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Al-Qaida document reveals U.S. attack plans
A previously secret document found at Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan sets out a detailed al-Qaida strategy for attacking targets in Europe and the United States.The document -- a letter written to bin Laden in March 2010 by a senior operational figure in the terror group -- reveals that tunnels, bridges, dams, undersea pipelines and Internet cables were among the targets. It was written by Younis al-Mauretani, a senior al-Qaida planner thought to have been behind an ambitious plan to hit "soft" targets in Europe in the fall of 2010. The U.S. Department of Justice passed the letter to German prosecutors last year for use in an ongoing trial in Dusseldorf because it possibly refers to one of the defendants, according to the German newspaper Die Zeit, which first broke the story. CNN has obtained details of the document from sources briefed on its contents. The 17-page letter is in Arabic. Al-Mauretani proposed that al-Qaida recruits take jobs with companies transporting gasoline and and other sensitive companies in the West, and await the right moment to strike. He said targets should include tunnels, airports and even "Love Parades" -- gay and lesbian events held every summer in Germany. He said recruits should infiltrate university courses in the West in key subjects useful to the group including physics and chemistry, so that they could later be re-activated and help the group, according to Die Zeit. He also suggested attaching mines to undersea pipelines using mini-submarines -- and appears to have researched ways to circumvent safety valves on such pipelines. Al Mauretani also proposed that al-Qaida attack financial centers and think-tanks -- specifically mentioning the RAND Corporation, whose headquarters are in California. Posted by: tipper 2013-03-20 |
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