Ahmed al-Haznawi (also Ahmed Ibrahim al-Haznawi) (b. October 10, 1980 or May 11, 1980) was a hijacker on United Airlines Flight 93.
Ahmed al-Haznawi came from the Baha Province of Saudi Arabia, which is the same place that Hamza al-Ghamdi and Ahmed al-Ghamdi were from.[1] The Baha Province is located an isolated and underdeveloped part of Saudi Arabia. Haznawi grew up in the village of Hezna, where his father (Ibraham al-Haznawi) was a cleric at the mosque in the central marketplace area of town. Haznawi belonged to a family that was part of the larger, Al-Ghamdi tribe.[2]
In late 1999, al-Haznawi asked for his father's permission to join jihad in Chechnya, which his father refused. Without his father's permission, al-Haznawi left in 2000 and went to Afghanistan. He told friends that he was going to the friends that he was headed to the Al Farouq Camp before going to Chechnya. Al Haznawi indeed trained at the al-Farouq camp, but there is no evidence that he ever went to Chechnya.[2]
Al-Haznawi then returned to Saudi Arabia for Ramadan. There, he began recruiting cousins and others in his tribe, with militant pamphlets and cassette tapes to aid him.[2] He had success, recruiting Hamza and Ahmed al-Ghamdi from the nearby village of Belijurashi.[3] These three may have been part of the same circle, all attending al-Seqeley Mosque.[4]
On November 12, Ahmad Al-Haznawi applied a U.S. visa in Jeddah, and obtained a two-year B-1/B-2 (tourist/business) visa. The 9/11 Commission found evidence that when obtaining the visa, Haznawi presented a passport with fraudulent travel stamps associated with al Qaeda. He also listed his occupation as “student” but left blank the line on which he was asked to supply the street address of his present school. He stated that he would provide financial support for his visit. He was not interviewed by immigration officials.[5]
After the attacks, Arab News in Saudi Arabia spoke with al-Haznawi's father. He explained that al-Haznawi "left for jihad and his father, an imam at the local mosque, did not have any information about him after that."[16]
In April 2002, a video surfaced that showed Ahmed al-Haznawi giving his last will and testament.[1] He is seen reciting a prepared statement, which al-Jazeera described as a last will and testament.[17]
In the video, Haznawi is quoted saying:
| “ | We left our families to send a message that has the color of blood. This message says, 'Oh Allah, take from our blood today until you are satisfied.' The message says, 'The time of humiliation and subjugation are over.' It is time to kill Americans in their own homeland, among their sons, and near their forces and intelligence." | ” |
Haznawi, accompanied by Ziad Jarrah, came to Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, for treatment of a black lesion on his leg. Haznawi told the doctor "that the wound had not healed after he bumped into a suitcase a couple of months before."[18] The doctor treated the wound, and gave Haznawi a prescription for antibiotics.[18]
After the 9/11 attacks and anthrax attacks, the emergency room physician Dr. Christos Tsonas who treated him expressed thoughts that the wound "was consistent with cutaneous anthrax". However, Ttere were no cultures or blood tests in making the diagnosis. The FBI explained that, "His analysis was made from his handwritten notes and memory."[19]
FBI Assistant Director John Collingwood said in March 2002, "Exhaustive testing did not support that anthrax was present anywhere the hijackers had been. While we always welcome new information, nothing new has, in fact, developed." Authorities did "a thorough search" of all the locations where the hijackers lived, going "so far as to empty out vacuum cleaners", but found no evidence of anthrax."[18]