ON CLINTON'S WATCH: Feds Nixed Deal for Plane Plot Tipoff

Terrorist told of plan to crash into CIA's HQ
Two years ago, federal prosecutors turned down a cooperation offer from a terrorist who claimed he was part of a well-financed 1995 plot to crash an airplane into the CIA headquarters.

Abdul Hakim Murad said he got his pilot's license after training at several American flight schools, including one that is now under scrutiny in the terror investigation. Murad was convicted in 1996 for his role in a highly choreographed scheme to blow up 12 U.S.-bound jetliners flying out of Southeast Asia.

The Pakistani-born man said that in addition to the jetliner bomb plot, he and his co-conspirators were looking into using his flying skills to crash an aircraft into the CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

"It was not something that we focused on. It was something that he said," recalled Dietrich Snell, the ex-prosecutor who convicted Murad. "We took seriously what he was telling us, but what we were focused on was the plot to blow up the 12 airliners."

U.S. Attorney Said No Deal
Snell, who left office in 1998, did not recall Murad coming forward to offer information in return for leniency in sentencing. But court papers and two sources familiar with the situation confirm that Murad did try to cooperate with Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White's office. He was turned down, the sources said.

It's not clear whether Murad's claims of a plan to fly a jet into the CIA buildings have any ties to the Sept. 11 attack on America. Murad gave investigators information that both resembles and bears no resemblance to the Sept. 11 attack.

His plan to blow up jetliners collapsed when bomb-making chemicals that he and his co-conspirator, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, were mixing caught on fire inside a Manila apartment.

Murad was captured in January 1994 in Manila, where he told Philippine interrogators about a plot he called "bojinka," or "big sound." In that scheme, he, Yousef and at least 10 others planned to get off the planes at stops along the planes' routes. The bombs would be detonated by timers in sequence over the Pacific, and none of the terrorists would be killed.

Got Pilot Training Upstate
"The whole crux of bojinka was to have timed explosions and the operatives to be off the flights and escaping," Snell said. "That's a fundamental difference between what happened two weeks ago at the World Trade Center and bojinka."

But there are similarities. Snell recalled that Murad told investigators about the suicide mission to crash a plane into the CIA building. "I remember him saying he thought about maybe getting a small plane or somehow get access to a small plane and crash it into the CIA," Snell said, adding, "There was never any mention of hijacking." And Murad noted that he got his commercial pilot's license after training at several U.S. flight schools, including ones in upstate Schenectady and North Carolina.

Last week, FBI agents showed up at the same Schenectady flight school, asking questions about a student who trained there. And several of the suspected hijackers are believed to have studied at flight schools around the U.S.

Snell said he has no way to know whether Murad could have provided investigators with information that would be relevant to the probe of the Sept. 11 attack. "I think it's pretty unlikely, but I don't know," he said. "I'd be guessing like everyone else."

Clinton: Terrorists Will Win If We Fear

Newsday

Talk about a social studies lesson.

Former President Bill Clinton stood in front of about 600 students at Fashion Industries High School yesterday and enthralled them with a half-hour lecture on terrorism and on not giving in to fear.

Schools Chancellor Harold Levy told the students it was the best social studies lesson they will ever have. Teachers union president Randi Weingarten called Clinton one of the best teachers of his generation.

With squeals, shouts and spirited standing ovations, the students received him more like a pop star than a politician.

After he finished his speech, Clinton strolled through the auditorium, handing the microphone to students who wished to ask him questions. The closer he got to them, the more the students screamed.

Many of the students were from the High School for Leadership and Public Service, which had to vacate its Trinity Place building next to the World Trade Center site and is now sharing space with Fashion Industries on West 24th Street.

Earlier in the day, Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, visited Public School 3 in Manhattan, which is housing PS 150 and PS 89 students.

When Clinton was done, many students said his words had gone a long way in subduing their fear.

"When I hear him speak, I feel better, I have more confidence,” said sophomore Kimberly Dotel, 15, as she watched a waving Clinton leave the auditorium.

