Earlier US airplane hijack plot first uncovered in Philippines: police

1 posted on 09/14/2001 10:32:44 PM PDT by Wallaby

To: Wallaby, thinden, honway, Nita Nupress, golitely, OKCSubmariner, Judge Parker

2 posted on 09/14/2001 10:42:02 PM PDT by Fred Mertz

I remember reading about this at the time. After TWA 800, no one mentioned it again.

3 posted on 09/14/2001 10:44:44 PM PDT by Mr. Jeeves

To: Romulus, Askel5, Fred Mertz

Chief Superintendent Avelino Razon said a plot called "Project Bojinka" was uncovered by Philippine police in 1995 after arresting terrorist Abdul Hakim Murad in a Manila apartment where he was plotting to assassinate visiting Pope John Paul II.

4 posted on 09/14/2001 10:47:27 PM PDT by Wallaby

Interesting, but other accounts of Bojinka describe it as a airplane bombing not crashing plot. For example:

"But Youssef saw another use for his Mark II bombs. On Dec. 9, he moved into the Don Josefa Apartments in Manila and began to work on a plot to smuggle his tiny nitro bombs onto airliners, causing the planes to explode in midair and killing thousands of people. The master plan was called 'The Bojinka Plot'. from a Serbo-Croat word meaning explosion."

Full article:

Terrorists Targeted Disneyland, Space Needle

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Terrorists Targeted Disneyland, Space Needle

NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2001

WASHINGTON (UPI) – Former CIA officials told United Press International that Southern California's Disneyland and Seattle's Space Needle were targets of foiled 1999 millennium bombing attacks financed and advised by Saudi millionaire terrorist Osama bin Laden.

According to these sources, who asked not to be identified, the plot came to light when a 32-year-old Algerian man, Ahmed Ressam, was stopped by U.S. Customs officials on Dec. 14, 1999, at Port Angeles, about 60 miles northwest of Seattle, after crossing the Canadian border.

When Customs officials began to search Ressam's car, he ran away but was caught several hours later hiding a few blocks away. But what U.S. officials found hidden in the tire well of Ressam's car was chilling: Ten 110-pound plastic bags of urea, a legal substance used in fertilizer that can also be used to make explosives.

There were also two plastic bags of the absorption agent sulfate and four small black boxes containing timers.

"He had enough material to make four or more bombs," said one former U.S. intelligence official.

On Dec. 28, Seattle Mayor Paul Schell canceled the city's New Year's Eve celebration including music, dancing and other festivities scheduled under the 52-story-high Space Needle because he said the threat of terrorism made it impossible to ensure citizens' safety. At least 50,000 people had been expected to attend.

Schell was widely jeered by city residents for being "paranoid," according to newspaper accounts at the time, especially because celebrations went forward in larger cities such as Washington, D.C., and New York City.

Although federal officials had warned that major millennium celebrations worldwide could be terrorist targets, Schell told ABC News that the FBI told him they had "no information that Seattle was being targeted."

The FBI made other public statements that there was "no specific information" that the Space Needle was in danger.

But former U.S. intelligence officials flatly said Schell's statement was "rubbish" and that the FBI had "plenty of indications" that the Space Needle "was a bin Laden target."

Ressam had reservations under the name of Benni Antoine Norris at a hotel only five blocks away from the Space Needle. Most importantly, U.S. investigators discovered that "Ressam had a map with other targets circled on it." The Space Needle was one; others were in California. One of these was Disneyland, one former CIA source said.

Especially chilling to investigators were the timers Ressam was carrying. According to a U.S. government official, they were made from a Casio digital watch that had been transformed into a timing switch. Such timers were the trademark of Ramsi Youssef, the mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing who had developed the Casio watch timer and a tiny "Mark II bomb" during his stay in the Philippines in 1994, sources said.

According to U.S. intelligence sources, several Arab Afghans, affiliated with bin Laden, arrived in the Philippines to set up terrorist cells, most of them in major cities. One such terrorist was Ramsi Youssef, who visited several major Philippine cities and within a short time had a group of 23 followers.

