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Sudan Pilot in Custody for Hijacking Plan
Friday, September 20, 2002

Fox News

NEW YORK — A Sudanese air force pilot who planned to hijack an airliner and smash it into the White House has been taken into custody, U.S. government sources told Fox News on Friday.

The pilot has ties to Al Qaeda and was trained in a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, sources said.

The Washington Times reported Friday that U.S. intelligence agencies were looking for a missing Sudanese air force pilot who they believed was planning to hijack an airliner and fly it into the White House. An intelligence report, sent to U.S. lawmakers last week, reportedly said the pilot had entered Canada last week and was preparing for the attack.

But the Times reported that Canadian authorities had no records indicating the pilot had entered the country.

Sudan is on the U.S. State Department's list of seven state sponsors of terrorism, along with Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Syria.

"International terrorist organizations with Islamic ties, including al-Qaida and Lebanese Hizballah, have a presence in Africa and continue to exploit Africa's permissive operating environment -- porous borders, conflict, lax financial systems, and the wide availability of weapons -- to expand and strengthen their networks," says a State Department terrorism report released in May.

"Further, these groups are able to flourish in 'failed states' or those with weak governments that are unable to monitor the activities of terrorists and their supporters within their borders."

The State Department report says that of the seven identified terrorist sponsors, Sudan and Libya have made the most strides in trying to get out of the terrorism business.

Sudan's capital, Khartoum, condemned the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and pledged to cooperate with the United States in fighting terrorism. Sudanese authorities have investigated and apprehended extremists suspected of involvement in terrorist activities.

In late September 2001, the United Nations recognized Sudan's actions by removing U.N. sanctions.

However, "a number of international terrorist groups including al-Qaida, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Egyptian al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, the Palestine Islamic Jihad, and HAMAS continued to use Sudan as a safe-haven, primarily for conducting logistics and other support activities," the State report says. "Press speculation about the extent of Sudan's cooperation with the United States probably has led some terrorist elements to depart the country."

The United States still has sanctions against Sudan.

Fox News' Carl Cameron and Liza Porteus contributed to this report.