These are undated handout photos, made available during a press briefing in Karlsruhe, southern... 
(Winfried Rothermel/AP Photo)The passport of one of the men suspected to be behind the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in the heart of New York's financial district, was found by the Pakistan military Thursday.
Said Bahaji, a German citizen, was a close friend of Mohammed Atta, the hijacker in control of American Airlines Flight 11 which was the first plane to strike the World Trade Center.
Terrorism analysts say he was an important member of the Hamburg cell that plotted the attacks, which included Attah and the other hijackers. The passport indicates he left Germany for Pakistan about one month before the attacks 9/11 attacks on Aug. 3, 2001.
"This could mean he's been contributing to al Qaeda ever since he went to Afghanistan-Pakistan border before 9/11," said Richard Clarke, an ABC News Consultant and former White House terrorism czar who wrote the 9/11 Commission Report.
Bahaji's passport was found in the volatile region of South Waziristan in Pakistan.
Terrorism analysts who have suspected he joined al Qaeda in Pakistan say he must have moved up the ranks in al Qaeda during the previous nine years, if he is still alive.
"The big question is if he is dead or not," said Guido Steinberg, a Berlin based terror analyst and expert on the 9-11 Hamburg cell.
German authorities charged Bahaji with 3,000 murders, but have been unable to track him in Pakistan.
In 2003, he sent a package to his wife who still lives in northern Germany, according to Steinberg. Other than that one correspondence, Steinberg says authorities in Berlin have not had any more information about his whereabouts.
Do you have more information about this topic? If so, please click here to contact the editors of ABC News.