According to a U.S. government official familiar with the transcripts of an interrogation of Youssef by Filipino security forces, Youssef was able to develop his own brand of liquid but stable nitroglycerin that he would put in a contact lens case with cotton wool as a stabilizer. Besides nitroglycerin, other ingredients of the bomb included minute parts of sulphuric acid, silver azide, acetone, nitrobenzene and nitrate, the U.S. official said.

Youssef would attach wiring to the arm of the watch using a tiny space under the calculator. The alteration was so minute that a courier or bomb-maker would still be able to wear the watch in a normal manner. The watch would then be connected to two 9 volt batteries connected to light filaments that would detonate the bomb. Youseff smuggled the batteries past airport metal detectors by carrying them in the hollowed-out heels of his shoes.

Youssef made an early test of his bomb by breaking into a mall in Cebu City, the third-largest city in the Philippines. The device detonated several hours later in a generator room, causing only minor damage but convincing Youssef that he had at his service a workable device.

Youssef left Manila for a few days, but on his return was met by several emissaries from bin Laden who had traveled from Sudan, according to U.S. government officials. "We know for a fact he had close contact with these people," one U.S. government counterterrorist source said.

Attack on Clinton

The bin Laden emissaries urged an attack on then-President Bill Clinton, who was due to arrive in the Philippines on Nov. 12, 1994, as part of a five-day Asian tour, the sources told UPI. The group went over options: place a bomb along the route of the motorcade or fire a Stinger missile at the presidential plane or as part of an attack on the presidential limo.

According to these sources, Youssef even toyed with the idea of trying to assassinate Clinton with a chemical weapon called Phosgene, but abandoned an attempt on the president's life because of tight security.

But Youssef saw another use for his Mark II bombs. On Dec. 9, he moved into the Don Josefa Apartments in Manila and began to work on a plot to smuggle his tiny nitro bombs onto airliners, causing the planes to explode in midair and killing thousands of people. The master plan was called "The Bojinka Plot," from a Serbo-Croat word meaning explosion.

Youssef tested his bomb in a Manila movie theater on Dec. 1, and on Dec. 11, with nine-volt batteries hidden in his shoes, he boarded a Philippine Airlines Boeing 747 headed for Narita, Japan, via Cebu. Flying on the leg to Cebu, Youssef assembled his bomb and left it under a seat. He got off the flight at Cebu and two hours later, at 11:43 p.m. as the plane was over Okinawa, the bomb went off, nearly blowing in half a male Japanese national, Haruki Ikegami, who was sitting above the explosion. The damaged plane was able to land.

The Bojinka Plot would later be foiled, but investigators saw in Ressam's timers a signature of bin Laden's involvement.

Former CIA officials told UPI that Youssef had been receiving money from bin Laden and had been trained by bin Laden experts in camps in the Sudan in 1992.

Youssef also had been in contact with a key bin Laden aide during and after the World Trade Center attack, and when he went in hiding at a safe house in Quetta, Pakistan, the rent for the house was being paid by bin Laden. He also received help and financing from two senior bin Laden aides based there, former CIA officials said.

The bombs from materials provided by Ressam were "intended to be pretty big," a U.S. intelligence official said. The Space Needle is made of 3,700 tons of steel, but the right kind of bomb could have caused real damage. Asked about casualties, the official said simply, "For the Space Needle alone, it would have been thousands, maybe more."

But what of the explosives experts, the real bombing team, that was working with Ressam?

Still at large, sources said.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Domestic Terrorism

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5 posted on 09/15/2001 1:15:23 AM PDT by Tarakotchi

From the LA Times: "The largest terrorism plot concerning aviation was Yousef's scheme to blow up 11 American airliners over the Pacific in 1995. Code-named Bojinka, or 'the explosion,' it was uncovered on a computer disk in Yousef's Manila apartment."

So according to this planes would be blown up over the ocean (why, since there would be less collateral damage that way?). Also the use of timers on the bombs implies a non-suicide mission.

