Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden picked Khalid al-Mihdhar for an important role in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, and the Saudi national was almost removed from the operation, according to a new report.

According to accounts later detailed by the 9/11 Commission and cited in a Newsweek timeline, al-Mihdhar had been chosen initially to train as a pilot. He was among the first of the 19 hijackers to arrive in the United States in January 2000. His time in the US did not go as planned.

Al-Mihdhar went to San Diego with fellow Saudi national Nawaf al-Hazmi, who was also selected as a potential pilot. Al-Mihdhar eventually left the United States in June 2000, saying he wanted to travel to Yemen to visit his wife and newborn son.

His departure left al-Hazmi behind. He could not speak English and was also struggling with flight training.

Mohammed Atta, who would later be identified as the operational leader of the 9/11 hijackers, subsequently travelled to San Diego to check on al-Hazmi. Atta reportedly told him to wait for Hani Hanjour, another Saudi national expected to arrive and help him.

According to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the main planners of the 9/11 attacks, Atta wanted al-Mihdhar removed from the plot because of his problems. But al-Qaeda’s leadership in Afghanistan insisted that he remain involved.

Instead of serving as a pilot, al-Mihdhar was ultimately assigned a different role. He was paired with Hani Hanjour and designated as a so-called “muscle hijacker” on American Airlines Flight 77, which eventually crashed into the Pentagon.

On June 13, 2001, al-Mihdhar applied for a new US visa at the American consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He used a Saudi passport that had been issued just 13 days earlier. This was different from the passport he had used when he first entered the United States in January 2000.

The CIA already suspected al-Mihdhar had links to al-Qaeda and knew about his earlier US visa. However, that information was not available in the State Department’s visa system, and he was not on a terrorism watch list. 

US intelligence had also tracked al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi to Malaysia, where they met other suspected al-Qaeda members. But information about their return to the US was delayed for more than a year.

Al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi eventually settled in San Diego and briefly attended flight school. Al-Mihdhar later left the US but returned on July 4, 2001, despite irregularities in his passport. He was allowed entry and given a six-month visa.

Over two months later, on September 11, al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were among the five hijackers who crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.