Original Sept. 11 Plot Called For 10 Airplane Hijackings
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Original Sept. 11 Plot Called For 10 Airplane Hijackings
Al Qaeda must be pretty damned stupid to think you could get on an airliner full of passengers in the USA and kill all the male passengers. Even with guns once the first few were shot the others would attack. Shoot, since September 11 you even fart in the direction of the flight deck and every male in first class will be kicking your ass in a New York minute. 
Original Sept. 11 Plot Called For 10 Airplane Hijackings
Associated Press Newswires 06/16/04
Copyright 2004. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
WASHINGTON -- Sept. 11 plot mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed originally envisioned an attack involving 10 hijacked planes with himself as the pilot of one in which all male passengers would be killed and he would deliver an anti-American harangue upon landing.
The assertion was among new details about the plot revealed this morning in a report by the staff of the independent commission investigating the attacks.
The report, based on interviews with government officials by commission staff and documents the staff reviewed, said Mr. Mohammed initially proposed hitting CIA and FBI headquarters, unidentified nuclear plants and tall buildings in California and Washington state, in addition to the World Trade Center, Pentagon and White House or Capitol.
Mr. Mohammed, who is in U.S. custody at an undisclosed overseas location, told interrogators that rather than crashing his hijacked plane into a target, he wanted to land and make a political statement. Mr. Mohammed proposed killing every male passenger aboard, landing at a U.S. airport and making a "speech denouncing U.S. policies in the Middle East before releasing all the women and children."
That plan was rejected by Osama bin Laden, who ultimately approved a scaled-back mission involving four planes. Training for it began in 1999.
The report said Mr. Mohammed wanted more hijackers -- up to 26, instead of the 19 who actually participated. The commission also identified at least 10 al Qaeda operatives who were to participate but couldn't take part for various reasons including visa problems and suspicion by officials at airports in the United States and overseas.
Far from a seamless operation, the report portrays a plot riven by internal dissent, including disagreement over whether to target the White House or the Capitol -- a conflict that apparently never was resolved before the attacks. Mr. bin Laden also had to overcome opposition to attacking the U.S. from Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, who was under pressure from Pakistan to keep al Qaeda confined.
The pilot of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, Ziad Jarrah, nearly quit the plot, leading Mr. Mohammed to consider replacing him with Zacarias Moussaoui, who was taking flight training in Minnesota, according to the report. Mr. Mohammed, however, has told his interrogators that Mr. Moussaoui actually was being considered for a second wave of attacks still in the early planning stages.
Mr. Moussaoui is awaiting trial on conspiracy charges. He is the only person charged in the U.S. in connection with the Sept. 11 plot.
Ultimately, Mr. Jarrah was persuaded to participate by Ramzi Binalshibh, who helped plan and finance the attacks from Germany. He also is in U.S. custody overseas. Among other new disclosures in the commission report:
* Mohamed Atta, the pilot of one of the planes that struck the World Trade Center and leader of the 19 hijackers, never met with Iraqi agents in Prague, Czech Republic. That purported meeting was cited as evidence of a possible al Qaeda connection to Iraq. "We do not believe that such a meeting occurred," the report said.
* Mohdar Abdullah, an illegal immigrant living in San Diego, provided assistance to two of the hijackers and later made jailhouse claims that he had advance knowledge of the attacks. Mr. Abdullah last month was deported to Yemen.
* Mr. bin Laden originally wanted the attacks to occur on May 12, 2001, seven months after the al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 sailors. Later, Mr. bin Laden sought to have the attacks occur in June or July 2001 because Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was scheduled to visit the White House. In both cases, Mr. Mohammed insisted the teams were not ready. Ultimately, Mr. Atta picked Sept. 11 because Congress would be in session.
* Mr. bin Laden wanted the fourth plane to strike the White House, but Mr. Atta believed the White House was too difficult to hit. Eventually, Mr. Atta agreed to the White House but kept the Capitol in reserve. However, based on other exchanges between the hijackers, it remains unclear exactly which was the target on Sept 11.
* Mr. Atta said the hijackers planned to crash their planes to the ground if problems arose during the flights. Mr. Atta himself planned to crash his into the streets of New York if he couldn't strike the World Trade Center. The fourth plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought back against the hijackers.
* The plot cost more than $500,000 and no credible evidence has emerged that anyone in the U.S. provided financial support. There also is no evidence that Saudi Princess Haifa al Faisal, wife of that country's U.S. ambassador, Prince Bandar, provided any money to the conspiracy, directly or indirectly.
In an earlier report Wednesday that bluntly contradicted the Bush administration, the commission investigating the attacks reported there was "no credible evidence" that Saddam Hussein helped al Qaeda target the U.S.
