Profiles of Some Suspects Start to Emerge

WASHINGTON —  Although the Justice Department had not released the names of 18 alleged hijackers late Thursday, law enforcement sources have identified a few of the suspected terrorists. Some details of their lives have began to emerge through documents and interviews with acquaintances. The suspects include:

* Abdulrahman Alomari, 38, who on Tuesday morning boarded American Airlines Flight 11 in Boston. The plane was one of two to slam into the World Trade Center. He held a pilot’s license, which listed a post office box address in Jidda, Saudi Arabia.

Alomari lived in Vero Beach, Fla., with his wife and at least three children for the last year. He told his landlord, Llonald Mixell, that he was a commercial pilot getting advanced training at a local flight school. The family moved out Sept. 3.

“I didn’t have any suspicions about them,” Mixell said.

Like some of the other suspects, Alomari had been living in the United States for some time. A Social Security number in his name was issued in New York in 1993 or 1994.

* Amanullah Mohammed Atta, 33, who also boarded Flight 11. FBI agents this week traced Atta’s movements from the Gulf Coast city of Venice, Fla., where he took courses at the Huffman Aviation International flight school, to another South Florida location where he lived.

Rudi Dekkers, the school’s owner, described Atta as cordial, polite and an eager student. He said Atta wrote a check for $10,000 for the four months of beginning pilot training that ran from July to November 2000.

Acting on an FBI tip, German authorities searched an apartment in Hamburg this week where Atta previously had lived. They said he had gotten a residence permit in January.

The city’s Central Registry of Foreigners listed Atta as a native of the United Arab Emirates and an electronics student at Hamburg’s Technical University.

* Waleed al Shehri, 25, who also boarded Flight 11. He graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., in 1997. At the time he was there, fees ranged as high as $7,000 per semester, and students could train on a Boeing 737 simulator.

Records show that Al Shehri went on to obtain a commercial multi-engine license.

Al Shehri apparently lived alone and did not call attention to himself, according to those familiar with his stay. After graduating, he apparently made his way north, renting a room in the Washington suburb of Vienna, Va.

* Marwan Schehhi, 23, who reportedly boarded United Airlines Flight 175 in Boston. That plane also was flown into the World Trade Center. Born in the United Arab Emirates, Schehhi lived in the United States for a time last year while taking flying courses at Huffman Aviation. He and Atta attended classes together.

Like Atta, Schehhi was tied to several addresses in Hamburg, where authorities have arrested a suspected accomplice and have detained a young woman for questioning.

“They are being investigated on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization, murder and launching an attack on air traffic,” said Kay Nehm, Germany’s chief federal prosecutor.

Schehhi had held residency permits since January and had not previously come to the police’s attention, a Hamburg police official said.