New details about the September 11 conspirators in Hamburg Germany reveal that the plot was much more extensive than previously believed. (Hat tip: dennisw.)

At least five and possibly seven presumed al-Qaida operatives appear to have fled Hamburg in the days before Sept. 11, tracing a hurried route through Turkey, Pakistan or the United Arab Emirates to what they believed was the sanctuary of an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan.

Up to a dozen others who enjoyed close relationships with the hijackers stayed behind, possibly hoping to resume their pre-Sept. 11 lives as students or small businessmen while avoiding the scrutiny of police.

Of the previously known members of the Hamburg al-Qaida contingent, Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah died when the planes they piloted slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and a Pennsylvania cornfield. As has also long been known, three of their co-conspirators, Said Bahaji, Ramzi Binalshibh and Zacariya Essabar, left Hamburg in haste in the two weeks before the hijackings were carried out.

Of the alleged stay-behinds linked to al-Qaida, Mounir El-Motassadeq, a former engineering student, last week became the first person convicted of providing the hijackers with logistical aid.

But visa and travel records and airplane passenger manifests compiled by police indicate that as Bahaji boarded a Turkish Airlines flight from Hamburg to Istanbul on Sept. 3, 2001, he was not alone. Also on board were two men who identified themselves to the airline as Abdellah Hosayni and Ammar Moula - as it turned out, not their real names. Using a stolen French passport and a phony Belgian one, the pair, who had been living in a Hamburg shelter for asylum-seekers, purchased their tickets with cash on Aug. 14, nearly a month before the hijackings and 10 days before the hijackers made their first flight reservations for Sept. 11.

This is an incredibly detailed article with a lot of confusingly similar Arabic names, but I have a feeling we’re going to be hearing more about these people.