19 operatives. Regardless of the shortcomings, the determination was made to proceed as planned, since an adequate number of hijackers had been successful.
68. One of these additional individuals was Abd Al-Rahman Al-Janubi (Muhammad Mani' Ahmad Sha'Lan Al-Qahtani): Sheikh Mohammed said this was another operative who came into the operation very late, commenting that Al-Qahtani is an extremely simple man. Zubayr Al-Ha'ili had originally told Sheikh Mohammed that Al-Qahtani was suitable for a martyrdom operation, and Zubayr went directly to Bin Laden about Al-Qahtani. Bin Laden, acting on Zubayr's recommendation, presented Al-Qahtani to Sheikh Mohammed as a candidate for the 9/11 operation. Sheikh Mohammed sent Al-Qahtani to al-Hawsawi in Dubai, where al-Hawsawi was to make specific arrangements for sending Al-Qahtani to the U.S. in coordination with the hijackers already in place. Sheikh Mohammed denied that others had traveled with Al-Qahtani to the U.S., explaining that Al-Qahtani was sent alone to round out the number of hijackers for the 9/11 attacks. Following his deportation, Al-Qahtani returned to Pakistan and eventually met up with Sheikh Mohammed in Qandahar.