Clinton told the students about his administration's failed attempts to eliminate Osama bin Laden after he was connected to the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. He said bin Laden and other terrorists are able to recruit young people from the Middle East by blaming America for their poverty and depressed quality of life rather than their own governments, which have failed them.

"He wants us to be terrified,” Clinton said. "They can only win if they can get inside our heads and hearts. They can only win if they make us afraid of going out, afraid to live, to work, to go to school -- if they make us afraid of each other. In other words, the only way bin Laden can win is if we help him win. That's the most important thing I want to tell you: These people cannot win unless you give them permission. Don't do it. Keep your life.”

Far from intimidated, the students asked the former president a series of probing questions:

If we hit bin Laden, what protects us from his retaliation?

"If we don't do anything, they'll just keep coming,” Clinton responded.

How do you feel about not being president? "My feelings are irrelevant. I served my time and did the best I could,” Clinton said to wild applause. "The most important thing is for people like me not to get in the way of uniting the country.”

Did they wait until you were gone to do this?

"No, they had planned this for over a year. They found a seam in the airline system ... Normally when they steal a plane, they want to go somewhere.”

Should the Twin Towers be rebuilt?

"What I hope will happen is all the people of New York be consulted about it. I would like to see all of you involved in that .”

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.

Wild theories spun in book

By Howard Pankratz
Denver Post Legal Affairs Writers

Oct. 12 - In his new book, the lawyer for convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh claims that co-defendant Terry Nichols met with Ramzi Yousef, an Iraqi intelligence operative who masterminded the World Trade Center bombing and was behind a plot to blow up 12 U.S. jets.

In Stephen Jones' "Others Unknown," he claims the meeting occurred sometime in the early 1990s on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, a "hotbed of fundamentalist Muslim activity." The 331-page book will be in bookstores Nov. 9.

Present were Nichols - who referred to himself as the as "The Farmer" - and Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad, and Wali Khan Amin Shah, according to Jones.

The subject of the meeting was terrorism. Specifically, three topics were discussed: bombing activities; providing firearms and ammunition; and training in the making and handling of bombs, claimed Jones.

But Nichols' lawyer, Michael Tigar, and Larry Mackey, the former federal prosecutor who spearheaded the government's case against Nichols, say there is no evidence to support Jones' claim.

"It is false, it is defamatory and he (Jones) knows it," said Tigar of the Yousef-Nichols allegation. "From the beginning, one of his (Jones') tactics has been to create a smoke screen by seeking to divert attention from the real serious issues that had to be decided in this case.

"Repeatedly he has hatched the "Conspiracy Theory of the Week,' each one less credible than the last. I don't think behavior of this sort does credit to the justice system. I don't think it does credit to the lawyer who does it and I do not think it is in the interest of his client," said Tigar.

Mackey said that federal investigators "left no stone unturned" and could find nothing indicating a Nichols-Iraqi-Muslim link.

"We ran this down when it first came up long before trial," said Mackey. "And there was absolutely nothing to it." Mackey noted that just a couple of weeks before the McVeigh trial began, Jones made similar, although sketchier, allegations to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. But Mackey said the "defining moment" in the McVeigh case came during Jones opening statement when Jones didn't even raise the allegation about a Nichols-Iraqi link.

Mackey said Jones "didn't dare try to sell" such a far-fetched story to a jury of 12 people. Like Tigar, Mackey questions whether Jones should now be trying to sell the theory to the American public.

In his book, Jones admits some members of his staff were skeptical of the information that was developed about Yousef and Nichols. But Jones said it is credible.

Jones said that after their meeting with Nichols, Abdul Hakim Murad, Wali Khan Amin Shah and Ramzi Yousef were charged in the plot to blow up the 12 U.S. jetliners. They were convicted in September 1996, and are serving time in U.S. prisons, said the Enid, Okla., lawyer.

