Who Were the Fifteen Saudis?

Abstract

On September 11, 2001, the al-Qa'ida terrorist network succeeded in an act of terror which the world will not soon forget. The 19 terrorists who hijacked the four airliners were all Muslims from Arab states, 15 of them were citizens of Saudi Arabia. This thesis addresses the question of who these hijackers were, and presents evidence to support the hypothesis that they were selected by al-Qa'ida because of their Saudi citizenship and/or connection to Saudi Arabia. It will further be shown how the selection of these young men served certain specific political purposes for the al-Qa'ida terror network; purposes which some of the hijackers may not even have been aware of.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2003
Accession Number
ADA417628

Entities

People

  • Martin F. Piechot

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Commercial Aircraft
  • Employment
  • Governments
  • International Relations
  • Man Borne Improvised Explosive Devices
  • Middle East
  • Mobile Phones
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Political Systems
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Societies
  • Students
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • Transport Aircraft

Readers

  • Aviation Safety and Air Traffic Management
  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union