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 were four muscle hijackers for three planes and three muscle hijackers for the fourth plane because that was the maximum number of operatives that Sheikh Mohammed was able to find and send to the U.S. before 9/11.

50. Sheikh Mohammed said that all decisions on the targets originated with Bin Laden and Abu Hafs al Masri, aka Muhammad Atif. Sheikh Mohammed believed the initial decision to stage a 9/11 attack was made in the spring of 1999. The idea of using planes as missiles originated with himself and Ramzi Youssef who discussed the idea during planning for the Bojinka operation, but Sheikh Mohammed said the concept never moved beyond the idea stage while they were working on Bojinka.

51. Sheikh Mohammed said he learned of the decision to move forward with the plan to use planes as missiles to attack the U.S. when Bin Laden appointed him as head of operations and training for the operation in spring 1999. At that point, Sheikh Mohammed worked with Bin Laden and Abu Hafs to develop the initial target ideas. No other al Qaeda members were really involved in the decision to use planes to attack the U.S. or in the initial selection of targets. All other members learned of the plan in varying levels of detail when they became personally involved in the plo[t]. Each of the Page 27 of 58