Sept 11 hijackers 'twice set off security alarms'

Some of the hijackers who crashed a jetliner into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, twice set off alarms as they passed through airport metal detectors, but security screeners did not appear to question them about knives they were apparently carrying, according to a newly disclosed surveillance video.

The video represents the only footage known to exist showing any of the September 11 hijackers boarding their final flights that fateful morning.

It shows most of the hijackers in Washington were pulled aside to undergo additional scrutiny after alarms went off at metal detectors at Washington Dulles airport but then were permitted to board American Airlines Flight 77.

The video also shows an airport screener hand-checking the baggage of one hijacker, Nawaf al-Hazmi, for traces of explosives before letting him continue to the plane with his brother, Salem, a fellow hijacker.

Al-Hazmi had been added to a US government terrorism watch list just weeks earlier.

The disclosure of the video last night came just before the release of the final report by the September 11 commission, which is expected to include a detailed accounting of the events that day.

Details in the grainy video are difficult to distinguish. But an earlier, preliminary report by the commission describing activities at Dulles is consistent with the men’s procession through airport security as shown on the video.

No knives or other sharp objects are visible on the surveillance video.

Investigators have said the hijackers were believed to be carrying utility knives which at the time could legally be carried aboard planes if the blades were less than four inches long and were not considered “menacing”.

There is no indication on the video that security screeners questioned the hijackers about any knives.

All 58 passengers – including the hijackers – and six crew members, along with 125 employees at the Pentagon, died when the flight crashed into the Pentagon at 9.39am (2.39pm Irish time) on September 11.

The video shows hijackers Khalid al-Mihdhar and Majed Moqed, each dressed conservatively in slacks and collared shirts, setting off metal detectors as they pass through security around 7.18am (12.18pm Irish time).

Moqed set off a second alarm, and a screener manually checked him with a handheld metal detector.

The pair were known to have travelled together previously and had paid cash to purchase their tickets aboard Flight 77.

Al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi had been known to be associated with al-Qaida since early 1999 by the National Security Agency, and were put on a terrorism watch list on August 24, 2001.

Only Hani Hanjour, believed to have been the hijacker who piloted Flight 77, passed through Dulles security that morning without being subjected to a secondary security check, according to the video.

Moments after Hanjour passed alone through the security checkpoint, wearing dark slacks and a short-sleeved shirt, the final two hijackers, the al-Hazmi brothers, both wearing slacks and Oxford shirts, walked through the checkpoint.

Nawaf al-Hazmi, described by investigators as the right-hand accomplice of hijacker-planner Mohammed Atta, set off two metal-detectors, and a screener manually checked him with a handheld device.

Nawaf and his brother, each wearing slacks and Oxford shirts, were directed to a nearby counter, where they appeared to closely examine their tickets while another screener checked Nawaf’s bag with an explosive trace detector. Each was cleared to board Flight 77.

The Associated Press news agency obtained the video from the Motley Rice law firm, which is representing some victims’ families who are suing the airlines and security industry over their actions in the September 11 attacks.

“Even after setting off these alarms, the airlines and security screeners failed to examine the hijackers’ baggage, as required by federal regulations and industry-mandated standards, or discover the weapons they would use in their attack,” lawyer Ron Motley said.

Elaine Teague, who is suing over the death of her 31-year-old daughter, Sandra, said she had previously been shown the footage by the FBI. But the terrorists’ faces had been digitally disguised.

Teague said she was surprised at how relaxed security was, given that airlines had received three warnings from the Federal Aviation Administration.

One such warning, issued in June 2001, cited “unconfirmed reports that American interests may be the target of a terrorist threat from extremist groups”.