Hat tip: LGF. EFL
The U.S. Capitol Building, not the White House, was the fourth target of the Sept. 11 attackers, a German magazine reported Sunday citing results of interrogations of suspected al Qaeda leaders. Der Spiegel said also planning for the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 began as early as 1996, but plans hatched in 1999 to use four planes in the attacks were temporarily halted because only two pilots could then obtain U.S. visas. The operation, code-named "Porsche 911" by its perpetrators, was finalized in July 2001, the magazine said. "The Porsche is ready to start," it cited Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian-born student who piloted one of the two hijacked planes that destroyed the World Trade Center, as saying.
Spiegel magazine said its report was based on transcripts of the U.S. interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the attacks, and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, the man suspected of coordinating them. "The fourth plane, according to bin al-Shibh’s questioning, should have hit the Capitol, the U.S. parliament ... U.S. authorities long suspected that it should have hit the White House. Only bin al-Shibh’s statement corrected the error," the magazine reported. The magazine did not say where it had obtained the material but said parts of the transcripts dealing with Germany had been passed to German authorities. According to Spiegel, Sheikh Mohammed first suggested in 1996 an attack on the headquarters of the CIA using a chartered jet but this was rejected by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as not being spectacular enough. Sheikh Mohammed later suggested a 10-plane attack, it added. |