Posted on 06/04/2002 7:20:42 PM PDT by The Raven
ASHINGTON, June 4 — United States intelligence officials said today that they had concluded that a possible relative of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who coordinated the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 and a later unsuccessful plot to bomb American airliners over the Pacific, played a pivotal role in planning the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The man described as a possible relative, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, 37, a Kuwaiti, is now believed to have been a leading figure in Osama bin Laden's Qaeda network who helped plan the attacks, officials said.
The assessment that Mr. Mohammed played a significant role in the attacks provides a new and direct link between the hijackings last year and the failed airline plot by Mr. Yousef's group in 1995. The estimate also suggests a connection between the first attack on the World Trade Center and its destruction.
Mr. Mohammed has been indicted in the United States on charges that he was involved in the January 1995 plot, led by Mr. Yousef, to bomb American planes flying between Southeast Asia and the United States. The F.B.I. has placed him on its list of most wanted terrorists. Officials said he was believed to be in Afghanistan or living nearby.
Since Sept. 11, many American experts have pointed out the parallels between the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the "Manila plot," Mr. Yousef's plan to bomb up to 12 planes. An alternative plot considered by Mr. Yousef's group was to hijack the planes, instead of bombing them, and crash them into prominent American buildings, including the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Va.
The plot was foiled after Philippine authorities arrested accomplices and found Mr. Yousef's laptop computer, which had information about his plans. Mr. Yousef escaped. He was tracked down and arrested in Pakistan and returned to the United States, where he was tried and convicted in the Manila plot and the first attack on the trade center.
For many years, the C.I.A. and Federal Bureau of Investigation were not certain that there was a direct connection between Mr. Yousef and Al Qaeda. They had a shared radical Islamic ideology and used similar terrorist tactics.
But the trade center bombing in 1993 occurred before American investigators began to see signs that Al Qaeda was emerging as a major threat. The Manila conspiracy was also not believed to be an operation of Al Qaeda.
United States intelligence officials said today that Mr. Mohammed seemed to have had a significant operational role in planning the attacks on Sept. 11, perhaps just below Mr. bin Laden and his three top lieutenants. But officials did not provide details about his involvement in planning Sept. 11 or how they had determined his role.
The new evidence of Mr. Mohammed's role in the attacks is certain to prompt a reassessment of the connections between Mr. Yousef and Mr. bin Laden.
The evidence could also help explain why Al Qaeda decided to attack the trade center again, to try to finish the job that Mr. Yousef started nearly nine years earlier.
In recent months, American counterintelligence officials have identified a small group of other Al Qaeda lieutenants as the crucial figures behind the Sept. 11 attacks. They include Mohammed Atef, the military chief of Al Qaeda, who died in November in an American bombing raid in Afghanistan; Abu Zubaydah, 30, a Palestinian held by the United States; and Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian radical and Mr. bin Laden's top deputy.
It is also unclear how close a relative Mr. Mohammed is of Mr. Yousef, who is in the federal penitentiary in Florence, Colo.
In 1995, American authorities first accused Mr. Mohammed of working with Mr. Yousef in the 1993 bombing. In 1998, Mr. Mohammed was indicted by a federal grand jury in Manhattan in connection with the Manila plot.
Mr. Mohammed has been described by authorities as often wearing a beard and glasses, as well as being slightly overweight.
The authorities have also accused him of taking part in a test run of the Pacific bombing plot on a flight from the Philippines to Tokyo. An explosion on that flight killed a Japanese executive.
Are there any dates available for when Khalid Mohammed worked for Khalil in OKC?
My guess is none of them. The individuals and organizations that participated in the cover-up of the Middle Eastern terrorist network connection to the OKC bombing are responsible for the lives lost and the destruction of 9-11. No organization was a more willing participant in the cover-up than the mainstream media. They have blood on their hands, just like the FBI and both the Clinton and Bush Administrations.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.