Posted on 09/08/2002 10:18:13 AM PDT by Siobhan
Al-Qaeda initially planned to fly hijacked jets into nuclear installations - rather than the World Trade Center and the Pentagon - according to an Arab journalist who says he interviewed two of the group's masterminds.
The Arabic television station al-Jazeera says it will broadcast on Thursday the interview in which Osama Bin Laden's aides describe in detail how they planned the 11 September attacks.
In an article published in several European newspapers, documentary-maker Yosri Fouda said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh told him they had decided against the attack on nuclear power plants "for the moment" because of fears it could "get out of control".
Both men are on the FBI's most wanted list and have a $25m bounty on their heads.
The FBI says Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one of Bin Laden's key lieutenants, while Ramzi Binalshibh is said to have shared an apartment in Hamburg with Mohammed Atta, the alleged ringleader of the hijackers.
Department of Martyrs
Yosri Fouda said he was taken to a hideout in Pakistan. He was told by a man there that Bin Laden was alive and well, but was not shown any proof of this.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told him he was head of the al-Qaeda military committee and Ramzi Binalshibh the co-ordinator of what they refer to as "Holy Tuesday".
Over the course of two days, Mr Fouda says, the men gave him an insight into how the terror group operates and how the 11 September attacks were planned.
Mohammed and Binalshibh alleged that:
* The decision to launch a "martyrdom operation inside America" was made by network's military committee in early 1999
* Atta was summoned to a meeting with key hijackers in Afghanistan that same year
* Hijackers were recruited from al-Qaeda's Department of Martyrs, which is still active
* Mr Binalshibh wanted to be one of the hijackers, but was refused a US visa
* A number of reconnaissance teams travelled to the US ahead of the hijackers
* Ramzi Binalshibh posed in e-mails as Atta's girlfriend in Germany when the two communicated through the internet
* The fourth hijacked plane was heading for Congress, not the White House, when passengers overpowered the attackers
* The codenames for the targets were university faculties: "town planning" for the WTC, "law" for Congress, "fine arts" for the Pentagon
* On 29 August, Atta gave the date for the attacks to Mr Binalshibh, who ordered active cells in Europe and the US to evacuate
* Bin Laden was told on 6 September
At the end of his two-day interview, Mr Fouda writes, he was instructed to leave the videotapes behind so the faces of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh could be blanked out.
Despite promises that they would be returned, the videos never turned up. But, the journalist says, he did eventually receive voice tapes of the interviews.
Are they still here?
nahhhhh...
Yes. The war on terror would have lasted for one microsecond and any middle eastern state showing any complicity would no longer exist!
I'm certain of it.
In Dante's Divine Comedy, I believe that bureaucrats are consigned to the Eighth Circle of Hell. I am not sure, though, where psychotic bureaucrats go.
See this:
Prime Minister's Press Conference (Sept 4, 2002) - Full Transcript
From the Q & A we have this:
Prime Minister, during the course of August public opinion has apparently moved even further against the idea of a strike on Iraq, and that is partly because people feel there hasn't been much evidence. We have heard again and again that there is a dossier of evidence about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, why haven't we got it up to now and when are we going to see it?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think that is a good point. The fact is whatever time lines we have been working on as leaders if you like, it is clear that the debate has moved now. Originally I had the intention that we wouldn't get round to publishing the dossier until we had actually taken the key decisions. I think probably it is a better idea to bring that forward. A lot of the work has already been done, there needs to be some more work and some more checking done, but I think probably the best thing to do is to publish that within the next few weeks. And I think when that happens that people will see that there is no doubt at all, the United Nations resolutions that Saddam is in breach of, are there for a purpose. He is without any question still trying to develop that chemical, biological, potentially nuclear capability and to allow him to do so without any let or hindrance, just to say we can carry on and do it, I think would be irresponsible. Now as I say, then how you deal with it is another matter. But I think people will see very clearly both the nature of the regime and with an addition to the evidence already there from previous weapons inspections, which didn't account of course for all of the chemical and biological stocks, there is a real and existing threat that we have to deal with.
So there may be a timing issue regarding when to release information!
I've heard this before. It's been speculated that the plane that crashed into the Pentagon was supposed to hit the Whitehouse. It flew over central DC then turned around, came back and hit the Pentagon. The White House is a relatively low rise building surrounded by trees and taller buildings, not an easy target to see from the air. They probably couldn't find it, so they moved on to their secondary target, the Pentagon.
My guess is they meant that our nuclear response would get out of hand. If they went nuclear first, we would have no restrictions.
The FBI has known the details of Khalid's and Ramzi's plans for certain since February 1995. Khalid took helicopter and scuba lessons. Scuba divers could be be used to poison water supplies or attack nuclear facilities, especially water cooling intakes or even nuclear powered ships and subs.
Khalid and Ramzi were Baluchistan mercanries hired by Saddam Hussein to do the 1993 WTC and OKC attacks. Khalid was a mastermind of the 9/11 attacks according to the FBI and DOJ. The only thing left on Ramzi's computer that Khalid has not yet done is a nuclear incident (like the Three Mile island accident) where radioactive effluent could be released from a damaged nuclear power plant ( form of a dirty nuke) that would cause evacuation, terror,ground water contamination and hurt the economy. I would not take these terrorist's word for it that they have given up attacking US nuclear facilities.
The US should take action against Iraq becasue of what Khalid and Ramzi have done for Iraq against the US. Please see my editorial "America Should Act in Self Defense Against Iraq For 9/11,OKC,1993 WTC Attacks " posted on FR on 9/5/02.
More details on what Khalid and Ramzi have done please see my article "FBI and DOJ COnnivance Permeates, Interconnects Terror Attacks" posted on FR on 8/15/02.
There wouldn't be a Middle East.
I'm not so sure.
Who would we nuke, the Saudis, the Afghans,Iraq, the PLO?
Unless a country attacks us with WMD we are pretty much fresh out of targets to strike back at.
Thats why the Feds are desperate to find a domestic perp for the Anthrax attacks, we have been attacked with bioweapons by foreign terrorists and have had to let it slide.
If a nuke was slipped into New York harbor tomorrow in a shipping container and detonated, killing 200,000 people, who would we nuke in response if no nation took responsibility?.
Thats the main reason the ragheads must never be allowed to get the bomb.
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