6 posted on 09/15/2001 1:20:11 AM PDT by Tarakotchi

Here's what I found with Google searching on Abdul Hakim Murad. The Middle Eastern OKC connection, a long but interesting read:

Court Cases- McVeigh

PART THIRTEEN OF EIGHTEEN:

E. A Subject of the Investigation in the Philippines.

A subject of the FBI and Grand Jury investigation ("Suspect I") has been linked personally by a Filipino terrorist to convicted international terrorists Ramzi Yousef[21] and Abdul Hakim Murad[22] as well as Philippine terrorist groups.

The defense has learned of evidence suggesting a direct, personal link between a suspect of the investigation and Ramzi Yousef, the "mastermind" of the World Trade Center bombing according to a New York federal grand jury indictment. D.E. 2482 at 1-2. The defense has recently learned, within the last week, that three FBI agents are in the Philippines and have contacted the Philippine National Police Intelligence. The FBI is investigating Yousef's activities in the Philippines, including reports of terrorist training in Batansas.

Defense counsel have interviewed in the Philippines a known terrorist in the custody of the Philippine government. The purpose of the inquiry was to determine his knowledge of foreign "mail-to-order bride" businesses[23] and any links between that group and criminal activity in the Philippines and/or terrorism. During the course of this interview, (D.E. 2482, Exhibit "L"), the individual relayed the following:

a. There were definite criminal connections to the mail-to-order bride business in the Philippines;
b. He was able specifically to identify a photograph of an individual engaged in smuggling activities;
c. He identified terrorist training as coming from the International Islamic Academy at Peshawar Pakistan which has been funded in the past by Saudi Arabia and other countries;
d. Targets of the Academy are "rich nations in Europe and Asia and the U.S.";
e. The contact between foreign terrorists and local Muslims was generally initiated when local Muslim students came to know students from other schools at various international academies;
f. He stated that Ramzi Yousef is also known as Abdul Basit and he identified two other members of Ramzi Yousef's organization including Abdul Hakim Murad, a codefendant of Ramzi Yousef, who told a security officer at the detention center in New York that the Liberation Army was responsible for the bombing in Oklahoma City (see D.E. 2482 Exhibit "M");
g. He specifically identified J.S., an individual that the defense has learned knew or knows a subject of the investigation and has visited in the subject's home in the Philippines. J.S. has been identified as an arms dealer for the Moro Liberation Front, a terrorist organization in the Philippines;
h. He was specifically interrogated as to what other bombing incidents after New York were attributed to Muslim terrorists and he specifically cited the bombing in Oklahoma City and the Saudi Arabia bombings;
I. He also told counsel he knows personally a subject of the investigation. He met the subject and J.L sometime in 1992 or 1993 at the vicinity of Del Monte labeling factory in Davao, Philippines. This was before the New York City bombing. He (identified in the report as "No. 3") said that the subject introduced himself as a "farmer." At that time, he said that his companions were Abdul Basit (Ramzi Yousef), Wali Khan and Abdul Hakim Murad. They all conferred with J.L and the subject." Yousef, Khan, and Murad were convicted on September 5, 1996, in New York of conspiracy to blow up 12 U.S. jetliners in a plot planned in the Philippines;
j. Because the person interviewed (No. 3) identified himself as knowing that the subject of the investigation "introduced himself as a farmer," he was asked to reduce his statement to writing and he did so. A copy of the written statement is found at D.E. 2482 (Exhibit "N"). His written statement identified three subjects discussed at the meeting where Ramzi Yousef and the subject of the investigation among others were present. These subjects were 1) bombing activities; 2) providing firearms and ammunition; and 3) training in bomb making and handling;
k. He was also asked about the statement of Abdul Hakim Murad that the Oklahoma bombing was the handy work of the Liberation Army. Mr. Murad was a codefendant to Ramzi Yousef in the Philippine airline bombing case in federal court in New York. (Ramzi Yousef was also charged by separate indictment as the leader of the attack on the World Trade Center bombing which involved a Ryder truck carrying a fertilizer bomb). Specifically, He was asked "What was the identification of Liberation Army referred to by Murad?" See D.E. 2482 (Exhibit "M"). He stated, according to the interview, "It was the Palestine Liberation Army and/or the Islamic Jihad which Murad was referring to. . . . This army is associated with Hamas and based in Lebanon, he added." Id.
l. He also placed the meeting of the subject and J.L with Murad and Ramzi Yousef in Davao and noted, "It was also the place where Muslims were taught in bomb making." This statement tends to be corroborative of the truthfulness of the Filipino terrorist because the defense has interviewed two individuals who claimed that the subject asked them if they knew anyone who made bombs, and one individual confirmed to a friend of his that the subject had with him a book on making explosives. See D.E. 2482 (Exhibit "K" at 10, 12);
m. There are a number of factors that indicate that the Filipino's statement is truthful. First, he has no reason to lie as he is a cooperating witness with the Philippine investigation, and there is sufficient documentation to indicate that he was the co-founder and second-ranking member in Ramzi Yousef's organization, Abu Sayyaf. See D.E. 2482 (Exhibits "S" and "M"). His statement that Muslims were being trained in Pakistan at a charitable organization through the international Islamic academy is consistent with the intelligence information of the Saudi Arabian General that Iraq had hired Pakistanis who might not know they were actually operating on behalf of Iraq. The use of an intermediary, i.e. the International Islamic Academy, and Islamic charity organizations would certainly disguise the role of Iraq. See D.E. 2482 (Exhibit "U").
His statement that the United States is a target country is hardly surprising. The dates that he claims to have seen the subject of the investigation are consistent with the subject being in the Philippines (see D.E. 2482 (Exhibit "V')), and his statement that the subject identified himself as a "farmer" is likewise corroborative. Perhaps most important the fact that he saw them near a place where Muslims make bombs is consistent with statements by other witnesses who claim that the subject had a book on bomb making with him and wanted to know how or where he could find someone that knew how to make bombs. See D.E. 2482 at 25. In addition, the Filipino identified correctly Yousef's real name as Abdul Basit. See D.E. 2482 (Exhibit "W").

