Free Republic

Descriptions of the alleged plot uncovered by British authorities have distinct echoes of the so-called Operation Bojinka, an attempt by supporters of al Qaeda in the mid-1990s to simultaneously destroy airliners over the Pacific using liquid explosives. The explosives, which can be hidden in a small bottle, like those used for contact lens solution, are hard to detect, and were originally developed by Yousef, whose uncle, Mohammed, was the chief architect of the 9/11 attacks. In December 1994, Yousef tested his device using a fraction of the explosives planned for the main bombs. Halfway through the short flight, Yousef disappeared...

The foiled terrorist plot to blow up as many as 10 U.S. airplanes departing the UK using liquid explosives bears striking resemblance to "Operation Bojinka," the failed al-Qaida-financed attack on airliners in 1995 that became a precursor to 9-11, counterterrorism analysts say. Operation Bojinka – a plot to bomb more than a dozen airliners over the Pacific Ocean simultaneously – was developed in Manila by Ramzi Yousef, a planner of the 1993 World Trade Center attack, and 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, according to Philippines authorities. The key to the Bojinka plot was the use of liquid chemical bombs and...

Grab yourself a cup of coffee and head on over to TKS for the best summation of Able Danger as things presently stand. Or stay here and I'll summarize it for you. In very, very brief summation: The 9-11 commission did know about Able Danger; some of its staff were briefed on it twice, and the information got to some but not all of the commissioners What seems increasingly likely, based on the TKS summary and others, is that the commissioners who knew of Able Danger dismissed it because its Mohammed Atta timeline didn't agree with theirs. That in and...

SADDAM HUSSEIN'S REGIME PROVIDED FINANCIAL support to Abu Sayyaf, the al Qaeda-linked jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law in the Philippines in the late 1990s, according to documents captured in postwar Iraq. An eight-page fax dated June 6, 2001, and sent from the Iraqi ambassador in Manila to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, provides an update on Abu Sayyaf kidnappings and indicates that the Iraqi regime was providing the group with money to purchase weapons. The Iraqi regime suspended its support--temporarily, it seems--after high-profile kidnappings, including of Americans, focused international attention on the terrorist group. The...

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - The U.S. government knew by the 1990s how al Qaeda trained suicide operatives but missed capturing the man who masterminded the September 11 attacks about four years before they occurred, an FBI agent said on Tuesday. FBI agent Michael Anticev said in testimony at a sentencing trial for September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui that the U.S. government knew by the mid 1990s that there were several al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and other countries. Operatives at the training camps were taught how to carry out terrorist operations, including suicide missions, and were trained in how...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States told Saudi Arabia more than three years before the September 11 attacks that Osama bin Laden might be targeting civilian airplanes, according to a newly declassified State Department cable. The June 1998 cable, obtained by George Washington University's National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act, said the United States had no specific information that al Qaeda was planning such an attack, and did not say it might fly planes into buildings. A copy of the cable, first reported by The New York Times on Friday, was obtained by Reuters. Fifteen of the...

<p>LONDON — Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's purported operations chief, has told U.S. interrogators that the group had been planning attacks on the Library Tower in Los Angeles and the Sears Tower in Chicago on the heels of the September 11, 2001, terror strikes.</p>

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion. Dedicated hater of the West with a taste for high living Al-Qaeda's 'chief executive' is the son of a preacher who grew up harbouring a deep resentment that found its murderous expression on September 11, reports Jenny Booth. His capture deals a blow to Osama bin Laden's capacity for attack By JENNY BOOTH SUNDAY TELEGRAPH(LONDON) Pg. 17 March 02, 2003, Sunday KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED, the terrorist mastermind arrested in Pakistan yesterday, is believed to have been involved in planning every significant al-Qaeda attack...