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Mohammad reveals details of Al Qaida plots
From Australia to Azerbaijan, Panama to the Philippines, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks has claimed responsibility for plotting for Al Qaida a series of mass-casualty terrorist attacks and assassinations of world leaders.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:00 March 16, 2007
Washington: From Australia to Azerbaijan, Panama to the Philippines, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks has claimed responsibility for plotting for Al Qaida a series of mass-casualty terrorist attacks and assassinations of world leaders.
Many of these plots were either thwarted or never came to pass.
In confessing to more than 30 actual or alleged Al Qaida strikes, including 9/11 and the earlier truck bombing of the World Trade Centre, between 1993 and his capture in 2003, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad confirmed long-held suspicions of his involvement.
He also revealed Al Qaida plans to hit Western targets around the world that had not earlier been discussed by intelligence officials or contained in terror alerts.
Details of the confession, released on Wednesday by the Pentagon, could not immediately be confirmed, but many refer to locations for which the United States and other nations have issued terrorism warnings based on what they have deemed credible threats from 1993 to the present.
Second wave
Among them, according to the extraordinary confession: In the United States, Mohammad said he had planned or helped plan a second wave of attacks after 9/11 on nuclear power plants, Library Tower in Los Angeles, the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Plaza Bank building in Seattle, and the Empire State Building, stock exchange and other financial institutions and bridges in New York. Most of these facilities had been the subject of earlier warnings.
Overseas, Mohammad mentioned: Britain, where he said he planned attacks on London's Heathrow Airport, Canary Wharf and Big Ben, most of which have been previously mentioned as terror targets by British authorities.
The Philippines, home to the Al Qaida affiliated Abu Sayyaf Group, from where Mohammad said he had surveyed and financed plots to kill the late Pope John Paul II in 1994, President Bill Clinton in 1995 and former President Jimmy Carter, as well as blow up the Israeli Embassy in Manila.
List of strikes he might have planned
The September 11, 2001 attacks that destroyed New York's World Trade Centre and damaged the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people. Khalid Shaikh Mohammad said he was the operational director for Osama Bin Laden and carried out the attacks "from A to Z".
The 1993 truck bomb attack on the World Trade Centre that killed six and wounded more than 1,000.
The October 12, 2002 bombings of two nightclubs in Bali, Indonesia, which killed 202 people.
The 2002 bomb attack on the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel on the Kenyan coast, which killed at least 14. A simultaneous, failed missile attack on an Israeli airliner leaving nearby Mombasa airport.
The attempt to down two American passenger airplanes using shoe bombs. British-born Richard Reid was sentenced to life in prison for trying to blow up a transatlantic American Airlines flight on December 22, 2001 with explosives stuffed in his shoes.
A plan to bomb and destroy the Panama Canal.
Surveying and financing for the assassination of several former American presidents, including Jimmy Carter.
A plot to destroy Britain's Heathrow Airport, the Canary Wharf Building and Big Ben.
Shared responsibility for plots to assassinate Pope John Paul in the Philippines and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
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