Finally, the arrest of McVeigh and Nichols is not necessarily inconsistent with this report. The district court has correctly summarized in the past that the defense theory is that once McVeigh was arrested, the government ceased pursuing an international connection because the arrest of McVeigh, and later Nichols, would seem to preclude a foreign involvement. However, material the defensne [sic] has submitted to the district court, indicates that there is a relationship between neo-Nazis in this country and foreign terrorist groups in Iraq and the Philippines. Moreover, the subject's actions as articulated at D.E. 2482 (Exhibit "AA") are entirely consistent with his seeking to find assistance in the Philippines on how to make a bomb.

The fact that Murad, while in custody, is a co-defendant and a close associate of the alleged ringleader of the bombing on the World Trade Center (and not incidently [sic] also the federal building in Manhattan) were a Ryder truck was used to carry a fertilizer bomb is also highly relevant. The materials also indicate that terrorist groups in the Philippines have been trained in Pakistan, and that some of these same Pakistanis fought in Afghanistan. See D.E. 2482 (Exhibit "X").

The revelations by the New York Times that the FBI was pulling out of the investigation in Saudi Arabia because of lack of cooperation by the Saudi government further tends to support this intelligence information. See D.E. 2482 (Exhibit "Y"); see also Exhibit "Z" (discussing the anti-American climate in Saudi Arabia). The Saudis would be greatly embarrassed if it should develop that either directly or indirectly they have been financing a training area of terrorists in Pakistan, which may have led to deaths of Americans, or they may simply fear that they will be upsetting Iran or Iraq if the finger of suspicion of the investigation should point specifically to those two governments.

The important point is these reports from the Philippines inferentially support the Saudi intelligence report. The arrest warrant of Abraham Ahmad as a material witness makes reference to three Middle Eastern men running from the Murrah building shortly after the explosion. See D.E. 2482 (Exhibit "EE" at 1).

