Editing Mohamed Atta (section)

== Mistaken identity ==
In the aftermath of 9/11 attacks, the names of the hijackers were released. There was some confusion regarding who Mohamed Atta was, and cases of mistaken identity. Initially, Mohamed Atta's identity was confused with that of a native [[Jordan]]ian, [[Mahmoud Mahmoud Atta]], who bombed an Israeli bus in the [[West Bank]] in 1986, killing one and severely injuring three. Mahmoud Atta was 14 years older than Mohamed Atta.<ref name="ADL2001">{{cite web |publisher=Anti-Defamation League |url=http://www.adl.org/rumors/atta%5Frumors.asp |title=A Case of Mistaken Identity: Mohammad Atta Not Linked to Bus Bombing |access-date=16 September 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917063644/http://www.adl.org/rumors/atta_rumors.asp |archive-date=17 September 2008}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=May 2025}} Mahmoud Atta, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was subsequently deported from [[Venezuela]] to the United States, extradited to Israel, tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. The Israeli Supreme Court later overturned his extradition and set him free.<ref>{{cite news |author=O'Sullivan, Arieh |work=The Jerusalem Post |title=Internet rumors aside, WTC attacker not held by Israel |date=8 November 2001 }}</ref> After the attacks, there were also reports stating that Mohamed Atta had attended the International Officers School at [[Maxwell Air Force Base]] in [[Montgomery, Alabama]]. ''[[The Washington Post]]'' quoted a [[United States Air Force]] official who explained, "discrepancies in their biographical data, such as birth dates 20 years off, indicate we are probably not talking about the same people."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38270-2001Sep15?language=printer |title=2nd Witness Arrested; 25 Held for Questioning |author=Gugliotta, Guy and David S. Fallis |newspaper=The Washington Post|date=15 September 2001 |access-date=16 September 2008
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}}</ref>

=== Prague controversy ===
{{Main|Mohamed Atta's alleged Prague connection}}

In the months following the [[September 11 attacks|11 September attacks]], officials at the Czech Interior Ministry asserted that Atta made a trip to [[Prague]] on 8 April 2001, to meet with an [[Ba'athist Iraq|Iraqi]] intelligence agent named Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani. This piece of information was passed on to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] as "unevaluated raw intelligence".<ref>{{cite news |author=Edward Jay Epstein |url=http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007584 |title=Atta in Prague |publisher=OpinionJournal |date=22 November 2005 |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080930190824/http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007584 |archive-date=30 September 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> Intelligence officials have concluded that such a meeting did not occur. A [[Pakistan]]i businessman named Mohammed Atta had come to Prague from [[Saudi Arabia]] on 31 May 2000, with this second Atta possibly contributing to the confusion. The Egyptian Mohamed Atta arrived at the [[Florenc Central Bus Station|Florenc bus terminal]] in Prague, from [[Germany]], on 2 June 2000. He left Prague the next day, flying on [[Czech Airlines]] to [[Newark, New Jersey]], [[United States|U.S.]] In the [[Czech Republic]], some intelligence officials say the source of the purported meeting was an Arab informant who approached the Czech intelligence service with his sighting of Atta only after Atta's photograph had appeared in newspapers all over the world. United States and Czech intelligence officials have since concluded that the person seen with Ani was mistakenly identified as Atta, and the consensus of investigators is that Atta never attended a meeting in Prague.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.radio.cz/en/article/57782/limit |title=A Tale of Two 'Attas': How spurious Czech intelligence muddied the 9/11 probe |publisher=Radio Praha |date=3 September 2004 |author=Kenety, Brian |access-date=16 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203054004/http://www.radio.cz/en/article/57782/limit |archive-date=3 February 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=In Prague, a tale of 2 Attas; Mistaken identity muddied 9/11 probe |work=Chicago Tribune |date=29 August 2004 |author=Crewdson, John}}</ref><ref name="Burke2005_17">[[#Burke2005|Burke (2005)]], p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=-_FJFFrit8AC&pg=PA17&dq=%22Credit+card+documents+proved+Atta+to+have+been+in+America+at+the+time+of+the+alleged+meeting%22 17.]</ref>

=== Able Danger ===
In 2005, Army Lt. Col. [[Anthony Shaffer (intelligence officer)|Anthony Shaffer]] and Congressman [[Curt Weldon]] alleged that the [[United States Department of Defense|Defense Department]] data mining project, [[Able Danger]], produced a chart that identified Atta, along with [[Nawaf al-Hazmi]], [[Khalid al-Mihdhar]], and [[Marwan al-Shehhi]], as members of a [[Brooklyn]]-based [[al-Qaeda]] cell in early 2000.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/politics/09intel.html?pagewanted=print |title=Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00 |author=Jehl, Douglas |date=9 August 2005 |work=The New York Times |access-date=29 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080406160538/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/politics/09intel.html?pagewanted=print |archive-date=6 April 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> Shaffer largely based his allegations on the recollections of Navy Captain Scott Phillpott,<ref name="wp-20050819">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801751.html |author=Eggen, Dan |title=Officer Says 2 Others Are Source of His Atta Claims |newspaper=The Washington Post|date=19 August 2005 |access-date=29 September 2008
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}}</ref> who later recanted his recollection, telling investigators that he was "convinced that Atta was not on the chart that we had." Phillpott said that Shaffer was "relying on my recollection 100 percent," and the Defense Department Inspector General's report indicated that Philpott "may have exaggerated knowing Atta's identity because he supported using Able Danger's techniques to fight [[terrorism]]."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/21/AR2006092101831.html |title=Hijackers Were Not Identified Before 9/11, Investigation Says |newspaper=The Washington Post|date=22 September 2006 |author=White, Josh |access-date=29 September 2008
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106151245/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/21/AR2006092101831.html
| url-status=live | archive-date=6 November 2012
}}</ref><ref name="oig">{{cite web |url=http://www.dodig.mil/fo/foia/ERR/r_H05L97905217-PWH.pdf |title=Office Inspector General's Report |publisher=Department of Defense |date=18 September 2006 |access-date=29 September 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216064401/http://www.dodig.mil/fo/foia/ERR/r_H05L97905217-PWH.pdf |archive-date=16 February 2012}}</ref>

Five witnesses who had worked on Able Danger and had been questioned by the Defense Department's Inspector General later told investigative journalists that their statements to the IG were distorted by investigators in the final IG's report, or the report omitted essential information that they had provided. The alleged [[Able Danger#Alleged evidence of IG cover-up|distortions of the IG report]] centered around excluding any evidence that [[Able Danger]] had identified and tracked Atta years before 9/11.<ref name="foxnews.com">{{cite news |first=Catherine |last=Herridge |url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/exclusive-witnesses-in-defense-dept-report-suggest-cover-up-of-9-11-findings/ |title=Exclusive: Witnesses in Defense Dept. Report Suggest Cover-Up of 9/11 Findings |publisher=Fox News|date=4 October 2010 |access-date=11 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150516210737/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/04/exclusive-witnesses-defense-department-report-suggest-cover-findings/ |archive-date=16 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Lt. Col. Shaffer's book also clearly indicates direct identification of the [[Brooklyn]] cell, and Mohamed Atta.<ref>{{cite book|last=Shaffer|first=Anthony|title=Operation Dark Heart|year=2010|publisher=St Martin's Press|pages=170|isbn=978-0-312-60369-4}}</ref>