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Hijackings planned for years
Others may have plotted to carry out more attacks

By Kevin Johnson,, Blake Morrison, and Richard Willing / USA TODAY

Delane B. Rouse / Associated Press Miriam Horrocks clutches her son, Michael, and kisses her daughter, Christa, during the funeral for her husband, Michael. He was the first officer on the United flight that crashed into World Trade Center's south tower. The hijackers        American Airlines 77, which hit the Pentagon    * Khalid Al-Midhar: Possible residences in Los Angeles and New York.    * Majed Moqed: No information available.    * Nawaq Alhamzi: Possible residences in Fort Lee, N.J.; Wayne, N.J., and Los Angeles.    * Salem Alhamzi: Possible residences in Fort Lee, N.J., and Wayne, N.J.    * Hani Hanjour: Possible residences in Phoenix and San Diego. He was believed to be a pilot.    American Airlines 11, which hit the north tower of the World Trade Center    * Satam Al Suqami: Last known address was United Arab Emirates.    * Waleed M. Alshehri: Possible residences in Hollywood, Fla.; Orlando, Fla.; and Daytona Beach, Fla. He was believed to be a pilot.    * Wail Alshehri: Possible residences in Hollywood, Fla., and Newton, Mass. He was believed to be a pilot.    * Mohamed Atta: Possible residences in Hollywood, Fla.; Coral Springs, Fla.; and Hamburg, Germany. He was believed to be a pilot.    * Abdulaziz Alomari: Possible residence in Hollywood, Fla. He was believed to be a pilot.    United Airlines 175, which hit the south tower of the World Trade Center    * Marwan Al-Shehhi: Possible residence in Hollywood, Fla. He was believed to be a pilot.    * Fayez Ahmed: Possible residence: Delray Beach, Fla.    * Ahmed Alghamdi: Possible residence: Delray Beach, Fla.    * Hamza Alghamdi: Possible residence: Delray Beach, Fla.    * Mohald Alshehri: Possible residence: Delray Beach, Fla.    United Airlines 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania    * Saeed Alghamdi: Possible residence: Delray Beach, Fla.    * Ahmed Alhaznawi: Possible residence: Delray Beach, Fla.    * Ahmed Alnami: Possible residence: Delray Beach, Fla.    * Ziad Jarrahi: Believed to be a pilot.     Gary I. Rothstein / Associated Press An FBI agent gathers evidence at the apartment in Delray Beach, Fla., where two hijackers may have stayed. Both were on United Flight 93 that went down in Pennsylvania. Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

   WASHINGTON -- Investigators say they believe that last week's terrorist hijackings were planned for at least three years and that one or more teams might have been assigned to carry out another attack last weekend.
   An FBI security alert sent to airlines by the Federal Aviation Administration indicates that four men suspected of associating with some of the 19 suicide hijackers had reservations for Saturday on United Airlines Flight 1429, which was scheduled to travel from San Antonio to San Diego with a stop in Denver.
   The flight was cancelled after Tuesday's hijacking attacks, which destroyed the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon and apparently killed more than 5,000.
   It's unclear whether there is any connection between the hijackers and the four men who had reservations on the flight from San Antonio, but authorities say they want to question them.
   Meanwhile, an examination of future airline bookings has provided another twist: Two of the alleged hijackers had reservations for flights that were scheduled after their suicide assaults.
   Authorities speculate that the round-trip reservations might have been designed to fool a screening system airlines use to flag passengers who fly one-way or pay in cash, as several of the hijackers did for their suicide flights.
   The computerized system would be less likely to flag a one-way passenger who had booked future travel.
   Another possibility, law enforcement sources say, is that the hijackers had alternate dates for their mission.
   "That may very well be it," said Steve Luckey, head of the national security committee for the Air Line Pilots Association.
   The FBI has questioned two men who were detained Wednesday in Fort Worth on a train bound for San Antonio. The men, Ayub Ali Khan, 51, and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath, 47, were stopped during a routine drug search and were found with box cutters, hair dye and nearly $20,000 in cash, the sources said. The hijackers in Tuesday's attacks had been armed with knives and box cutters.
   One of the men detained in Fort Worth -- officials would not say which one -- was arrested Sunday as a "material witness." That means authorities suspect he has information important to the hijacking probe. Investigators also plan to arrest the other man as a material witness.
   That would bring to four the number of people arrested as material witnesses.
   The others are a person arrested in Jersey City late Saturday and a man who was detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Thursday.
   Neither was identified, but the man arrested at JFK was one of 12 detained there that day after arousing gate agents' suspicions. The others were released. The arrested man was carrying a fake pilot ID.
   "We do believe that people connected to various terror groups may continue to be present in the U.S.," Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said.
   
Catching collaborators
   The disclosures came as federal and local investigators, led by 4,000 FBI agents, raced to construct the outlines of the terrorism conspiracy by connecting the dots between the hijackers and what is believed to be a network of Muslim hate groups here and abroad.
   The investigation's goal: Catch the collaborators and thwart a future attack, if one is planned.
   In other developments:
   Authorities are likely to arrest a fifth material witness, Zacarias Moussaoui, who is being held in Minnesota on immigration charges. Moussaoui, who was found with jet flight manuals, tried to pay cash for lessons on a commercial jet flight simulator at the Pan Am International Flight Academy in Eagan, Minn.
   Marilyn Ladner, a corporate spokeswoman for the Pan Am flight schools, told Long Island's Newsday that the firm had been asked by the FBI not to discuss details of the Moussaoui case. She did say that the Minnesota flight academy does not have jet flight simulators. Moussaoui reportedly was seeking training at a facility operated by Northwest Airlines, which has its corporate headquarters in Eagan, according to Newsday. Northwest declined to comment.
   Newsweek reported that for more than two weeks, the FBI had pursued two of the hijackers who were aboard the American Airlines flight that crashed into the Pentagon.
   One of the men, Khalid al Midhar, had been linked to the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen last year, which killed 17 sailors. Al Midhar and Salem Alhamzi, who also was on the Pentagon flight, already had entered the United States in late August when the FBI placed them on a border watch list that could have led border guards to stop them.
   
A shared ideology
   More details are emerging about the others suspected in last week's attacks. The hijackers, it appears, ranged in age from 20 to 33, shared a radical ideology and a penchant for privacy.
   They spent years preparing for the attacks. Many had been here since the mid-1990s. Some investigators say the planning began shortly after the bombing attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.
   Waleed Alshehri, a Saudi national aboard the American Airlines flight that crashed into the World Trade Center's north tower, received a Social Security card in Florida in 1994. He graduated in 1997 from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach with a bachelor's degree in aeronautical science.
   "I heard he was a good student," said Robert Ross, the school's spokesman. "Not just a good student, but a good student."
   Hani Hanjour, who authorities say piloted the jet that hit the Pentagon, lived in Arizona for the past five years. He received pilot training in Scottsdale.
   One of the most chilling finds by investigators was a suicide note in a suitcase belonging to Mohamed Atta, who was in the same jet as Alshehri and had flown earlier Tuesday from Portland, Maine, to Boston, where the doomed flight originated.
   Some reports say the note, found in baggage that was left behind in Boston, was dated 1996.
   At 33, Atta was the oldest of the suspects, and some investigators say he was an architect of the hijackings. He rented apartments, and he bought a car.
   The chief federal prosecutor in Germany said Atta, who attended Hamburg Technical University for eight years and ran an Islamic group there, organized a terrorist cell in Hamburg with another suspected hijacker, Marwan Al-Shehhi. The cell's aim, the prosecutor said, was "launching spectacular attacks on the institutions of the United States."
   The rest of the alleged hijackers appear to be in their 20s. Hamza Alghamdi, who was on the United Airlines jet that hit the trade center's south tower, was 20.
   They were well-financed, even though they do not seem to have held any jobs to support their apartments, cars or tuition bills at aviation schools.
   Most lived bachelor lives, spending money in bars, though seldom on women. Sometimes they lived together, sometimes one would arrive as another moved on to the next destination apparently required by their plan.
   Several who lived in Delray Beach, Fla., listed their address at the same Mail Boxes Etc. branch.
   Neighbors at the Delray Beach Racquet Club, where Alghamdi, Ahmed Alnami and Saeed Alghamdi stayed over the summer, said the tenants in Apartment 1504 seemed determined to keep to themselves, even refusing to say hello.
   The Alghamdis were in the jet that hit the trade center's south tower. Alnami was on the United Airlines jet that crashed in rural Pennsylvania.
   "I remember one being hesitant to even make eye contact," said Heather Murphy, a resident.
   Ziad Jarrahi, said to be the pilot of the jet that crashed in Pennsylvania, shared an apartment in Hamburg with Atta and Al-Shehhi.
   Atta and Al-Shehhi moved on to south Florida early this year, then went to pilot training in Venice, Fla., in July. Jarrahi, meanwhile, arrived in Florida from Hamburg in June.
   Eventually, most of the hijackers turned up in Florida. Investigators have placed 14 of the 19 there.
   Most of the hijackers who lived in Florida were on board the jets that hit the World Trade Center and crashed in Pennsylvania, investigators say.
   The suspects on the jet that crashed into the Pentagon have been traced to addresses in San Diego, Fort Lee and Fort Wayne, N.J. But Hanjour, the supposed pilot, has been linked to a Florida address.