Several eye witnesses, including the next to last survivor pulled from the wreckage, have identified an "olive complected" dark haired man (variously described as Middle Eastern, Indian, Hawaiian) as being the driver and/or occupant of a Ryder truck shortly before the explosion and seen outside the Murrah Building. The FBI authorized an All Points Bulletin ("APB"), which was broadcast on police radio, seeking information about a full-size brown pickup truck occupied by Middle Eastern males. See D.E. 2406 (Exhibit "C").

The subject of the investigation was present in the Philippines in November, 1994 until January, 1995. During this same period of time, Ramzi Yousef was also in the Philippines. See D.E. 2763 at 22. Yousef and two co-defendants, Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan Amin Shah, were convicted on September 5, 1996 in New York City with conspiring to blow up eleven (11) United States jetliners. Yousef is generally regarded as the mastermind behind the World Trade Center bombing and the government plans to try him for that crime. Id. at 15.

Vince Cannistraro, the former Chief of Counterterrorism for the CIA (D.E. 2406 (Exhibit "B")), authored an article which appeared in The Boston Globe in April of 1995, suggesting the probability of foreign terrorist involvement, particularly Iraq, in the Oklahoma City bombing, while observing its similarity to the World Trade Center bombing. Cannistraro wrote, "Yousef had carefully prepared his escape, leaving under another name from New York the evening of the bombing. He abandoned his comrades to the police. If the Oklahoma bombing follows the same pattern, the foreign sponsors will have covered their trail carefully, leaving only the support cells of local adherents to face the prosecutor." D.E. 2406 at 3.

Ramzi Yousef was a Pakistani terrorist based in the Philippines. D.E. 2763 at 15-16. The Philippines is also the base camp for the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG). Id. Abu Sayyaf consists of between 500 and 600 fighters and is funded by radical Middle Eastern Muslims. D.E. 2191 at 21; see general) D.E. 2763.

ASG was formed in 1991 and is based on the Philippine island of Mindanao, which is a largely Muslim region which has been for all intents and purposes at war with the Philippines for regional autonomy. Abu Sayyaf has been linked to an international terrorist cell which is alleged to have plotted the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II when he visited the Philippines in January, 1995. Ramzi Yousef made contact with the Abu Sayyaf Group in the Philippines through his "Afghan connections." Id.

It has been reported reliably by Jane's Intelligence Review, a highly respected source for intelligence information, that "by all accounts, [Yousef] had ambitious plans to intensify his own Jihad against the U.S.A." In addition to the plot to assassinate the Pope, Yousef and his team, together with Abu Sayyaf support, were planning to attack the U.S. Embassy and other facilities throughout Asia. The bombing of Philippine Airlines Flight 434 on December 11, 1994 was simply a "test run" to smuggle a bomb through the Manila Airport. Id.

Abu Sayyaf's funding includes support from Muslim billionaires in the Persian Gulf including Osama bin Laden. Id.; see also D.E. 2763 at 17. Arab intelligence sources report that Osama bin Laden's funding of Islamic terrorist groups is "considerable" and is conducted through several companies he owns in Africa, Europe and the Arab world. During the Afghan War, Bin Laden was a "driving force" behind recruiting young Muslim zealots to join the Mujhedeen and he operated out of the northwest frontier province of Pakistan along the Afghanistan border. Bin Laden became a close associate of Sheikh Omar Abdullah Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric who has been tried in New York and whom U.S. authorities believe is a kingpin in an international Islamic terrorist network. Id.

In February, 1995, United States authority named bin Laden and his Saudi brother-in-law, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, among 172 unindicted co-conspirators with the eleven (11) Muslims charged for the World Trade Center bombing and the associated plot to blow up other New York landmarks. At the time Khalifa was linked to the World Trade Center bombing, he was already in prison in San Francisco because his visa was revoked on the grounds that he had failed to disclose when he obtained it in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia and that he was wanted in Jordan for a series of bombings carried out in Amman in 1993. Incredibly, Khalifa's presence in California went unnoticed until Abu Sayyaf attacked the Christian town of Ipil in April, 1995. Id.

