Early January 2000: 9/11 Hijackers Alhazmi and Almihdhar Given Mysterious Contact Address in US

Two future 9/11 hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, are given the contact of someone useful in the US, and they may utilize this contact when they move to the US a short time later. Dhiren Barot is a British citizen who was born in India, and by early 2000 he has been involved with Islamist militants for several years. For instance, he fought with militants in Kashmir and was an instructor at an Afghan training camp. According to a footnote in a 9/11 Commission report, Barot is sent to Malaysia with al-Qaeda leader Khallad bin Attash on the orders of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM). Bin Attash attends an al-Qaeda summit in Kuala Lumpur that is also attended by Amihdhar and Alhazmi (see January 5-8, 2000). Barot apparently does not attend the summit, but shortly afterwards he meets with al-Qaeda leader Hambali, who does attend the summit, and he gives him two addresses. According to the 9/11 Commission, one of the addresses is in the US, “possibly in California,” and the other address is in South Africa. He tells Hambali that he could “contact people in those locations” if he “needed help.” Hambali will later be captured and will deny to interrogators that he ever passed the addresses on to anyone else. But Newsweek will later report, “US officials are dubious about Hambali’s denials and suspect that the unspecified US address in California may well have been passed along to [Almihdhar and Alhazmi].” [Newsweek, 8/16/2004] These two hijackers fly to Los Angeles, California, only about a week after the summit, and begin living in San Diego (see January 15, 2000). Presumably, the US address would point to at least one conspirator in the 9/11 plot living in the US, but if the name of this person is known to investigators, it is not made public.