In a chilling report that sketched the history of bin Laden's network, the commission said his far-flung training camps were "apparently quite good." Terrorist trainees were encouraged to "think creatively about ways to commit mass murder," it added.
Mr. bin Laden made overtures to Mr. Hussein for assistance, the commission said in a staff report, as he did with leaders in Sudan, Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere as he sought to build an Islamic army.
But while Mr. Hussein dispatched a senior Iraqi intelligence official to Sudan to meet with Mr. bin Laden in 1994, the commission said it hadn't turned up evidence of a "collaborative relationship."
The Bush administration has long claimed links between Mr. Hussein and al Qaeda, and cited them as one reason for last year's invasion of Iraq. Just Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech that the Iraqi dictator "had long established ties with al Qaeda."
The administration has stopped short of claiming that Iraq was directly involved in the Sept. 11 attacks but critics say Bush officials left that impression with the American public.
The commission's report was released at the beginning of the panel's final two-day hearing on the development of the Sept. 11 plot and the emergency response by the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. air defenses.
The panel intends to issue a final report in late July on the hijackings on Sept. 11, 2001 that killed nearly 3,000, destroyed the World Trade Centers in New York and damaged the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth plane commandeered by terrorists crashed in the countryside in Pennsylvania.
The staff report pieced together information on the development of Mr. bin Laden's network, from the far-flung training camps in Afghanistan and elsewhere, to funding from "well-placed financial facilitators and diversions of funds from Islamic charities."
Reports that Mr. bin Laden had a huge personal fortune to finance acts of terror are overstated, the report said. The description of the training camp operations contained elements of faint, grudging praise.
"A world-wide jihad needed terrorists who could bomb embassies or hijack airliners, but it also needed foot soldiers for the Taliban in its war against the Northern Alliance, and guerrillas who could shoot down Russian helicopters in Chechnya or ambush Indian units in Kashmir," it said.
According to one unnamed senior al Qaeda associate, various ideas were floated by mujahadeen in Afghanistan, the commission said. The options included taking over a launcher and forcing Russian scientists to fire a nuclear missile at the U.S., mounting mustard gas or cyanide attacks against Jewish areas in Iraq or releasing poison gas into the air conditioning system of a targeted building.
"Last but not least, hijacking an aircraft and crashing it into an airport or nearby city," it said.
The Iraq connection long suggested by administration officials gained no currency in the report. "Bin Laden is said to have requested space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but Iraq apparently never responded," the report said. "There have been reports that contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda also occurred" after Mr. bin Laden moved his operations to Afghanistan in 1996, "but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship," it said.
"Two senior bin Laden associates have adamantly denied that any ties existed between al Qaeda and Iraq," the report said.
Original Sept. 11 Plot Called For 10 Airplane Hijackings
Associated Press Newswires 06/16/04
Copyright 2004. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
WASHINGTON -- Sept. 11 plot mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed originally envisioned an attack involving 10 hijacked planes with himself as the pilot of one in which all male passengers would be killed and he would deliver an anti-American harangue upon landing.
The assertion was among new details about the plot revealed this morning in a report by the staff of the independent commission investigating the attacks.
The report, based on interviews with government officials by commission staff and documents the staff reviewed, said Mr. Mohammed initially proposed hitting CIA and FBI headquarters, unidentified nuclear plants and tall buildings in California and Washington state, in addition to the World Trade Center, Pentagon and White House or Capitol.
Mr. Mohammed, who is in U.S. custody at an undisclosed overseas location, told interrogators that rather than crashing his hijacked plane into a target, he wanted to land and make a political statement. Mr. Mohammed proposed killing every male passenger aboard, landing at a U.S. airport and making a "speech denouncing U.S. policies in the Middle East before releasing all the women and children."
That plan was rejected by Osama bin Laden, who ultimately approved a scaled-back mission involving four planes. Training for it began in 1999.
The report said Mr. Mohammed wanted more hijackers -- up to 26, instead of the 19 who actually participated. The commission also identified at least 10 al Qaeda operatives who were to participate but couldn't take part for various reasons including visa problems and suspicion by officials at airports in the United States and overseas.
Far from a seamless operation, the report portrays a plot riven by internal dissent, including disagreement over whether to target the White House or the Capitol -- a conflict that apparently never was resolved before the attacks. Mr. bin Laden also had to overcome opposition to attacking the U.S. from Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, who was under pressure from Pakistan to keep al Qaeda confined.
