Two abiding mysteries about 9/11 that we will probably never know the answer to relate to the 19 men who executed that terrifying set of terror attacks and to the date they chose. In hindsight all 19 men are recognised as suicide attackers, men who took over four aircraft and converted them into gigantic flying bombs.

Yet did all 19 realise before they boarded those planes on the morning of September 11, 2001, that they were on a suicide mission?
This question has perplexed investigators and analysts alike for the past 10 years. Closed-circuit television cameras showed some of the hijackers looking fairly relaxed and wearing anything but the expression one would be expected to adorn hours before a planned suicide. Also, keeping the core of the conspiracy between say four or six men would have been considerably easier and less risky than revealing the whole plot to all 19.
Snatches of conversations heard during the course of the 9/11 hijacks are now available with us. One of them has a hijacker saying, “We are going back to the airport.” He promises if nobody moves, nobody will be hurt. Was the hijacker bluffing? Why would he be lying minutes before hurtling to death? On the other hand, was this all he knew?
The terror strike of 9/11 was an act of monumental evil. In its perverted way, it was also an execution of logistical brilliance: coordinating four near-simultaneous hijacks, getting control of planes that were doing the long-haul route from the United States’ east coast to its west — and therefore had huge fuel reserves, enough to irretrievably damage the World Trade Centre, and keeping the intricacies of the conspiracy under wraps. To understand how Al Qaeda and copycat Islamist groups work, it is necessary to study the making of the 9/11 plot.
That is why to wonder if all 19 men knew it was a suicide mission or only four or six did is not just an academic question. It is important to dissect how such terror operations are organised and why they work.
Jihadist foot soldiers are often not told the full story. Did all the attackers who entered Mumbai on 26/11 expect to be killed or were some of them given the impression that there was the possibility of escape? In the early 1990s, transnational veterans of the first Afghan war — fighters from countries as far away as Yemen — entered Jammu and Kashmir after being given the false impression that a mass uprising was under way, and the Indian Army was crippled and on the cusp of defeat.
If the degree of internal communication and transparency in the 9/11 terror collective remains a puzzle, so does its choice of September 11. There was much speculation in the days after the attack as to what the date denoted — if it denoted anything at all. There’s an urban legend in the aviation industry that Tuesday is the best day of the week to get a ticket, or a cheap deal. September 11 was of course a Tuesday but it defies logic that Al Qaeda’s selection of
the date was dictated
by savings in ticket
purchases.
September 11-12, 1683, saw one of the most decisive battles in world history. The Ottoman Army had laid siege to Vienna in the summer of 1683 in its seemingly perennial quest to enter western Europe. In September, relief forces led by Poland’s king, Jan Sobieski, arrived.
The final battle for Vienna began on September 11. It ended the next day with a decisive victory for the armies of Christian Europe. This thwarted the final Ottoman invasion for control of the European heartland. It signalled the end of Muslim expansionism in Europe, and triggered the wider decline of the Ottoman Empire.
Osama bin Laden’s stated political goal was the revival of the Caliphate and retribution for the Islamic expulsion from Europe (specifically from Spain or Al-Andalus).
The Arabs were removed from Spain in phases, and finally disempowered in the late 15th century. The Ottoman aspiration of capturing Vienna represented an attempt to win back the “lost lands” of Europe from Christian (primarily Catholic) kingdoms and was, as was the norm in those days, as much a religious as a political quest.
Bin Laden, with his crazed millenarianism, saw 9/11 as the recommencement of an ancient blood feud. Was 9/11 his revenge for Vienna?
There were also other coincidences that created an entire conspiracy-theory industry after 9/11. Twenty years earlier, American Ernest L. Martin had written a book called The Birth of Christ Recalculated. It sought to marry astronomy to religious belief and arrive at a date for the astral conjunction believed to have marked Christ’s birth. Martin’s date for Jesus’ birthday was: September 11, 3 BC.
It is unlikely that Bin Laden had read Martin’s book — which probably became famous only after 9/11 — or if he knew that September 11, 1941, was the day of the ground-breaking ceremony of the new office of the United States Defence Department, just outside Washington, DC. In other words, it was the day on which the foundation of the Pentagon was laid, 60 years before a plane smashed into it.
Was Al Qaeda aware of all this? There’s only a remote chance it was. Nevertheless, as long as memories of 9/11 are fresh, so will be its abiding mysteries.

Ashok Malik can be contacted at malikashok@gmail.com