Some of the attackers did not know they were to die, an FBI investigation concludes. Unlike the eight ‘lead’ attackers who were the trained pilots who undoubtedly knew they were on a suicide mission, the other eleven hijackers “expected to take part in ‘conventional’ hijackings – with the planes flown to distant airports, and the passengers and crew taken hostage while the hijackers presented demands. Items found among the 11 men’s possessions suggest they had been preparing themselves for incarceration. One source said: ‘It looks as if they expected they might be going to prison, not paradise.’

The FBI analysis concludes the 11 may have believed the purpose of the hijackings was to free the perpetrators of previous extremist terrorist attacks on the United States, such as the first World Trade Centre bombing in 1993.” On the other hand, could this be FBI disinformation to counter any glorification of the purity of purpose and sacrifice of their actions and, by suggesting that most of the team was kept in the dark about the true plan, rationalize the American intelligence failure to detect the plot? Guardian UK