The pilot of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, Ziad Jarrah, nearly quit the plot, leading Mr. Mohammed to consider replacing him with Zacarias Moussaoui, who was taking flight training in Minnesota, according to the report. Mr. Mohammed, however, has told his interrogators that Mr. Moussaoui actually was being considered for a second wave of attacks still in the early planning stages.
Mr. Moussaoui is awaiting trial on conspiracy charges. He is the only person charged in the U.S. in connection with the Sept. 11 plot.
Ultimately, Mr. Jarrah was persuaded to participate by Ramzi Binalshibh, who helped plan and finance the attacks from Germany. He also is in U.S. custody overseas. Among other new disclosures in the commission report:
* Mohamed Atta, the pilot of one of the planes that struck the World Trade Center and leader of the 19 hijackers, never met with Iraqi agents in Prague, Czech Republic. That purported meeting was cited as evidence of a possible al Qaeda connection to Iraq. "We do not believe that such a meeting occurred," the report said.
* Mohdar Abdullah, an illegal immigrant living in San Diego, provided assistance to two of the hijackers and later made jailhouse claims that he had advance knowledge of the attacks. Mr. Abdullah last month was deported to Yemen.
* Mr. bin Laden originally wanted the attacks to occur on May 12, 2001, seven months after the al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 sailors. Later, Mr. bin Laden sought to have the attacks occur in June or July 2001 because Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was scheduled to visit the White House. In both cases, Mr. Mohammed insisted the teams were not ready. Ultimately, Mr. Atta picked Sept. 11 because Congress would be in session.
* Mr. bin Laden wanted the fourth plane to strike the White House, but Mr. Atta believed the White House was too difficult to hit. Eventually, Mr. Atta agreed to the White House but kept the Capitol in reserve. However, based on other exchanges between the hijackers, it remains unclear exactly which was the target on Sept 11.
* Mr. Atta said the hijackers planned to crash their planes to the ground if problems arose during the flights. Mr. Atta himself planned to crash his into the streets of New York if he couldn't strike the World Trade Center. The fourth plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought back against the hijackers.
* The plot cost more than $500,000 and no credible evidence has emerged that anyone in the U.S. provided financial support. There also is no evidence that Saudi Princess Haifa al Faisal, wife of that country's U.S. ambassador, Prince Bandar, provided any money to the conspiracy, directly or indirectly.
In an earlier report Wednesday that bluntly contradicted the Bush administration, the commission investigating the attacks reported there was "no credible evidence" that Saddam Hussein helped al Qaeda target the U.S.
In a chilling report that sketched the history of bin Laden's network, the commission said his far-flung training camps were "apparently quite good." Terrorist trainees were encouraged to "think creatively about ways to commit mass murder," it added.
Mr. bin Laden made overtures to Mr. Hussein for assistance, the commission said in a staff report, as he did with leaders in Sudan, Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere as he sought to build an Islamic army.
But while Mr. Hussein dispatched a senior Iraqi intelligence official to Sudan to meet with Mr. bin Laden in 1994, the commission said it hadn't turned up evidence of a "collaborative relationship."
The Bush administration has long claimed links between Mr. Hussein and al Qaeda, and cited them as one reason for last year's invasion of Iraq. Just Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech that the Iraqi dictator "had long established ties with al Qaeda."
The administration has stopped short of claiming that Iraq was directly involved in the Sept. 11 attacks but critics say Bush officials left that impression with the American public.
The commission's report was released at the beginning of the panel's final two-day hearing on the development of the Sept. 11 plot and the emergency response by the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. air defenses.
The panel intends to issue a final report in late July on the hijackings on Sept. 11, 2001 that killed nearly 3,000, destroyed the World Trade Centers in New York and damaged the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth plane commandeered by terrorists crashed in the countryside in Pennsylvania.
The staff report pieced together information on the development of Mr. bin Laden's network, from the far-flung training camps in Afghanistan and elsewhere, to funding from "well-placed financial facilitators and diversions of funds from Islamic charities."
Reports that Mr. bin Laden had a huge personal fortune to finance acts of terror are overstated, the report said. The description of the training camp operations contained elements of faint, grudging praise.
"A world-wide jihad needed terrorists who could bomb embassies or hijack airliners, but it also needed foot soldiers for the Taliban in its war against the Northern Alliance, and guerrillas who could shoot down Russian helicopters in Chechnya or ambush Indian units in Kashmir," it said.
According to one unnamed senior al Qaeda associate, various ideas were floated by mujahadeen in Afghanistan, the commission said. The options included taking over a launcher and forcing Russian scientists to fire a nuclear missile at the U.S., mounting mustard gas or cyanide attacks against Jewish areas in Iraq or releasing poison gas into the air conditioning system of a targeted building.
