Top al-Qaeda planners of the September 11 hijackings might have cancelled the attack had they known that Zacarias Moussaoui - chosen by Osama bin Laden as one of the pilots - had been arrested, the United States commission investigating the attacks said today.
The commission said news of Moussaoui's August 16, 2001, arrest did not reach bin Laden and top al-Qaeda planners like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed before September 11. "According to (attack coordinator Ramzi bin al-Shaibah), had bin Laden and KSM learned prior to 9/11 that Moussaoui had been detained, they might have cancelled the operation," the report said, using KSM to refer to Mohammed. Moussaoui, a French citizen, is awaiting trial on conspiracy charges connected to the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. He was arrested on immigration charges after he raised suspicions at a flight school in Minnesota.
In its final report, the panel called Moussaoui an "al-Qaeda mistake" and a "missed opportunity". The FBI has been criticised for failing to act quickly on suspicions about Moussaoui, which could have helped unravel the September 11 attacks. The panel gave the most detailed information to date of Moussaoui's importance in the plot. The commission's report said in the month before the attack Moussaoui was being primed to take part as a pilot, possibly to replace one of the pilots who was showing signs of wanting to pull out of the plot in the summer of 2001. Moussaoui denies involvement in the September 11 attacks but admits to being a member of al-Qaeda. The report said that though Mohammed did not approve of Moussaoui, he did not remove him from the operation because Moussaoui had been "selected and assigned by bin Laden himself." |