FORT LEE, N.J. — One month before the Sept. 11 attacks, terrorist mastermind Mohammed Atta stopped in Fort Lee as he traveled through the region, according to a Wednesday report by Newsweek revisiting the final weeks before the attacks.

On Aug. 12, 2001, Atta stopped at an Internet cafe called Web Station in Fort Lee while traveling toward Washington, D.C., Newsweek reported. The next day, he boarded a flight to Las Vegas for a final face-to-face meeting with Hani Hanjour, the only 9/11 pilot who was not part of the Hamburg group and who had not been living and training in Florida.

Atta was the leader and chief planner of the American al-Qaeda operation, overseeing the plot's logistics, finances, training and communications. He ultimately had authority over the targets and timing of the attacks, according to Newsweek.

The Fort Lee stop came during a period when Atta and the other hijackers were conducting extensive domestic flights to familiarize themselves with U.S. airports, aircraft and flight routes.

Atta had already made multiple trips through airports that would become connected to the Sept. 11 plot. On June 28, he flew from Boston to San Francisco and then Las Vegas. He later traveled through Denver, Boston, New York and Newark before returning to Miami.

He continued taking orientation flights throughout July and into August, including trips involving Newark and Washington, D.C.

According to Newsweek, Atta's Aug. 12 journey eventually brought him to Washington before he traveled to Las Vegas the following day to meet Hanjour, who was designated to pilot the aircraft that would strike the Pentagon.

The 9/11 Commission later noted that investigators found no credible explanation for why the operatives repeatedly traveled to Las Vegas, despite the city's reputation as a tourist destination.

The flights, however, were part of a broader pattern of preparation, according to Newsweek, as Atta and the other hijackers worked to familiarize themselves with the domestic air travel system they intended to exploit.

Atta had emerged as the leader of the so-called Hamburg group, which included fellow future hijackers Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah. The group traveled to Afghanistan in 1999 and met with Osama bin Laden and other senior al-Qaeda figures before receiving additional training and returning to Europe and eventually the United States.

By August 2001, the hijacker teams were positioning themselves and making final preparations for the attacks.

Atta would board American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston on Sept. 11 and crash the Boeing 767 into the World Trade Center's North Tower.

The Fort Lee stop came exactly one month before the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.