Jones claimed that an extensive investigation by his office in the Philippines, aided by Filipino officials, indicated that one of the convicted plotters, Wali Khan Amin Shah, was acquainted with Nichols' wife, Marife Torres Nichols, a Filipino by birth.

Jones also claimed that Nichols' marriage to Marife was little more than a cover for Nichols as he made his way six times to the Philippines to perfect bomb-making techniques he originally tried to develop on the Nichols farm at Decker, Mich.

Jones called Nichols a liar who fabricated vast portions of his tale about what transpired before the Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Jones said Nichols set up McVeigh - using methods that Yousef had used over the years, including the attempt to hide the real perpetrators of the World Trade Center bombing.

Jones said that after analyzing Nichols, he was forced to wonder if the Oklahoma City bombing was not a "very clever, well-executed conspiracy.

"Could it have been designed to protect and shelter everyone involved? Everyone, that is except my client - who may or may not have been involved but whose role, if he had a role, would have been the designated patsy?" Jones asked.

"I began to look at everything Nichols had said...and the more I looked, the more it appeared that Nichols, with Tigar as his advocate, was going to try to save his skin at Tim McVeigh's expense."

But Tigar said Jones' portrayal of Nichols is not true.

"I spent three years of my life, along with four other lawyers - and they are good lawyers - and five investigators and five para-legals, tracking every single moment of Terry Nichols' life from the time he was born until the time he walked into the Herington police station," said Tigar. "And this ain't true.

"And I'll tell you something else. If there were any credible evidence that Nichols had been involved in a conspiracy to bomb the federal building with Muslim fundamentalists, the United States would have been free to put it on in their case," said Tigar, adding they would have put it on in a "heartbeat" had it been there.

Jones bases his claims about the Nichols-Iraqi intelligence meeting on interviews he said Filipino police had with Edwin Angeles, described as an associate of Yousef, who was arrested in the Philippines and purportedly turned informant against Iraq.

In videotaped and written interviews, Angeles said he met "The Farmer" at the meeting where the "farmer" discussed terrorism with Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan Amin Shah.

Jones said Angeles also included a sketch of "the Farmer," which "was a dead ringer for Terry Lynn Nichols." Based on the sketch and the details provided by Angeles, and further investigation of Angeles by lawyer Jim Hankins, Jones concluded that "the Farmer" was Nichols and Nichols and had met Yousef.

But when he asked U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch to subpoena Angeles to testify at the McVeigh trial, Matsch refused, said Jones.

Jones said Angeles was also trying to squirm out of testifying in Denver. Angeles stuck to his original version as videotaped by his Filipino interrogators but started embellishing his story with additional and implausible details.

Jones quoted Vincent Cannistraro, former chief of operations and analysis for the CIA's counterterrorism center, and Laurie Mylroie, of the University of Pennsylvania, as saying they were convinced that the Iraqi intelligence service was deeply committed to attacking the United States within its borders. A key figure in that effort was Yousef, said Jones quoting Mylroie and Cannistraro.

Jones also claimed that Osama bin Laden, the Saudi multimillionaire linked to the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, was in the Philippines about the same time as Nichols and Yousef.

"Bin Laden - Yousef - Nichols. Now a lot of things made sense," wrote Jones. "The connections kept coming. Bin Laden was known to Ramzi Yousef. Terry Nichols had met Yousef, said Angeles.

"How, given all this, could I not think that Terry had gone in and out of the Philippines at will, using Marife Torres Nichols as a beard, in order to meet with conspirators who had taught him to develop and assemble the ANFO bomb?

"And...if this was true - if, that is, Terry Nichols had gone to the Philippines to be instructed by Ramzi and his band in the art and techniques of blowing up a nine-story building - then mightn't he have learned another part of Ramzi Yousef's modus operandi? That it's always prudent to leave someone else holding the bag?"

Jones noted that this spring, Judge Matsch offered Nichols a deal.

The only way Nichols could avoid life without parole, Matsch said, was for him to name names. If Nichols would identify "others unknown," then Matsch would consider a lighter sentence.

