SEPTEMBER 11 HIJACKERS 'READY TO ATTACK BIG BEN'

Press Association News | June 11, 2002 | Tom Kelly

[Wallaby]

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

SEPTEMBER 11 HIJACKERS 'READY TO ATTACK BIG BEN' Tom Kelly, PA News, in New York
Press Association
HOME NEWS
June 11, 2002, Tuesday 09:20 AM Eastern Time

Suicide hijackers targeted Big Ben on September 11 but were thwarted after flights out of London were grounded following the US attacks, it was claimed today.

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A group of al Qaida operatives were at Heathrow Airport waiting to take over a jet and slam it into the Houses of Parliament when British air space was closed.

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A group of al Qaida operatives were at Heathrow Airport waiting to take over a jet and slam it into the Houses of Parliament when British air space was closed, according to author Rohan Gunaratna.

The plan was intended to show the international reach of al Qaida, he said. "This team assembled at Heathrow Airport on 911 to conduct an airborne suicide attack on the Houses of Parliament," Mr Gunaratna, author of Inside al Qaida, told CBS News in the US.

But the al Qaida operatives had not expected flights in the UK to be grounded after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, and left Heathrow without accomplishing their mission.

The alleged would-be Big Ben attacker, Afroz Muhammed, was arrested in India.

Security agents in India showed documents to CBS that indicated he had confessed to the London hijack plan. Afroz has since retracted his confession.

Mr Gunaratna said Afroz attended flying schools in Britain, Australia and the US, and received money from al Qaida-connected sources.

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"The Americans should have known that the terrorist organisation that was behind Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, that trained him, that supported him - this organisation would never abandon that idea."

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"In terms of who recruited him, how he was recruited, where he was sent for training, it very clearly demonstrates that he was an al Qaida member and this was his intention."

Mr Gunaratna said he studied intelligence documents and had access to serving and former members of Osama bin Laden's terror network when writing the book.

He said his study revealed that al Qaida had a "lose and learn" doctrine.

The terror group was prepared to lose operatives like Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the 1993 World Trade Centre bomber, in order to learn how to carry out such an attack successfully the next time.

"The Americans should have known that the terrorist organisation that was behind Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, that trained him, that supported him - this organisation would never abandon that idea," he told CBS.

[Post Toasties]

I imagine the Euroweenies' attitudes would have been a bit different if these whackos had smashed the British Parliament. Brit Lefties might even have showed a little stiff upper lip.

[Arkinsaw]

I imagine the Euroweenies' attitudes would have been a bit different if these whackos had smashed the British Parliament. Brit Lefties might even have showed a little stiff upper lip.

You give them too much credit. Remember the British reporter who got the living crap beat out of him in western Pakistan? Said that he would beat the crap out of himself also if he weren't himself and were them instead.

[Tomalak]

Yeah, and of course all Brits are "euroweenies" who oppose fighting terrorism. Just as all Americans are partial-birth abortion-loving, feminazi, affirmative action campaigners.

[Mo1]

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[Voronin]

I bet the mice that inhabit Big Ben were terrified when they read this. Is this story even kosher?

VRN