Philippine intelligence documents indicate that Khalifa, who had at one time ran a Muslim religious center in the Philippines, was linked to Islamic organizations in a number of countries, including Iraq and Jordan. Khalifa was deported to Jordan and was cleared of all charges. Id. at 22.

While the brother-in-law of one of the financier's of Abu Sayyaf was being deported by the Americans after spending time in solitary confinement in a prison in San Francisco, one of Ramzi Yousef's co-defendants, Abdullah Hakim Murad, then on trial in New York City for conspiracy to blow up American airliners, readily admitted to a prison guard that he was a member of the Liberation Army, and that the Liberation Army was responsible for the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. Id. at 22-23.

The prison guard had asked Hakim Murad what he thought about the bombing when it was reported on the radio, and, according to a FBI 302, Murad responded to the guard's question by stating that the Liberation Army was responsible for the bombing and, a short time later, confirmed in writing that the Liberation Army was responsible for the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. Id.

The manager of the Great Western Inn at Grandview Plaza, Kansas, told the FBI that he observed the composite sketches of John Doe #1 and #2 when they were released, and stated that one of the sketches looked like a man who had checked into the motel on Monday, April 17, 1995 or Tuesday, April 18, 1995, the same time Tim McVeigh was staying at the Dreamland Motel. According to Mistry, the man was driving a Ryder rental truck which he parked in front of the motel and the man reminded Mistry of a "Moslem" and had a Middle Eastern accent. Mistry advised the FBI that the composite sketch of John Doe #2 "looked just like the man he described as having checked into the Great Western Inn on April 17, 1995 or April 18, 1995." D.E. 2191 at 23.

[CONTINUED IN PART FOURTEEN]

FOOTNOTES:

[21] Ramzi Yousef was convicted in September in New York City of a conspiracy to blow up 12 American jumbo jets in one day and he is currently awaiting trial on an indictment charging him as the "mastermind" of the World Trade Center bombing.

[22] Murad is a co-defendant of Yousef and told the FBI on April 19, 1995, a Muslim group, the Liberation Army in the Philippines was responsible for the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

[23] These businesses introduce American males to Filipinas who are ostensibly "tour guides" for the visiting foreigners.

7 posted on 09/15/2001 1:46:16 AM PDT by Tarakotchi

To: Fred Mertz, Wallaby, all

Good find, Wallaby! More evidence that this didn't catch the government unawares: Two weeks ago the FBI was checking flight schools around the country, asking questions about any foreign nationals seeking pilot training. One week ago they were raiding an internet provider in Richardson, TX with some 60-80 (depending on which news report) agents. There was a Middle Eastern connection there.

Of course, we all know that Terry Nichols spent time in the Philippines prior to the OKC bombing--but the Clinton admin chose to ignore that evidence. Had they followed the trails that Jayna Davis and Pat Briley pointed out, had they nabbed the rest of the bad guys in 1995, might Tuesday's terror have been avoided? I have this sinking feeling that it might well have.

8 posted on 09/15/2001 5:58:46 AM PDT by MizSterious

To: Plummz, thinden, rdavis84, FormerLurker, SKYDRIFTER, Uncle Bill, Alamo-Girl, Tarakotchi, roughrider

FYI--good research on main article, and Tarakotchi's posts. Even if Wallaby's article is mistaken, I think the other articles simply show that the terrorists are possibly improving on their plan. In 1995 it was "blow up an airliner." In 2001, it appears to have been "fly airliners into some buildings, killing both passengers and building occupants." The implications are fairly damning for the Clinton/Reno "justice" deparment.

9 posted on 09/15/2001 6:13:35 AM PDT by MizSterious

""I remember that after the first World Trade Center bombing Osama bin Laden made a statement that on the second attempt they would be successful," Razon stressed. He said they could have chosen to carry out the attack on September 11, to mark the anniversary of Yousef's conviction for the first attack several years ago."