However, Nichols failed to respond and received the life term.

"I believe I know (Matsch) well enough to affirm that he never would have made such a proffer speculatively or frivolously or to gain attention for himself," said Jones. "Could it be that Richard Matsch, persuaded by evidence he refused to let our jury hear, has himself become a conspiracy theorist?"

1995 plan selected U.S.-bound airliners from E. Asia

GEOSTRATEGY-DIRECT.COM
Wednesday, September 19, 2001

The use of hijacked airliners as terrorist cruise missiles has been known to be a tactic used by terrorists linked to Osama Bin Laden since 1995. That’s when terrorist Ramsi Youssef was captured by police in the Philippines.

The original plan called for the hijacking of U.S. bound airliners from East Asia..

Computer hard drives were recovered during the arrest that laid out plans for spectacular terrorist attacks using aircraft. The data on the hard drives belonging to Youssef was decoded and revealed several key operations of Bin Laden operatives. It was ultimately used to convict the terrorists who carried out the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

According to an intelligence source involved in decoding the hard drives, the first plan was to assassinate Pope John Paul II during a scheduled visit to the Philippines.

The airliner terrorism was outlined as part of a terrorist operation code-named “Project Bojinka.”

The operation called for hijacking U.S.-bound commercial airliners from the Philippines, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The hijacked aircraft were to be crashed into structures in the United States, including the World Trade Center, the White House, Pentagon, the Transamerica tower in San Francisco and the Sears Tower in Chicago.

“A dry run was even conducted on a Tokyo-bound Philippines Airline flight which fortunately was aborted by our security personnel,” the source said.

The plans also included an outline of the operation that would become the 1993 truck bombing of the World Trade Center. The information was used to convict Youssef, Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan for that bombing.

“Obviously, the original Project Bojinka was modified to give it more significant impact on the U.S.A.,” the source said.

Domestic U.S. airline flights were used instead of airlines in Asia with the apparent goal of prompting a stronger reaction from Americans.

Transcontinental flights were chosen so that the aircraft would have maximum fuel for the 3,000-mile flight and increase the blast caused by their deliberate crash. The pilots also banked shortly before impact in order to spread the damage out among as many floors as possible on the target buildings.

The convicted World Trade Center bomber Abdul Hakim Murad admitted that members of the group had taken flying lessons in the Philippines for Project Bojinka. The terrorists who carried out the U.S. bombings last week were trained at several flights schools, according to U.S. officials.

U.S. intelligence and security agencies failed to follow up on the details obtained from that operation. Several members of Congress are investigating what is being termed the United States' worst intelligence failure.

FBI aware suspects had flight training By STEVE FAINARU and JAMES V. GRIMALDI

WASHINGTON - Federal authorities have been aware for years that terrorism suspects with ties to Osama bin Laden were receiving flight training in the United States and abroad, according to interviews and court testimony.

Three days after the attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, FBI Director Robert Mueller described reports that several hijackers had received U.S. flight training as "news, quite obviously," adding, "If we had understood that to be the case, we would have - perhaps one could have averted this."

However, court documents and interviews with flight school officials suggest that the FBI had warnings that potential terrorists were using the flight schools. A senior government official said Saturday that law enforcement officials were aware of fewer than a dozen people with links to bin Laden who attended U.S. flight schools. However, the official said they had no information to indicate that the student pilots were planning suicide hijacking attacks.

The flight school involvement includes the following:

Two flight school operators said last week that FBI agents visited them in 1996 to obtain information about several Arab pilots connected to a Pakistani terrorist who was convicted of plotting to bomb U.S. airliners.

The flight schools, Coastal Aviation of New Bern, N.C., and Richmor Aviation of Schenectady, N.Y., were two of four that provided flight training to Abdul Hakim Murad in the early 1990s, according to Philippine authorities. Murad was arrested in Manila in 1995 and later convicted in New York of plotting to blow up a dozen U.S. airliners over the Pacific, then crash a suicide plane into CIA headquarters.

