Editing Marwan al-Shehhi (section)

==In the United States==
===Flight education and preparation===
[[File:Al-Shehhi Drivers Licence.gif|left|thumb|Marwan al-Shehhi's Florida drivers license, which he received on April 4, 2001]]
Al-Shehhi was the first of the Hamburg group to leave for the United States. He arrived in [[Newark, New Jersey]] on 29 May 2000. Atta and Jarrah joined him the next month, and the three men began to search for flight schools. Al-Shehhi and Jarrah posed as body guards of Atta, who was posing as a "[[Saudi Arabia]]n royal family member" while the three of them took flying lessons in [[Venice, Florida]]. They logged hundreds of hours on a [[Boeing 727]] flight simulator. They received their licenses by December 2000. Their expenses were paid for by [[Ali Abdul Aziz Ali]]. On either 26 or 27 December, Atta, Jarrah, and al-Shehhi abandoned a [[Piper Cherokee]] that had stalled on the runway of [[Miami International Airport]]. On 31 December, the trio went to the Opa-Locka Airport and practiced on a [[Boeing 727]] simulator. 

=== Travels in early 2001 ===
After completing their flight training Atta, Jarrah, and Al-Shehhi all took foreign trips during the holidays season of 2000-2001. Atta went to [[Berlin]], [[Germany]] to coordinate with [[Ramzi bin al-Shibh]] about their flight training, Jarrah went to [[Lebanon]], and Germany to visit his family and girlfriend, while Al-Shehhi went to [[Morocco]] then to the [[United Arab Emirates]] to visit his wife. After not hearing from Al-Shehhi for a long time, his family reported him missing to the Government of the UAE. As a response, the embassy in UAE contacted Hamburg to inform the authorities. After learning that his family were concerned for him Al-Shehhi finally called them on January 20, 2001 to assure them that he was okay.

Atta and al-Shehhi both encountered some difficulty reentering the United States on January 10th and 19th, respectively. As neither had presented a student visa, both of them had to persuade [[Immigration and Naturalization Service|INS]] inspectors that they should be admitted so that they could continue their flight training. Neither operative had any problem clearing customs. After returning to Florida from their trips, Atta and al-Shehhi visited [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], staying briefly in [[Norcross, Georgia|Norcross]] and [[Decatur, Georgia|Decatur]], and renting a single-engine plane to fly with an instructor in [[Lawrenceville, Georgia|Lawrenceville]]. By 19 February, Atta and al-Shehhi were in [[Virginia]]. They had rented a mailbox in [[Virginia Beach, Virginia|Virginia Beach]], cashed a check, and then promptly returned to Georgia, staying in [[Stone Mountain, Georgia|Stone Mountain]]. In mid-March, [[Ziad Jarrah]] was in Georgia as well, staying in Decatur. At the end of the month, Jarrah left the United States again and visited Sengün in Germany for two weeks. In early April, Atta and al-Shehhi returned to Virginia Beach and closed the mailbox they had opened in February.

Atta and al-Shehhi returned to [[Virginia Beach, Virginia|Virginia Beach]] from their travels in Georgia, making their way to a large [[Dar Al-Hijrah]] mosque, sometime in early April. They were joined there by 9/11 hijackers [[Nawaf al-Hazmi]] and [[Hani Hanjour]] who had moved out of [[San Diego]] and [[Arizona]] after living in or visiting [[Abdussattar Shaikh|Abdussattar Shaikh’s]] house, where [[Khalid al-Mihdhar]] also stayed. The mosque had recently  hired the same [[imam]] [[Anwar al-Awlaki]] with whom Hazmi had spent time at the Rabat mosque in [[San Diego]]. He remembered Hazmi from San Diego but denied having contact with Hazmi or Hanjour in Virginia. Atta and al-Shehhi returned to Florida and moved into an apartment in [[Coral Springs, Florida|Coral Springs]]. Atta stayed in Florida, awaiting the arrival of the first muscle hijackers. Al-Shehhi, on the other hand, bought a ticket to [[Cairo]] and flew there from [[Miami]] on 18 April. Al-Shehhi met with Atta's father, who stated in a post-9/11 interview that al-Shehhi wanted to pick up Atta's international driver's license and some money.

Al-Shehhi returned to Miami on 2 May. That day, Atta and Jarrah were together, about 30 miles to the north, visiting a Department of Motor Vehicles office in [[Lauderdale Lakes, Florida|Lauderdale Lakes]], Florida, to get Florida driver's licenses. 4 days later on 6 May 2001 Atta, Jarrah, and Al-Shehhi signed up at the US1 Fitness Center, a gym in [[Dania Beach, Florida]] where the men learned how to fight in hand to hand combat. Al-Shehhi began to take "surveillance flights" in the summer of 2001, watching the operations of flight crews and making final preparations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Statement of Robert S. Mueller: Joint Investigation Into September 11: (published September 26, 2002) |url=https://irp.fas.org/congress/2002_hr/092602mueller.html |access-date=2021-09-09 |website=irp.fas.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2001-09-14 |title=How 'shy foreigners' learned to pilot flying-bomb Boeings |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/14/september11.usa18 |access-date=2021-09-09 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref>

=== August 2001 ===
[[Image:Marwan Al-Shehhi full card.jpg|thumb|Shehhi's motel registration]]
On 26 August, al-Shehhi signed into the Panther [[Motel]] in [[Deerfield Beach, Florida]], paying US$500, saying he wanted to stay until 2 September, and listing a [[Mailboxes Etc.]] as his permanent address. His register entry indicated that he was driving a blue [[Chevrolet Malibu]], assumed to be the one rented by Atta two weeks prior, and manager Richard Surma said that he bent rules to allow al-Shehhi to have another man as an overnight guest. On 28 August, al-Shehhi went to the [[Miami International Airport]], accompanied by an unknown man, where he purchased his ticket for [[United Airlines Flight 175|Flight 175]].<ref>[http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_hr/092602mueller.html "Statement for the Record, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, Joint Intelligence Committee Inquiry"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120103193507/http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_hr/092602mueller.html |date=2012-01-03 }}, FAS.org, September 26, 2002.</ref>