you can get from Fayez Ahmed Al Shehri to Fayez Rashid Ahmed Hassan Al Qadi Banihammad – they’re from different tribes. However, even though this Fayez Ahmed Al Shehri sounds exactly like one of the other hijackers (from the same Al Shehri tribe as three of them, from the same region as most of the muscle, similar middle-class background, similar “leaving home” story, similar “leaving home” date), perhaps it’s just some guy who wandered off and later showed up, but nobody cared because by then they’d figured out he wasn’t one of the hijackers. However, there are a couple of other problems with this:

The second source that indicated he may have been called Al Shehri is Gail Jawahir, who checked two of the hijackers in for United 175 on 9/11. It is unclear whether she checked in him and Mohand Al Shehri or Hamza and Ahmed Al Ghamdi. This is the text of endnote 5 to Chapter 1 of the 9/11 Commission Report:
“Customer service representative Gail Jawahir recalled that her encounter with the Ghamdis occurred at "shortly before 7 a.m., and when shown photos of the hijackers, she indicated that Mohand al Shehri resembled one of the two she checked in (suggesting they were Banihammad and Shehri). However, she also recalled that the men had the same last name and had assigned seats on row 9 (i.e., the Ghamdis), and that account has been adopted here. In either case, she almost certainly was dealing with one set of the Flight 175 hijackers… Even had the hijackers been unable to understand and answer the two standard security questions, the only consequence would have been the screening of their carry-on and checked bags for explosives.”
This is ambiguous. Unfortunately, the 9/11 Commission did not see fit to publish the check in times for United 175, which might have solved it. In the Commission’s account there are two points in favour of the Al Ghamdis (same name and row 9). If we take the same name out of the equation (because Fayez Ahmed may also have had the last name Al Shehri), then what is she more likely to remember correctly – Mohand Al Shehri’s face or whether they were together in two 2 or row 9?
This is Mohand Al Shehri’s face:


Several additional points need to be made here:
(1) The main text of the report (p. 4) says that the two she checked in had trouble speaking English. There is also a report that Fayez Ahmed spoke poor English – from when he was checking in to a hotel a couple of days before the attack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayez_Banihammad). I don’t know about the other three hijackers’ English. According to Terrorist Travel (p. 25) he had worked as an immigration officer in the UAE (the source of this information is endnoted as “FBI memo from Legat Riyadh, “Pentbomb Case,” Oct. 25, 2001” TT, p. 50). A UAE immigration officer who can’t fill out a hotel registration form in English?
(2) If the 9/11 Commission is trying to cover up something here, then they aren’t doing a very good job of it – putting the relevant information in the endnotes (OK, nobody reads the endnotes) is hardly the optimum strategy.
(3) If Fayez Ahmed is using the alias Banihammad in the US, then why does he revert to his real name at check in?
(4) If Fayez Ahmed is using the alias Al Shehri in the US, then why doesn’t he use it all the time? Why just at check in? Does he just like using lots of aliases?
(5) If Jawahir checked in “Fayez Ahmed” and Mohand Al Shehri and only recognised one of them, then, assuming she saw the relevant photos, this could mean that Mohand Al Shehri checked in with some guy whose photo the FBI didn’t have. Who? And what happened to “Fayez Ahmed” if he isn’t dead?
(6) Another person who had dealings with “Fayez Ahmed” failed to recognise him. The owner of a store where he rented a mailbox said, “I guess I must have rented it to him, because I processed the contract. But I don't remember him at all.” http://www.amanaonline.com/Articles/art_122.htm

This is where it gets really bizarre.
(a) A few weeks after the attacks, in the media Fayez Ahmed Banihammad had assumed the characteristics of Fayez Ahmed Al Shehri:
“Fayez Banihammad was described by his father as a -- who's a principal in Saudi Arabia, a simple school principal -- he ended up going off, according to his father, to help an Islamic relief organization, but we now know probably was then brought in to this mission itself.”
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/27/lkl.00.html

(b) “Fayez left his family in 'Asir, telling his parents that he hoped to find work with the International Islamic Relief Organization.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayez_Banihammad)
Asir is on the other side of Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates. Emiratis don’t come from Saudi Arabia, they come from the UAE.

(c) The Joint Inquiry thought he probably used the Visa Express programme even though this was a Saudi programme and he wasn’t a Saudi. Terrorist Travel says he gets his visa in the Emirates.

At the very best, the information you can find in the media is complete crap – they’re taking two identities and merging them into one.

However, neither 9/11 Commission nor any other official body I can find (but I haven’t had a full look yet) endorses this version of his backstory. On the contrary, except for Terrorist Travel, where it says he was an immigration officer, it makes no mention of his history whatsoever. For most of the other hijackers we can find a titbit about what they did before they joined the plot, for example where they went to university, where they were recruited for Al Qaeda, but the main report is silent on his past. In fact, it appears they didn’t even try to find out anything about him. They first deal with the pilots and the Almidhar–Nawaf Al Hazmi duo, then, moving on to the muscle, say:
“Twelve of he muscle hijackers (excluding Nawaf Al Hazmi and Midhar) came from Saudi Arabia… The remaining recruit, Fayez Banihammad, came from the UAE. He appears to have played a unique role among the muscle hijackers because of his work with one of the plot’s financial facilitators, Mustafa Al Hawsawi.”
“Saudi authorities interviewed the relatives of these men and have briefed us on what they found.” (CR, p. 231) There follows a discussion of the Saudis. There’s no mention of Fayez Ahmed’s background, even though he “played a unique role in the plot.” It appears they didn’t interview his parents.

