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| From left: hijack pilots Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah were all said to have visited the home in Sarasota while learning to fly at nearby Venice Airport Photo: GETTY |
A Saudi Arabian accused of associating with several of the September 11 hijackers and who disappeared from his home in the United States a few weeks before the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, is in London working for his country’s state oil company.
Abdulaziz al-Hijji and his wife Anoud left three cars at their luxurious home
in a gated community in Sarasota, Florida — one of them new — and flew to
Saudi Arabia in August 2001. The refrigerator was full of food; furniture
and clothing were left behind; and the swimming pool water was still
circulating.
Security records of cars passing through a checkpoint at the Prestancia gated
community indicated that Mr al-Hijji’s home, 4224 Escondito Circle, had been
visited a number of times by Mohamed Atta, the leader of the 19-strong hijack team, who piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the North
Tower of the World Trade Centre in 2001.
The logs also indicated that Marwan Al-Shehhi, who crashed United Airlines
Flight 175 into the South Tower, and Ziad Jarrah, who was at the controls of
United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, had
visited the house.
All three men had trained to fly at Venice Airport, which is 19 miles from
Sarasota.
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