| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| The JI suicide pilot who got cold feet |
| 2006-02-11 |
| A Malaysian pilot recruited by al-Qaeda to fly a hijacked airliner into the tallest building on the US West Coast pulled out of the plot when he realised it was a suicide mission, security officials in South-East Asia said today. Further details emerged of the plan to target the iconic 73-storey US Bank Building in Los Angeles, revealed by President Bush yesterday in an address to rally support for the War on Terror. Terrorism experts in Malaysia said that Zaini Zakaria, an engineer, was among three men being trained to launch the planned second-wave of Osama bin Laden's assault on the United States, supposed to take place a few months after the atrocities of September 11 2001. Zaini, 38, visited al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan in 1999, where he met senior figures in the terrorist network including Riduan Isamuddin, the organisation's leader in South-East Asia, also known as Hambali. When he returned to Malaysia, Zaini enrolled in a flying school and obtained a license to fly a small plane. He then began making inquiries in Australia about obtaining a license to fly a jet. The official revealed that the recruit had never been told precisely what his mission would entail: when he saw coverage of the September 11 attacks and realised it was a suicide operation he severed his ties with the militants. He returned to civilian life, doing a series of casual jobs, before he surrendered himself to Malaysian authorities in Kelantan in December 2002, apparently because he was worried about the health of a relative. He has been detained without trial ever since, due to his alleged links with Jemaah Islamiyah, a proscribed terrorist organisation regarded as al-Qaeda's South-east Asian wing. Zaini told his interrogators that "he was not prepared to die as a martyr, so he backed out", a senior police officer has told the Associated Press news agency. The officer said that Zaini "didnÂ’t want that kind of Jihad". He also said that plan never appeared close to the stage where it could be put into execution. The possible "second wave" attack on America was first mentioned in June 2004, in the US National Commission report on the September 11 attacks. The report quoted Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the reputed terror mastermind who was captured in 2003, as admitting that "only three potential pilots were recruited for the alleged second wave," and identified them as Zacarias Moussaoui, Abderraouf Jdey, and Zaini. However, Mohammed told his US interrogators that "he was too busy with the 9/11 plot to plan the second wave of attacks," the report said. Yesterday President Bush gave more details, saying that the plot had been set in motion in October 2001 by Mohammed. But instead of using hijackers of Arab origin, the Los Angeles plot involved terrorists from JI. They were "young men from South-East Asia whom he believed would not arouse suspicion," Mr Bush said. They were going to use "shoe bombs to breach the cockpit door", he added. Mr Bush said that Hambali had earmarked JI operatives for the plot. The operatives, who had been training in Afghanistan, met Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, and began preparing for the attack. But the plot was derailed in 2002 when a key al-Qaeda operative was arrested, Mr Bush said. It was finally thwarted when Hambali was arrested in Thailand in 2003. It is not clear if Mr Bush was referring to Zaini. Mr BushÂ’s decision to divulge details of the plot, which he had alluded to in much vaguer terms last October, was a direct response to the controversy over the revelation that he has authorised the secret wire-tapping of US citizens in America, without court warrant, for nearly four years. Mr Bush has aggressively defended the wiretapping programme as being vital to fighting the War on Terror, but it has been called illegal by some senior Republicans and most Democrats. Civil liberties groups have begun comparing Mr Bush to Richard Nixon, who oversaw a secret wire-tapping programme of Americans in the early 1970s. The Times has learnt that two weeks ago a high-level strategy meeting was held at the White House to discuss how to reshape the debate over the wire-tapping controversy. One of the main goals was to remind Americans that although no terrorist attack has occurred on US soil for more than four years, al-Qaeda is an enemy that has not gone away. White House aides want to emphasise that the War on Terror is a new age, very different from the concerns of the Nixon era, in which Mr Bush needs every tool available to thwart another attack. The White House is not claiming that the West Coast plot was foiled by extra-judicial wire-tapping, but it was decided that giving details of the plot would help to bring home how high the stakes are, and the importance of rapid intelligence. "The terrorists are weakened and fractured, yet theyÂ’re still lethal," Mr Bush said in his speech at the National Guard Memorial Building in Washington yesterday. "We cannot let the fact that America hasnÂ’t been attacked in four and a half years since September 11, 2001, lull us into the illusion that the threats to our nation have disappeared." Referring to fresh threats to America made last month in an audiotape by Osama bin Laden, Mr Bush added: "Our military, law enforcement, homeland security and intelligence professionals take those threats very seriously, and theyÂ’re working around the clock day and night to protect us." Mr Bush also said that the arrest of one of the South-East Asian operatives in early 2002 had led to critical intelligence that "helped other allies capture the ringleaders and other known operatives who had been recruited for this plot". One ringleader Mr Bush is believed to have been referring to is Abu Zubaydah, captured in Pakistan in March 2002. Regarded as al-QaedaÂ’s third in command, he knew every important plot al-Qaeda had lined up to follow the September 11 attacks. Democrats accused Mr Bush of cynically exploiting September 11 to divert attention from the wire-tapping controversy. "Why are we hearing about this four years later other than to change the subject back to BushÂ’s favourite topic?," said Jennifer Palmieri, of the Centre for American Progress, a Democrat think-tank. For a time Khalid Sheikh Mohammad lived the life of an all-American boy. As a teenager he went to a Baptist school in North Carolina before going on to university there to study mechanical engineering After his graduation in 1986 he drifted to Afghanistan to join the Muslim holy war against the Soviet invasion. He lasted only three months before heading for an office job with an electronics company He was, the CIA says, a planner rather than an action man. As a front for his terrorist activities he worked for the Qatar government as an engineer in its electricity headquarters, from where he shunted money to extremist groups. He helped to fund the first attack on the World Trade Centre, in 1993. He also helped to organise a plot to assassinate Bill Clinton. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |