With One Month to Go Before 9/11, Mohammed Atta Took a Meeting in New Jersey

With One Month to Go Before 9/11, Mohammed Atta Took a Meeting in New Jersey

In this series, Newsweek maps the road to 9/11 as it happened 20 years ago, day by day.

Mohammed Atta was in Fort Lee, New Jersey, on August 12 when he stopped to use an Internet cafe called "Web Station." He was on his way to Washington DC, where he boarded a flight the next day to Las Vegas. On his agenda: one last face-to-face meeting with Hani Hanjour, the only pilot not of the Hamburg group and the only one not living and training in Florida.

As "emir" of the American plot, Atta was chief planner, trainer, financial and logistical manager, and part psychologist, keeping everyone on track and motivated over a period of 19 months. Most important, he ultimately had the authority to choose the targets and the date of the attack. Al Qaeda central in Afghanistan said it wanted to hit one military, one political and one financial target—and Osama bin Laden was particularly interested in hitting the U.S. Capitol building—but Atta had the final say based on the conditions on the ground.