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â9/11 Attacks Plotted in Manilaâ
The third highest ranking official of Osama Bin Ladenâs Al-Qaeda terrorist network has admitted to US authorities that he plotted in Manila the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, CNN reported last night. CNN said Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was arrested overseas earlier this year, admitted during interrogation that he and his nephew Ramzi Yousef planned in 1994 the Sept. 11 attacks that killed more than 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
That same year, CNN reported, the two âadmittedâ slipping 14 bottles containing liquid explosives into the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. They said they used plastic bottles of contact lens solutions as containers, according to the international news network. Mohammed supposedly concealed a metal detonator between his toes and carried other pieces of metal and jewelry to confuse airport authorities. âHe said he and Yousef placed condoms in their bags to support their cover story that they were traveling to meet women,â CNN said.
In December 1994, Yousef actually planted and set off a bomb on a Philippine Airlines flight, CNN said. âThey were sent to carry out an audacious plot to bomb 11 US airlines over the Pacific, which the FBI estimates could have killed 4,000 people,â it said, adding that the plan was aborted after the two menâs safe house â a unit in an apartment building on Manilaâs Quirino Highway â accidentally caught fire.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-07-26 |
