The Hijackers Who Didn’t Hide
Nawaf al-Hazmi, one of the hijackers on board American Airlines Flight 77, was a one time employee of Star Mart located on Spring Street in La Mesa, California. The Mart was once owned by Osama Mahmud “Sam” Mustafa, who in 1991 was under investigation during the Pan Am 103 (Lockerbie bombing) attack, for which he was found not to be involved with. The Star Mart was once managed by Ed Salamah who had befriended his fresh faced neighbor and gave him a job. It was here that many employees of Star Mart supposedly heard al-Hazmi talk about the “planes operation”. According to one witness, Abdullah, Osama Awadallah, Omar Bakarbashat, and other gas station employees will appear to show foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks one day before they take place.
The apartment complex where both Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi stood, Parkwood Apartments, was not far at all from al-Hazmi’s place of employment. Both men were living out in the open, and has drivers licenses in their own names, while many neighbors at Parkwood would witness both men drive with other flashy Saudi’s in luxury cars. Nancy Coker, 36, saw them getting into limos late at night, even though the car that neighbors said they drove was a gray Toyota Camry, early ’90s vintage. ‘
A week ago, I was coming home between 12 and 1 a.m. from a club. I saw a limo pick them up. It wasn’t the first time. In this neighborhood you notice stuff like that. In the past couple of months, I have seen this happen at least two or three times.’” Later the two men would move into the home of Abdussattar Shaikh, who would later be found out to have been an FBI informant for many years. Although after the 9/11 attacks, the FBI would later state that Sheikh never told his handler, Stephan Butler, about the two men’s names because he found them both to be, rather unremarkable.
Shaikh would offer rooms in his Lemon Grove Home, and found al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi to be quite perfect complements to his house. Although the pair found Shaikh to be untrustworthy in the latter months and would relocate. Shaikh mentions the names “Nawaf” and “Khalid” in passing and says that they are renting rooms from him but when FBI handler, Stephen Butler asks for their last names Abdussattar would not relate that information. The FBI will later conclude that Shaikh is not involved in the 9/11 plot, but it has serious doubts about his credibility. However the NSA continues to monitor the calls made from the san Diego area where al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi stayed, while Saudi agents, Omar al-Bayoumi and Osama Basnan, continue to fund the pair with all of the funding coming from abroad in checks made from Riggs bank accounts from Haifa bint Faisal, wife of U.S-Saudi Ambassador Bandar bin Sultan.
Hijackers moved freely out west: http://web.archive.org/web/20021029043912/http://www.usbc.org/info/everything2001/0901movedfreely.htm
Star Mart owner in trouble with IRS — https://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/news-ticker/2012/may/16/ex-la-mesa-gas-station-owner-who-hired-911-hijacke/#
Abdussattar Shaikh — http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=abdussattar_shaikh