In 1998, FBI agents questioned officials from Airman Flight School in Norman, Okla., about a graduate later identified in court testimony as a pilot for bin Laden, according to Dale Davis, the school's director of operations.

FBI agents returned to Norman two weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, seeking information about another student, Davis said, a French-Moroccan dropout who had entered the country on a visa sponsored by the flight school. The man, Zacarias Moussaoui, was detained in Minnesota on an immigration violation after he tried to purchase time on a jet simulator, even though he had never flown solo in a single-engine aircraft.

In addition, court documents from last year's trial of bin Laden associates for the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania contain several references to flight schools and bin Laden pilots.

One government witness, Essam al-Ridi, testified that he had taken classes and taught at the now-defunct Ed Boardman Aviation School in Fort Worth. Al-Ridi also said that in the mid-1990s, he purchased a used Saber-40 jet on bin Laden's behalf for $210,000 in Tucson, Ariz. Another witness in the same bombing trial, L'Houssaine Kerchtou, testified that he was sent to a flight school in Nairobi, Kenya, and later served as a pilot for bin Laden.

The issue of how U.S. authorities processed early warning signs that terrorists had infiltrated the flight-school system is certain to be examined in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. Suzanne Spaulding, executive director of the National Commission on Terrorism, a congressionally appointed task force, said, "In hindsight, we can see how all these things [flight school connections] might be relevant and important." But, she said, "it is harder on a day-to-day basis. There is no question that technology could help sort information."

Since the attack, the FBI has extended its investigation to dozens of flight schools from coast to coast, including some of the same schools it visited in the years before the attack. According to law enforcement officials and news reports, the 19 hijacker-terrorists received flight training from at least 10 U.S. schools. At least 44 people sought by the FBI for questioning received some flight instruction. Dietrich Snell, who helped prosecute Murad, said that although the Pakistani terrorist attended four U.S. flight schools, it would have been difficult for the FBI to connect the schools to the kind of terrorist attack that occurred Sept. 11.

Murad, he said, had indicated that he wanted to use his flight training to become a commercial pilot until he was recruited by Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, a bin Laden operative who also plotted the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

"I think that because Murad had been trained as a pilot it's tempting in hindsight to say that the bureau should have known," Snell said. "But I think they were missing any link that would have connected the flight schools to this kind of terrorism."

The Murad investigation showed that Murad and Yousef were planning to employ five-man teams to smuggle bombs onto 12 planes operated by United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines during a two-day period in 1995. Prosecutors for the U.S. government described the plot as "one of the most hideous crimes anyone ever conceived."

Murad confessed to authorities that part of his planned role in the terrorist attack was to crash a plane into CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

Richard Kaylor, manager of Richmor Aviation, said the FBI was first alerted to the Schenectady flight school after a Richmor business card was discovered in Murad and Yousef's apartment in Manila.

Kaylor said two FBI agents came to interview him about Murad in 1996. He said he provided information about Murad and two other student pilots, both of whom lived with Murad. Kaylor said the three men had come to Schenectady after a stint at Alpha Tango Flying Services in San Antonio.

Kaylor said four FBI agents returned Friday to Richmor to question him about a Turkish student who had received his private pilot's license last year. But Kaylor said it was unclear whether the agents were aware that he had been interviewed five years earlier.

Whether officials at Alpha Tango were also interviewed in 1996 is unclear. The flight school's owner, Hamid Afzal, could not be reached. After the Sept. 11 attack, Afzal contacted the FBI about names on a published list of suspects, believing that some of the hijackers might also have taken instruction at Alpha Tango, according to a report in the San Antonio Express-News.

Paul Proctor, the former owner of Coastal Aviation, another school Murad told investigators he had attended, said he could not recall whether the convicted terrorist had received his commercial pilot's license from his facility. But he said he "wouldn't be surprised," because an FBI agent searched his files about the same time agents were descending on Richmor.

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