JEDDAH, 27 September - Khalid Al-Mihammadi, a Saudi youth from Makkah who works as a computer programmer, has talked about receiving the shock of his life when he saw that his picture was among the suspects who had hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon in Washington on Sept. 11.
He said the FBI might have got his picture from the US federal office that issues ID cards to expatriates. Mihammadi was in the United States for nine months to learn English, but returned to the Kingdom earlier this year.
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Mihammadi, 22, disclosed that he had studied at two English language institutes in Indiana and Florida. He affirmed that he has no connection at all with aviation. "I have not received any aviation training and I have never dreamt of becoming a pilot," he said.
Mihammadi is a computer programmer by profession and attended an advanced computer course at the Institute of Public Administration in Jeddah.
The FBI identified the hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77 as Majed Moqaad, Khalid Al-Mehdar (also identified as Khalid Almihammadi), Nawaf Al-Hazmi, Salim Al-Hazmi and Hani Hanjour, who allegedly piloted the plane. The FBI first released a different picture of Mehdar. Later it published the picture of Mihammadi.
