9/11 Hijacker Was Regular at Family Restaurant, Witness Recalls
A man who met some of the September 11, 2001, hijackers before the attacks claims they frequented his family's restaurant, a detail he previously kept secret.
Patrick Flannery recounted meeting several of the men who would later carry out the Sept. 11 attacks, including Hani Hanjour, who he said was a regular at his family's restaurant. Flannery, who was a teenager at the time, said he has kept this story to himself for years but felt compelled to share it.
Flannery's mother initially believed the men were friendly trainee pilots from an allied country. "Isn't that neat? They are our allies," she reportedly told her son, unaware of their true intentions. Flannery recalled that Hanjour, who piloted American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, was often at their restaurant, sometimes joking in Arabic with four other men.
When images of the 19 hijackers were released after the attacks, Flannery recognized one of the faces, and his stomach sank. He later identified another regular at the restaurant, Nawaf Alhamzi, as one of the hijackers. "You can imagine the shock and horror that our family felt knowing that these evil men had eaten at our restaurant," Flannery stated. He noted that his mother had also recognized Alhamzi from the released photos. The family's restaurant was located in Arizona, where some of the 9/11 hijackers trained.
Flannery's recollections resurfaced with renewed force as the 25th anniversary of the attacks approached, prompting him to share his experience after decades of silence. The events of September 11, 2001, which involved four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda against the United States, resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths and had a profound impact on global politics and security.