"Last but not least, hijacking an aircraft and crashing it into an airport or nearby city," it said.
The Iraq connection long suggested by administration officials gained no currency in the report. "Bin Laden is said to have requested space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but Iraq apparently never responded," the report said. "There have been reports that contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda also occurred" after Mr. bin Laden moved his operations to Afghanistan in 1996, "but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship," it said.
"Two senior bin Laden associates have adamantly denied that any ties existed between al Qaeda and Iraq," the report said.
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Yep, I posted a recent article about renewed Al-Qaeda threats to air carriers but it somehow disappeared without comment.
Maybe this topic is too hot to handle here.
Maybe this topic is too hot to handle here.
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Airbubba - if you are talking about this thread it did not 'disappear without comment' - it went to 6 pages and then slid gently down the page because the last post was Feb 2004
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>>Airbubba - if you are talking about this thread...<<
Thanks for the reply! I realize that this air terrorism stuff doesn't have the same local interest on PPRuNe as Coventry security, London ATC or a tug on the runway at Heathrow.
No, I was talking about this much more recent threat which I posted a few days ago:
_________________________
Purported al Qaeda militants threaten airlines
Monday, June 7, 2004 Posted: 7:25 PM EDT (2325 GMT)
(CNN) -- Purported al Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia warned in a written statement Monday that they plan attacks on U.S. and other Western airlines and other means of transportation.
The statement, translated by CNN and signed by al Qaeda's organization in the Arabian Peninsula, was posted on two Islamic Web sites.
The message warned Muslims not to spend time with Westerners, to avoid being caught up in any attack, "as well as avoiding using all shapes and forms of transportation by them."
"All compounds, bases and means of transport, especially Western and American airlines, will be the direct target for our coming operations in the near future," the statement says...
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/06/07/saudi.threat/
________________________
Hopefully this latest threat is more hot air but we would be foolish not to be aware of these "warnings".
A friend in Dubai says they are on high alert for expat attacks after the recent successful attacks and kidnappings in Saudi.
Thanks for the reply! I realize that this air terrorism stuff doesn't have the same local interest on PPRuNe as Coventry security, London ATC or a tug on the runway at Heathrow.
No, I was talking about this much more recent threat which I posted a few days ago:
_________________________
Purported al Qaeda militants threaten airlines
Monday, June 7, 2004 Posted: 7:25 PM EDT (2325 GMT)
(CNN) -- Purported al Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia warned in a written statement Monday that they plan attacks on U.S. and other Western airlines and other means of transportation.
The statement, translated by CNN and signed by al Qaeda's organization in the Arabian Peninsula, was posted on two Islamic Web sites.
The message warned Muslims not to spend time with Westerners, to avoid being caught up in any attack, "as well as avoiding using all shapes and forms of transportation by them."
"All compounds, bases and means of transport, especially Western and American airlines, will be the direct target for our coming operations in the near future," the statement says...
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/06/07/saudi.threat/
________________________
Hopefully this latest threat is more hot air but we would be foolish not to be aware of these "warnings".
A friend in Dubai says they are on high alert for expat attacks after the recent successful attacks and kidnappings in Saudi.
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Airbubba - I am anxious to dispel fears of excessive moderation
Your post is here.
Whether you placed it there or it was moved I do not know, but it is not 'lost'.
Your post is here.
Whether you placed it there or it was moved I do not know, but it is not 'lost'.
aka Capt PPRuNe
Unfortunately there are too many people on here with limited intelligence who only have to see the mention of 9/11 or al Quaida or anything to do with Muslim extremism and the threads go off on a tangent with neanderthals expressing all sorts prejudices which have nothing to do with the subject but everything to do with their own fears and anger.
Sorry, but my mods and I don't have the time to deal with every knicker wetting, hand wringing shriek of panic from the media when it comes to dealing with al Quaida. If those of you who feel that the politics of it all are worth arguing about then go to the thread mentioned above. Discussing everyday problems that have stemmed from the 9/11 disaster such as the pathetic security farce that we face every day we go to work is fine but the mass hysteria generated every time an al Quaida website goes "boo" to the industry just gives them exactly what they want... unfortunately for some of you, not on here.
Sorry, but my mods and I don't have the time to deal with every knicker wetting, hand wringing shriek of panic from the media when it comes to dealing with al Quaida. If those of you who feel that the politics of it all are worth arguing about then go to the thread mentioned above. Discussing everyday problems that have stemmed from the 9/11 disaster such as the pathetic security farce that we face every day we go to work is fine but the mass hysteria generated every time an al Quaida website goes "boo" to the industry just gives them exactly what they want... unfortunately for some of you, not on here.
