Posted on 04/05/2006 6:14:57 PM PDT by blam
'Big-mouth' bin Laden angered his lieutenants
By Francis Harris in Washington
(Filed: 06/04/2006)
A senior lieutenant to Osama bin Laden has told US interrogators that the al-Qa'eda leader's big mouth was a security liability.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed also complained that the schemes bin Laden approved lacked destructive ambition.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Court papers released in America also depict the world's most notorious terrorist group as riven by internal disputes and hobbled by favouritism.
The allegations have emerged from CIA interrogations of Mohammed, the Kuwaiti accused of masterminding the September 11 conspiracy. His comments were released as part of the evidence in the trial of the would-be suicide pilot Zacarias Moussaoui.
Mohammed, held in American custody at an unknown location since his capture in Pakistan three years ago, portrays himself as a brilliant terrorist manager.
Throughout the discussion, he is almost contemptuous of the wealthy bin Laden, who held the purse strings.
According to Mohammed, bin Laden lacked inspiration and vision. The Saudi failed to understand the basic security requirements of terrorist plots, such as keeping silent about impending attacks. Mohammed cites bin Laden's decision to inform a group of visitors to his Afghan headquarters that he was about to launch a major attack on American interests.
Then he told trainee terrorists at the al-Farooq training camp "to pray for the success of a major operation involving 20 martyrs".
Mohammed and a fellow terrorist manager, Mohammed Atef, who was later killed in an American air attack, were so concerned that they asked bin Laden to shut up.
The men "were concerned about this lack of discretion and urged bin Laden not to make additional comments about the plot". Mohammed has been credited with inventing the use of hijacked aircraft flown into buildings as a terror method. His review of the first World Trade Centre attack in 1993 convinced him that even the biggest truck bombs lacked destructive impact.
When he tried to convince bin Laden that they should hijack 10 passenger aircraft and crash them into American "targets" in 1996, the Saudi was dismissive.
Three years later, a less ambitious hijacking plot was approved by bin Laden. But he then caused endless problems to planners by insisting on picking members of the suicide crews himself - and several of them were ill-suited to the task of blending into American society.
Referring to two favoured terrorists assigned by bin Laden, Mohammed said that one spoke little English and the other no English.
"They barely knew how to function in US society. The only reason they were involved in the 9/11 plot was because they had visas and because bin Laden. . . wanted the two to go on the operation."
Although Mohammed's statements are the result of interrogation, his words tally with counter-terrorism experts' understanding of his relationship with bin Laden.
A former FBI agent who worked on al-Qa'eda cases said: "They couldn't stand each other. They both had huge egos." Mohammed also said that he had profound doubts about Moussaoui, another bin Laden favourite, who was judged eligible for execution by an American jury earlier this week.
Believing that Moussaoui was not a "suitable operative", Mohammed sought to have him expelled. Bin Laden intervened, sending Moussaoui for a terrorist refresher course and declaring him "reformed". Mohammed remained unconvinced.
That view was shared by at least one FBI agent, who said that, but for his agency's "criminal negligence", the arrest would have caused the plot to collapse.
Wasn't some FBI guy out west screaming his head off before this happened? I think I heard/read that he raised the flag on this about 70 times.
Fixed!
He ran into Jamie Gorelick's wall.
the shaikh not looking to sheik here though is he...
Mohammed has been credited with inventing the use of hijacked aircraft flown into buildings as a terror method.
Sorry, as far as I can tell Richard Bachman did in the short story The Running Man.
The 9-11 Commission report said that Zawahiri opposed attacking the US because he knew that a war with the US would be disastrous for al Qaeda.
It was also the plot in Tom Clancy's book, Debt Of Honor.
ping
This cracks me up....bad mouthing the boss AQ style.
and the RATs thought panties on the head was torture, helen thomas... now THAT'S torture!!!
He's the operational guy which forces him to be outside the cave once in a while. It's tough to be in a cave and still run things.
Time to make the donuts?
What is sad is she probably really has a kind heart, it just doesn't seem to show when interviewing Republican POTUS.
WELL DUH! They're islamists!
no sh!t... it's him with a little more hair!!! 8^)
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