1. Wail Mohammed al-Shehri was a Saudi school teacher and terrorist hijacker.
22 Facts About Wail al-Shehri
1. 2.
Wail al-Shehri was an elementary school teacher from Khamis Mushait in the Asir region of Saudi Arabia.
3.
Once selected, al-Shehri returned to Saudi Arabia in October 2000 to obtain a clean passport, then returned to Afghanistan.
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On September 5,2001, Wail al-Shehri traveled to Boston and checked into a motel with his brother.
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Six days later, Wail al-Shehri arrived early in the morning at Boston's Logan International Airport and boarded American Airlines Flight 11.
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Wail al-Shehri and his younger brother Waleed were from Khamis Mushait in the Asir province, which is an impoverished area in southwestern Saudi Arabia, along the Yemeni border.
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Five months into the job, Wail al-Shehri took leave due to mental illness and depression.
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Rather than conventional therapy, Wail al-Shehri sought consultation with Muslim clerics, and hoped that a visit to Medina would help.
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Wail al-Shehri's treatment involved verses from the Qur'an read to him by a sheikh.
10.
Wail and Waleed al-Shehri disappeared after going to Medina, calling their father just once; in the conversation, the brothers were vague about when they would return.
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Wail al-Shehri presided over the ceremony, dubbing himself Abu Mossaeb al-Janubi after one of Muhammad's companions.
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Wail al-Shehri followed the standard path for new al-Qaeda recruits in Afghanistan, spending time in the Khalden training camp and then Al Farouq training camp near Kandahar.
13.
Wail and Waleed al-Shehri received passports on 3 October 2000, and then obtained United States visas on 24 October.
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In late 2000, Wail al-Shehri traveled to the United Arab Emirates, where he purchased traveler's checks, presumed to have been paid for by Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi.
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Wail al-Shehri appeared together with hijackers Ahmed al-Nami, Hamza al-Ghamdi, and Ahmed al-Ghamdi on a video recorded in March 2001, and aired on Al Jazeera in September 2002.
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On June 5,2001, Wail al-Shehri obtained an International Driving Permit, which was issued in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
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Wail al-Shehri checked in together with Waleed at the Park Inn Hotel in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, on September 5,2001, staying in room 432.
18.
Wail and Waleed al-Shehri sat together in first class in seats 2A and 2B respectively.
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Reports said that the Wail al-Shehri brothers were the sons of a Saudi diplomat stationed in New Delhi, Ahmed Wail al-Shehri.
20.
Jamal Khashoggi, of Al Watan and Arab News in Saudi Arabia, spoke with Muhammad Ali al-Shehri in Khamis Mushait, who said his sons Wail and Waleed had been missing for months.
21.
Wail al-Shehri was mentally ill and had gone to numerous clerics for assistance in overcoming this instability.
22.
Wail al-Shehri had asked the school, where he taught, for a 6-month leave to go to Madinah.