All of the symbolism that keeps creeping into accounts. April 19 ........... Sept.11..............

Anniversaries seem to be very significant in terrorism.

10 posted on 09/15/2001 6:38:15 AM PDT by rdavis84

The purpose of terrorism is to induce fear, as opposed to inflicting physical damage. Thus, terrorists are rarely concerned with collateral damage. The Muslim 'cells' in the Philippines made it easy to operate. However, there was no collateral damage available which would be meaningful to the USA.

It is folly to separate the middle-eastern connection from the Oklahoma City bombing. Worse, the coverup of that information is a crime in itself. Far worse is that once it was identified, there was no follow-up on the logical hunch that something was badly amiss.

According to McVeigh's accounts, he was lying about ever having been in the vicinity of the truck-bomb. His descriptions are too frequently physically impossible.

Going to the known actual dimensions (within reasonable tolerances), the Murrah Building crater says that the truck-bomb couldn't have contained the power which was claimed by the prosecution. Therefore, how does one account for the known damage to the Murrah building?

If one goes to history, it is necessary to ask, "Why were there no warnings in any of the bombings?" The reality is that there was plenty of intelligence available.

The entire U.S. government was aware that the airports were radically non-secure for years, yet, the FAA pandered to airline profits with impunity. There was nothing unknown at any government level that such was true. Bin Laden was handed an invitation, by the FAA in particular. There is no shortage of documentation on that statement.

Given the very recent Hart-Rudmann report in particular, America needs to ask Congress and the FAA, "How could you knowingly allow this to happen???"

It's necessary to go to the history that Congress changed the Federal Law, essentially relieving the FAA's responsibility for airline safety. Clinton's Presidential Executive Order 12866 made safety an option. The order essentially said, "...if you can't establishe cost-effectiveness, don't be costing the airlines money."

If human life is expendable, we're facing a minimum of 60 billion dollars in cost. NOW, is safety cost-effective?

For detailed examples as to how all this operates, go to -

Airline Safety ‘Net

- note the total absence of changes.

Magnitude of effectiveness aside, the attacks of 9-11-01 were forecast to the highest levels of government, complete with the methods to be used. There was no "surprise" in any of it.

I fear that it is also necessary toa ask, "Is this another programmed "Pearl Harbor; another "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?"

Every American needs to pay close attention where the defense dollars are spent. If this is a replay of the Viet Nam War, the tax dollars will be headed to Texas holdings, with the full-funding of the super-expensive Osprey program as the first event.

11 posted on 09/15/2001 8:21:20 AM PDT by SKYDRIFTER

Sure, what I meant by my "collateral damage" remark was that they would want as much damage as possible. Elsewhere I've read they meant to blow all these airliners up at the same time, which would probably maximize the terror impact. If those airplanes were full it would be a lot of people too.

12 posted on 09/15/2001 8:32:18 AM PDT by Tarakotchi

13 posted on 09/15/2001 8:48:42 AM PDT by Leper Messiah

To: Leper Messiah

Until after this last crisis, I had no trouble finding Internet articles citing Yousef's claim to TWA-800. Then they seem to all have disappeared. Do you have any record / copies of original journalism on that?

14 posted on 09/17/2001 9:17:33 PM PDT by SKYDRIFTER

I found one such reference in the early AM of 9/15, simply using Google to look for 'Ramzi Yousef', the spelling in the article Wallaby posted. It was a pretty early hit.

I wonder if it's sitting in my cache somewhere.

15 posted on 09/18/2001 4:54:10 AM PDT by Tarakotchi

I rediscovered the article I was thinking of, I was using Google looking for 'Bojinka' actually. But it's not exactly the NYT, it's just somebody's Flight 800 conspiracy page.

"Against that particular history is the FBI claim that there was no evidence of a criminal act. That claim is shocking, just given the known terrorist claims to the disaster. The terrorist motivation is unquestionable, given the USS Vincennes shoot-down of the Iranian A-300. Thus, the terrorist claims cannot rationally be dismissed for any valid reason.

