Terror mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was free to travel to Australia on a tourist visa for almost a year after the September 11 attacks, also had one for the US. After entering the US, Khalid, also known as Mukhtar, planned to play his own role in the attacks by piloting an additional plane and killing all of the male passengers. The commission revealed that after killing the men, Khalid wanted to land the plane and make a statement denouncing US policy in the Middle East. He would then release the women and children passengers as part of the plan he never acted on. | Salt of the earth, he wuz. |
The Federal Government confirmed to The Australian this week that Khalid had also obtained an Australian visa, using one of his 24 aliases, before the September 11 attacks. The visa was only cancelled 11 months later, when authorities became aware of the latest aliases. The CIA has briefed the Howard Government on Khalid's plans. But Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said it was not in the public interest to know why Khalid - whom the US captured in 2003 - had tried to travel to Australia a month before the 2001 attacks in the US. Australian convicted terrorist Jack Roche has named Khalid as his al-Qaeda contact in Pakistan. Roche told a Perth court during his trial this year that he met Khalid in Karachi in March 2000 and later shared a meal with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. He and the al-Qaeda leaders talked about killing Americans and Israelis in Australia, including the Melbourne Jewish leader Joseph Gutnick. There is no suggestion that Roche planned to rendezvous with Khalid in the event he visited Australia.| I seem to recall the US State Department issued Mohammed Atta his student visa...a year after he took down the WTC. The visa issue will continue to plague all civilzed gov'ts for a very long time, particularly with regards to terrorists who change names more often than underwear. |
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