Al Qaeda planned 10 hijackings on 9-11
Khalid Sheik Mohammed told US questioners "he originally aimed for a double wave of suicide attacks, involving up to 10 commercial airliners and targets on both US coasts."
"They make clear Osama bin Laden's central role in the attacks. He scaled down plans to hijack five planes on each coast, and scrapped plans to hijack others in Asia. He thought it would be 'too difficult to synchronise' attacks on opposite sides of the world.
"Bin Laden was also directly responsible for the number of Saudis among the hijackers, Mohamed said. 'There was a large group of Saudi operatives that would be available to participate as the muscle in the plot,' he told interrogators."
The Washington Post has a more detailed account of the report.
"...Mohammed told his interrogators the hijacking teams were originally made up of members from different countries where al-Qaida had recruited, but that in the final stages bin Laden chose instead to use a large group of young Saudi men to populate the hijacking teams."
"...The interrogation reports make dramatically clear that Mohammed and al-Qaida were still actively looking to strike U.S., Western and Israeli targets across the world as of this year.
"Mohammed told his interrogators he had worked in 1994 and 1995 in the Philippines with Ramzi Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan Amin Shah on the foiled Bojinka plot to blow up 12 Western airliners simultaneously in Asia.
"After Yousef and Murad were captured, foiling the plot in its final stages, Mohammed began to devise a new plot that focused on hijackings on U.S. soil.
"In 1996, he went to meet bin Laden to persuade the al-Qaida leader 'to give him money and operatives so he could hijack 10 planes in the United States and fly them into targets,' one of the interrogation reports state.
"Mohammed told interrogators his initial thought was to pick five targets on each coast, but bin Laden was not convinced such a plan was practical, the reports stated."
"...Mohammed said the first major change to the plans occurred in 1999 when the two Yemeni operatives could not get U.S. visas. Bin Laden then offered him additional operatives, including a member of his personal security detail. The original two Yemenis were instructed to focus on hijacking planes in East Asia.
"Mohammed said through the various iterations of the plot, he considered using a scaled-down version of the Bojinka plan that would have bombed commercial airliners, and that he even 'contemplated attempting to down the planes using shoes bombs,' one report said."
Khalid Sheik Mohammed told US questioners "he originally aimed for a double wave of suicide attacks, involving up to 10 commercial airliners and targets on both US coasts."
"They make clear Osama bin Laden's central role in the attacks. He scaled down plans to hijack five planes on each coast, and scrapped plans to hijack others in Asia. He thought it would be 'too difficult to synchronise' attacks on opposite sides of the world.
"Bin Laden was also directly responsible for the number of Saudis among the hijackers, Mohamed said. 'There was a large group of Saudi operatives that would be available to participate as the muscle in the plot,' he told interrogators."
The Washington Post has a more detailed account of the report.
"...Mohammed told his interrogators the hijacking teams were originally made up of members from different countries where al-Qaida had recruited, but that in the final stages bin Laden chose instead to use a large group of young Saudi men to populate the hijacking teams."
"...The interrogation reports make dramatically clear that Mohammed and al-Qaida were still actively looking to strike U.S., Western and Israeli targets across the world as of this year.
"Mohammed told his interrogators he had worked in 1994 and 1995 in the Philippines with Ramzi Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan Amin Shah on the foiled Bojinka plot to blow up 12 Western airliners simultaneously in Asia.
"After Yousef and Murad were captured, foiling the plot in its final stages, Mohammed began to devise a new plot that focused on hijackings on U.S. soil.
"In 1996, he went to meet bin Laden to persuade the al-Qaida leader 'to give him money and operatives so he could hijack 10 planes in the United States and fly them into targets,' one of the interrogation reports state.
"Mohammed told interrogators his initial thought was to pick five targets on each coast, but bin Laden was not convinced such a plan was practical, the reports stated."
"...Mohammed said the first major change to the plans occurred in 1999 when the two Yemeni operatives could not get U.S. visas. Bin Laden then offered him additional operatives, including a member of his personal security detail. The original two Yemenis were instructed to focus on hijacking planes in East Asia.
"Mohammed said through the various iterations of the plot, he considered using a scaled-down version of the Bojinka plan that would have bombed commercial airliners, and that he even 'contemplated attempting to down the planes using shoes bombs,' one report said."
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