May 12, 2004
ACTIVATE PLAN Z:
9-11 'hijacker' told all, FBI didn't believe him: In 2000, Islamist trained for mission, divulged plot to fly jets into buildings (WorldNetDaily.com, May 12, 2004)
A British Muslim trained to be a 9-11 hijacker told an FBI counterterrorism taskforce in 2000 of a plot by terrorists to fly passengers planes into buildings, but the agents did not believe him.The 29-year-old al-Qaida recruit – interrogated for three weeks in Newark, N.J. – passed a lie detector test, the Times of London reported.
The man, whose name was withheld by the paper because of threats from militants, was a waiter in a curry restaurant in Manchester, England.
He was lured by al-Qaida at a mosque in Oldham, England, and attended a terrorist training school in Pakistan.
The interrogation came after the man had second thoughts about his suicide mission and surrendered to police, the Times said.
He had gambled away thousands of British pounds given to him by al-Qaida, reported the paper.
At that time, 18 months before the 9-11 attack, other hijackers were entering the United States and enrolling at flight schools.
Zaccarias Moussaoui, not coincidentally, travelled to Afghanistan in Winter 2000, showed up for flight training in Oklahoma in February 2001. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 12, 2004 2:20 PM
No mystery here.
When you plan something really bold and outrageous, you can blab it all you want and if it's really off the wall, nobody will believe it anyway -- until you actually do it.
However, you can only get away with such a stunt ONCE.
Posted by: Ken at May 12, 2004 4:37 PMKen: The reverse side is also noteworthy.
Now that we know to what lengths the terrorists will go, ANY wild-eyed idea becomes believable, and somebody will believe it - and chase after a means to prevent it. Sorta like the man who leaped on his horse and rode madly off in all directions.
Posted by: Henry IX at May 12, 2004 4:53 PMSounds like a loser who thinks that he'll get himself in the papers by coming up with this crazy story. He was right.
Posted by: brian at May 12, 2004 5:00 PM>Now that we know to what lengths the terrorists
>will go, ANY wild-eyed idea becomes believable,
>and somebody will believe it - and chase after a
>means to prevent it.
If al-Qaeda had any sense of humor at all, they could do some pretty weird psych warfare using this reaction, i.e. attack in some completely insane/absurd manner and let the target's reaction (trying to prevent an encore) do most of the damage.
Remember the Shoe Bomber? Ever since him, I've had to take off our shoes and have them inspected every time I go through an airport. Could you imagine sending an expendable operative (someone they intend to fail and be captured) with a bomb woven into his/her underwear or inserted anally? The panic and the new types of searches that Would Have To Be Instituted At All Airports?
Ken:
Explosive silicon breast implants--let's be rid of those dang things.
Posted by: oj at May 12, 2004 8:55 PMOJ:
Full points to you, sir. Funniest thing I've heard today.
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at May 12, 2004 9:35 PMI've heard under the right change in cabin pressure conditions, some implants already can be a little explosive on their own (though it may be the saline instead of the silicone ones I'm thinking of).
Posted by: at May 12, 2004 10:37 PMI have wondered why some terrorists don't swallow condoms of C-4, as smugglers do drugs, but with the intention of retrieving it mid-flight.
To combat it, we'd have to X-ray everyone before they board.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at May 13, 2004 12:41 AM>Explosive silicon breast implants--
Some wags at my old high school beat you to it. Back in '72, they came up with this deadpan monologue (titled "The Bomb") about sneaking a bomb in on (or rather IN) an unsuspecting stripper:
"She used to be 32-A."
"You mean...?"
"NITRO-SILICONE."
The trigger was her teeth. When she caught a thrown rose in her teeth at the end of her act -- "Boom."
The voices then tapered off into a countdown, then the sound of a REALLY BIG EXPLOSION.