Some other points to consider:
(1) There’s no mention of him being in Afghanistan. As far as I can see there is always at least one detainee who says the other muscle hijackers were there. Sometimes it’s even possible to piece together their approximate dates of travel and routes. But there’s nothing I can see for Banihammad.
(2) In the 19 Martyrs video, Al Qaeda clearly say that he’s an Emirati.
(3) “Fayez Ahmed Banihammad visits the Philippines on October 17-19, 2000. ”
Telegraph: Fayez Ahmed “visited the Philippines on a Saudi Arabian passport for three days from Oct 17 last year.” The Philippines visit is supposedly connected to the International Islamic Relief Organisation, which is active there.
(4) There was previously another Fayez Ahmed who was involved in dubious financial transactions (see postscript).
(5) He used two different names on entry to the US (on his customs and immigration forms), although I don’t know what they were.

Conclusion
Most of the other hijackers barely register a flicker on my ringer-o-meter, but this guy has the damn thing blinking red. I have no idea what all this means.

Postscript:
Now defunct Hamilton Bank: Interesting clients as previously reported by WMR last July (Intelligence Whispers), "In 1995, a $10 million transfer was made to Houston. The source was the Saudi Royal family. The funds were transferred to Nations Bank via Banca Svizzera Italiana via SWIFT. On September 28, 1995, a $50,000 check was cashed at Nation's Bank of Pasadena, Texas. It allegedly originated from the $10 million of transferred funds from Saudi Arabia and the payee was "Fayyaz Ahmed”. Fayyaz Ahmed, aka Fayez Ahmad, was also named as one of the hijackers aboard United 175 that crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center . . .

The account from which the $50,000 was paid was in the name of Treatment Services of the Southwest Corporation, 14359 Torrey Chase Blvd., Suite D Houston TX 77014-1635, in North Harris County --check number 266-406556-1; Tax ID # 76-0455993. Much of the funds eventually ended up in Phoenix, later the location of some of the 911 hijacker trainees.

Ahmad also used the aliases Banihammad Fayez Abu Dhabi Banihammad, Fayez Rushed Ahmed, Banihammad Fayez, Rasid Ahmed Hassen Alqadi, Abu Dhabi Banihammad Ahmed Fayez, with the FBI officially tagging him as one Fayez Rashid Ahmed Hassan al Qadi Banihammad. Fayyaz Ahmed had been a resident of Delray Beach, Florida. The FBI later said that the "Fayyaz Ahmed" who cashed the check in Pasadena was merely a student paying for college tuition but the note on the check states "contingent for travel expenses”. Dallas, Texas was also one of the locations used by the hijackers for flight simulator training. One of the flight training "tasks”, the hijackers trained to do was to maneuver planes between World Trade Center 1 and 2.

According to information recently obtained by WMR, the facts about the money transfer are maintained in the Superior Court of Arizona, Maricopa County, "In the Matter of the Proceeds of Account 41C-07029 RDC Holdings Co., Inc." The FBI in Arizona has investigated the case but may be under pressure not to follow certain leads that could lead to the Bush family and their business associates.

According to a source close to the case, the $10 million was moved from Bluelake World SA, a Switzerland-based firm, via Topaz Liberty and Andromeda International (both Panamanian firms), to the account of Southwest Services of Houston, the account from which Fayyaz Ahmed was paid $50,000.

http://houston.craigslist.org/pol/128880633.html

[paulthompson]

1. I think...

These are some great questions. I hope other people at the board look into this.

As I pointed out to Kevin in an email, Fayez Banihammad (or whatever he calls himself) has so many names and permutations of those names that he could be just about anyone or steal the identities of quite a few people. For instance, check out this from the New York Times on 9/15/01:

Ahmed S. Faiez, who did have a pilot's license and was listed as having trained at the Spartan Aeronautics School in Tulsa, Okla., paid $4,500 for Seat 2A. A school spokesman said it had no record of his having attended. He bought the ticket on Aug. 27 and used as his address a different Mail Boxes Etc. store in Delray Beach. The store owner, Jack Leinwohl, said the box was rented in July.
"I guess I must have rented it to him, because I processed the contract," Mr. Leinwohl said. "But I don't remember him at all."
Mohaid al-Shehri, who also paid $4,500 for his seat, used the same address. Records show that he attended the FlightSafety International school in Vero Beach.

---

Believe it or not, this Ahmed S. Faiez is supposed to be Fayez Bahihammed again.

[Andre II]

2. Very good work

I only like to add that there is according to (John Doe II's file on this guy)
http://www.team8plus.org/forum_viewtopic.php?23.2476

one single witness who recognized Fayez. Strangely this is in Bangor on September 1, 2001:

“Taxi driver Laura Monteith said, she was picked up three men at about 12:45 a.m. outside Jimmy V's, a Bangor bar and restaurant. She identified one as Atta and one as Fayez Ahmed.”
(Bangor Daily News, 10/13/01)

That Bangor is indeed a very suspicious city concerning 911 can be seen here:
http://www.team8plus.org/forum_viewtopic.php?7.32

[paulthompson]

3. Witness

The FBI claims that there were no verified sightings of Atta or any other hijacker in Maine, prior to Sept. 10. Personally, I think they're full of it on that point (and many others) but I just thought I'd mention that. It would be good to figure out where else Atta was sighted on that day.

[Andre II]

4. That day

not clear for me:
for which day would you like to see where else Atta was sighted?

[paulthompson]

5. Sept 1

When he was supposed to be in Bangor, Maine.

[Andre II]

6. Chronolgy

The evidence presented at the Moussaoui trial show that Fyez' credit card was used in Boynton Beach, FL that day.
For Atta we only have his credit card used the day before and the day after 9/1 in Florida.
http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov/notablecases/moussaoui/exhibits/prosecution.html

[treestar]

7. Why did they start in Maine?

Why not just get on in Boston?

[Andre II]

8. Needs a ...

:kick: