Young men from SE Asia???

[Flashermac]

Bush Announces al Quaeda attack thwarted

9 Feb 2006

 

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies thwarted an al Qaeda plot after the September 11 attacks to use bombs hidden in shoes to breach the cockpit door of an airplane and fly it into the tallest building in Los Angeles, President George W. Bush said on Thursday.

 

"The plot was derailed in early 2002 when a southeast Asian nation arrested a key al Qaeda operative," Bush said in a speech.

 

Last October, the Bush administration had disclosed a plot to attack targets on the West Coast using hijacked planes, saying this was among 10 disrupted al Qaeda plots, but Bush provided more details on Thursday.

 

Bush referred to the plot as targeting the Liberty Tower in Los Angeles, but White House aides afterward said Bush had

 

meant to say the intended target was the city's Library Tower.

 

Bush said that in October 2001, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks that year, had set in motion a plot for another attack inside the United States using shoe bombs to hijack an airplane and fly it into the tallest building on the U.S. West Coast.

 

Rather than use Arab hijackers as in the September 11 attack, Mohammed "sought out young men from southeast Asia whom he believed would not arouse as much suspicion," Bush said.

 

 

______________________________________

 

[Thailand arrested Hambali in Ayutthaya in 2002.]

[Flashermac]

L.A. Mayor Blindsided by Bush Announcement

2006 Feb 2006

 

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD

Associated Press Writer

 

 

LOS ANGELES - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday he was blindsided by President Bush's announcement of new details on a purported 2002 hijacking plot aimed at a downtown skyscraper, and described communication with the White House as "nonexistent."

 

"I'm amazed that the president would make this announcement on national TV and not inform us of these details through the appropriate channels," the mayor told The Associated Press. "I don't expect a call from the president -- but somebody."

 

Bush has referred to the 2002 plot before but he publicly filled in the details Thursday.

 

Bush said Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks who was captured in 2003, had begun planning an attack to fly a commercial airplane into the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast, the Library Tower in Los Angeles, since renamed the US Bank Tower.

 

Instead of recruiting Arab hijackers, Southeast Asian men would be used, Bush said, because they were less likely to arouse suspicion. He said they would use shoe bombs to blow open the cockpit door.

 

The president said the plot was derailed when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key al-Qaida operative. Bush did not name the country or the operative.

 

"I go to work every day knowing that we are a target," Villaraigosa said.

 

The mayor said homeland security needs better funding, including for the protection of high-risk targets in Los Angeles. He said some funding could be redirected from the war in Iraq, but he did not advocate an immediate withdrawal of troops.

[..]

There are a few things that make ya go "Hmmm?" here, including what you pointed out about communications with the LA mayor (wouldn't want to step on a PR stunt by actually conferring with local officials).

 

Just the mechanics of the "plan" seem pretty far fetched. Woulkdn't the explosives cause an explosive decompression of the plane and perhaps cause it to crash? Wouldn't other passengers, since 9/11, bust their asses if they tried it? Etc., etc., etc. Sounds to me like a case of telling them what the want to hear from one of the tortured captives.

 

And then there is the statement that Bush's claim to have thwarted an attack on LA is disputed by former FBI official:

 

TODAY BUSH SAID: Bush Touted Thwarting of Post 9/11 U.S. Terrorism Plot. In a speech today, Bush told members of the National Guard Association of a foiled 2002 Al Qaeda plot to fly a plane into LA's US Bank Tower, the tallest building on the West Coast. Bush said that the terrorist's plan was put into place after 9/11 but "was derailed in early 2002, when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key al Qaeda operative." Bush added, "Subsequent debriefings and other intelligence operations made clear the intended target and how al Qaeda hoped to execute" the plot, and helped other allies capture the ringleaders." - Washington Post, 2/9/06

 

BUT IN 2004: FBI Counterterrorism Official Said He Knew of No Thwarted Al Qaeda Attacks. After a CIA official claimed last year that the government had "probably prevented a few aviation attacks against both the East and West Coasts" since 9/11, John Pistole, the FBI's counterterrorism director, said he was "not sure what [the CIA] was referring to." - 9/11 Commission Testimony, 6/16/2004

 

Just a stunt to get poll numbers up IMHO.

 

Cheers,

SD

[Flashermac]

Could be inspired by the fact that the hijacking plan originally was supposed to take place on planes flying from Singapore to California -- and had the planes crashing into SFO or LA.

 

Change the dates around and make it sound better???