The terrorist claims are also clearly supported by an ambitious terrorist plot known as 'Project Bojinka.' One of the 'Bojinka' participants, Ramzi Yousef, made the TWA-800 claim. He was well known to the FBI as a reliable terrorist, later to be prosecuted for the World Trade Center bombing.

One has to question what constitutes 'evidence,' if Ramzi Yousef is to be disbelieved."

16 posted on 09/18/2001 8:31:55 AM PDT by Tarakotchi

Nichols spent months in the Philippines in a small town near a known bin Laden terrorist training camp and was in constant telephone communication with contacts in the Philippines right up until the truck bombing in OKC. Nichols, the so-called white supremicist, married a teenage girl in that small Philippines town. The Clinton administration and federal prosecutors were intent on not disclosing the international links surrounding the extensive plot to destroy the Murrah building. Justice was not their top priority because justice does not exist without the truth.

Clinton is a liar and appeaser and false accuser. He has betrayed the trust of all the foolhardy Americans who voted for him.

17 posted on 09/18/2001 8:40:18 AM PDT by ValerieUSA

from: http://www1.cnn.com/US/9605/12/terror.plot/

Terrorism trial begins in New York

3 men accused of plotting to bomb U.S. planes

May 13, 1996 Web posted at: 11:35 a.m. EDT

From Correspondent Brian Jenkins

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Jury selection began in New York Monday in the federal trial of three men accused of plotting to bomb 11 planes headed for the United States on a single day in 1995.

Ramzi Yousef is charged with masterminding the plot. He also will be tried later this year, accused of planning the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. Four men are already serving life in prison for that crime.

The alleged plot was discovered in the Philippines in January 1995, when a fire broke out in a Manila apartment 200 yards from the Vatican's embassy, a week before the arrival of Pope John Paul II.

Police were shocked by what they found inside: a smoking mixture of explosives in a sink, street maps and garments like those worn by the Pope's entourage, suggesting a plot to kill the Pontiff.

They also say they found computer disks containing detailed plans to blow up U.S. airliners.

The alleged plot involved leaving bombs on flights that would take off from Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore.

Vince Cannistraro, former director of the CIA's Counter terrorism Division calls it, "Extraordinarily ambitious, very complicated to bring off, and probably unparalleled by other terrorist operations that we know of."

Kenneth Timmerman, director of the Middle East Data Project, believes the sophistication of the plot is a sign the intelligence agency of another country is behind it.

Some see the hand of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein; others the government of Iran.

Fingerprints on a bomb recipe notebook found in the burned apartment convinced the FBI that the brains behind "Project Bojinka" was Yousef, a young engineer born in either Iran or Pakistan, also accused in the World Trade Center bombing.

Authorities think Yousef flew out of New York just hours after that explosion, later launched a failed plot in Thailand to bomb an Israeli consulate, and wound up in the Philippines.

The FBI believes he staged a test for Project Bojinka in December 1994, leaving a bomb under a seat on a Philippine Airlines flight, killing a Japanese tourist.

According to Cannistraro, "His particular, peculiar evil genius was to devise a method of putting together a liquid explosive that could not be detected by the security apparatuses in effect at most airports at that time."

"This is somebody who is really a world class operator. . And I don't think we have seen someone like this, as accomplished as this, ever," said Timmerman.

Yousef was finally caught in Pakistan, and the FBI brought him back to New York.

Philippine police captured his co-defendant, Abdul Hakim Murad when he tried to clean out the apartment in Manila. He was a childhood friend of Yousef in Kuwait.

A third defendant, Wali Khan Amin Shah, an Afghani, was arrested in Malaysia last December.

Lawyers for the three men say their trial might take three or four months.

18 posted on 09/18/2001 8:48:09 AM PDT by CJ Wolf

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19 posted on 09/18/2001 8:52:30 AM PDT by WIMom

Found it; "American Spectator" Sep. 1997. Thanks for trying.

20 posted on 09/18/2001 8:52:52 AM PDT by SKYDRIFTER

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