383: Harry Samit – Arresting Zacarias Moussaoui, The "20th Hijacker"

FBI Case File Review

Jerri Williams

True Crime, Government

4.7 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2026

⏱️ 108 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Retired agent Harry Samit reviews his investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui. Harry was assigned the case after the FBI's Minneapolis Division had been contacted by a flight school that reported its suspicions about Moussaoui, who had paid $8,000 in cash for a flight simulator course to fly a commercial Boeing 747 aircraft even though he had no background in aviation. Harry's investigation of Moussaoui as a potential threat to commit a terrorist act was stymied by program managers at FBI Headquarters. Moussaoui was later charged, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison as a co-conspirator of the September 11 terrorist attacks. He provides his thoughts on whether Moussaoui was going to be al-Qaeda's "20th hijacker," assigned to crash a plane into the White House. Harry is the author of The Zacarias Moussaoui Matter: The Arrest and Trial of a 9/11 Al Qaeda Operative. Harry Samit served in the FBI for 21-years. Check out the episode show notes, photos, and related articles: https://jerriwilliams.com/383-harry-samit-arresting-zacarias-moussaoui-the-20th-hijacker/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	To answer your question, Jerry, how we knew that there was a hijacking plot and how we knew it might include a suicide mission at the end of it.
0:07.8	The answer is we were thinking from the beginning that this was a plot to seize control of an airliner, right?
0:13.2	That was nothing new.
0:14.5	The first hijacking of a commercial aircraft happened in the 1920s.
0:18.9	In all of that time between 1920s and 2001, we had never seen
0:24.5	an example where a hijacker needed to learn how to fly the plane themselves.
0:31.8	Welcome to episode 383 of FBI case file review with Jerry Williams. I'm a retired agent on a mission
0:43.3	to show you who the FBI is and what the FBI does through my books, my blog, and my podcast
0:49.6	case reviews with former colleagues. Today we get to speak to retired agent Harry Samet, who served
0:57.2	in the FBI for 21 years. In this episode, he reviews his Joint Terrorism Task Force
1:04.6	investigation of Zacharias Mazzawi, a French citizen of Moroccan descent. Harry was assigned to the case after
1:13.3	the Minneapolis FBI division had been contacted by a flight school that reported its suspicions
1:20.2	about Mazzoui, who had paid in cash for a flight simulator course to fly a commercial aircraft, even though he had no background in aviation.
1:32.2	Harry reports that his assessment of Mazzawi as a potential threat to commit a terrorist act
1:38.7	and his investigation were stymied by program managers at FBI headquarters.
1:45.0	Mazzawi was later charged, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison as a co-conspirator of the September 11th terrorist attacks.
1:55.4	Harry provides his thoughts on whether Mazzawi was going to be Al-Qaeda's 20th hijacker, assigned to crash a plane
2:03.8	into the White House. Harry is the author of The Zacharias Mazzawi Matter, the arrest and
2:11.2	trial of a 9-11 al-Qaeda operative. A first-person account of the FBI investigation of the only individual tried
2:20.9	in a civilian courtroom for his involvement in the 9-11 attack plot. Every adult alive on 9-11, 2001,
2:29.6	recalls how they felt when the planes struck the towers. Harry's story is like no other you've heard.
2:36.9	As a founding member of the Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force, the JTTF, Harry specialized
	...

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