Hamburg cell
The Hamburg cell was a group of al-Qaida supporters that met and lived in an apartment in Hamburg, Germany. Members included many of the participants and organizers of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
On November 1, 1998, future-terrorists Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ramzi Binalshibh moved into a large four-bedroom apartment together on Marienstraße. Here they formed the secretive Hamburg cell, which also included Said Bahaji, Zakariyah Essabar, Mounir el Motassadeq, Abdelghani Mzoudi, and others. They met together three or four times a week to discuss their anti-American and anti-Semitic views, and to decide how best to fight for their cause.
Many al-Qaida members lived in this apartment at various times. In all, 29 men listed the apartment as their home address while Mohammed Atta's name was the lease. Reportedly, the man who thought up the September 11 attack, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, visited the apartment repeatedly.
German intelligence monitered the apartment, but did not find any evidence against the residents. The CIA and German Intelligence have been widely criticized for failing to share information on these and other al-Qaida members.
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