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TheHamburg cell (German:Hamburger Zelle;Arabic:خلية هامبورغ,Khalia Hamburh) was, according toU.S. andGerman intelligence agencies, a group of radicalIslamists based inHamburg,Germany, that included students from differentArab countries who eventually came to be key operatives in theSeptember 11 attacks. Important members includedMohamed Atta, who led the four hijacking teams in 2001 and pilotedAmerican Airlines Flight 11;Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who conspired with the other three members but was unable to enter theUnited States;Marwan al-Shehhi, who pilotedUnited Airlines Flight 175; andZiad Jarrah, who pilotedUnited Airlines Flight 93 and failed to hit a target inWashington, D.C. Other members includedSaid Bahaji,Zakariya Essabar,Mounir el-Motassadeq, andAbdelghani Mzoudi.
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On November 1, 1998, future-hijackersMohamed Atta,Marwan al-Shehhi, andRamzi bin al-Shibh moved into a spacious apartment (two bedrooms, one living room, one kitchen) together on Marienstraße. Here they formed the secretiveHamburg cell, which also included other minor participants in the 9/11 plot. They met together three or four times a week to discuss theiranti-American andanti-Israeli views and to decide how best to fight for their cause.
As late as 1999, the four core members of the group had intended to wagejihad inChechnya, whereIslamic jihadists were rebelling againstRussia. The9/11 Commission Report notes in Chapter 5 that "according to bin al-Shibh [who is now in U.S. custody], a chance meeting on a train in Germany caused the group to travel to Afghanistan instead. An individual named Khalid al Masri (orKhalid al-Masri) approached bin al-Shibh and Shehhi (because they wereArabs with beards, bin al-Shibh thinks) and struck up a conversation about jihad in Chechnya. When they later called Masri and expressed interest in going to Chechnya, he told them to contact Abu Musab inDuisburg, Germany. Abu Musab turned out to beMohamedou Ould Slahi, who was well known to U.S. and German intelligence.
Bin al-Shibh, Shehhi and Jarrah visited Slahi inDuisburg, where he convinced them that it would be best to train inAfghanistan first, because further experience would be useful, and anyway it was difficult at that time to get into Chechnya. Slahi instructed them to travel toKarachi,Pakistan, then to theTaliban office inQuetta, Pakistan, where they were to contact a man named Umar al-Masri. Atta and Jarrah left Hamburg during the last week of November 1999. Shehhi left by himself around the same time; bin al-Shibh followed two weeks later. Slahi denies any involvement with Al-Qaeda by 1999, having previously fought with the group against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. He attests that he hosted the trio as an act of hospitality to fellow muslims.
"Umar al-Masri" turned out to be a nonexistent person. The name was acode word that instructed members of the Taliban office to escort the men toKandahar, Afghanistan, where they were convinced to join the al-Qaeda network and wage jihad againstAmerica. They met withOsama bin Laden himself and swore their loyalty to him.Mohamed Atta was chosen by Bin Laden as the leader of the group that would attack America; Atta would contact Bin Laden several more times before the attacks. The men then returned to Germany to enroll in flight training school, and later moved on to flight training schools in the United States at the recommendation of one of their instructors based in Germany.
The members of the Hamburg Cell were a boon to the 9/11 plot, whichKhalid Sheikh Mohammed had proposed to Bin Laden in 1996. The Hamburg students were fluent in English, educated, accustomed to the Western lifestyle, radically Islamic, and capable of learning to pilot aircraft. "Bin Laden andMohammed Atef wasted no time in assigning the Hamburg group to the most ambitious operation yet planned by al-Qaeda," the9/11 Commission Report says.
Many al-Qaeda members lived in the Hamburg apartment at various times. In all, 29 men listed the apartment as their home address while Mohamed Atta's name was on the lease. Reportedly,Khalid Sheikh Mohammed visited the apartment repeatedly.
German intelligence monitored the apartment, but did not find any evidence against the residents. Both the United States'Central Intelligence Agency and German Intelligence have received criticism for failing to share information on these and other al-Qaida members.
The filmHamburg Cell is adocudrama on the planning and execution of the attacks. A co-production betweenChannel 4 in theUK andCBC inCanada, it was shown in the UK during September 2004, amid criticism that this was too close to the anniversary of the attack. Usingcomputer-generated imagery, the film's producers were able to show the twin towers of the World Trade Center, before the attack, in the background.Ziad Jarrah is featured calling his girlfriend, Aysel Sengün, from a public telephone at the airport, repeating the words 'I love you' over and over.
