The FBI was warned six years ago of a terrorist plot to hijack commercial planes and slam them into the Pentagon, the CIA headquarters and other buildings, Philippine investigators told CNN.
Philippine authorities learned of the plot after a small fire in a Manila apartment, which turned out to be the hideout of Ramzi Youssef, who was later convicted for his role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Youssef escaped at the time, but agents caught his right-hand man, Abdul Hakim Murad, who told them a chilling tale.
"Murad narrated to us about a plan by the Ramzi cell in the continental US to hijack a commercial plane and ram it into the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and also the Pentagon," said Rodolfo Mendoza, a Philippine intelligence investigator.
Philippine investigators also found evidence targeting commercial towers in San Francisco, Chicago and New York City.
They said they passed that information on to the FBI in 1995, but it's not clear what was done with it.
One week ago, two hijacked commercial jets slammed into the World Trade Center, collapsing the towers. Another jet hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in rural Pennsylvania. Authorities believe that fourth jet may have been headed for the Capitol or the White House. Thousands were killed in the attacks.
On Monday, FBI Director Robert Mueller insisted the agency had "no warning signs" of last week's attacks, said the CNN.
Yousef and Murad both have ties to Osama bin Laden, the man President Bush has labeled the "prime suspect" in Tuesday's attacks.
Authorities also found on a computer in the Manila apartment details of a separate plot to bomb 11 US airliners on overseas flights.
Murad was a pilot who admitted he had been trained in Afghanistan as well as the United States.
"(Murad) was principally recruited by Youssef's group and Bin Laden's group to undertake a suicide mission," said Avelino Razon, superintendent for the Philippine National Police.
Youssef was eventually caught in Pakistan and brought to New York for trial. He was sentenced to life in prison. Murad is also serving a life sentence.
The report would be another blow to America's intelligence agencies that are being widely blamed for their failure to predict the attacks.
A report by the Daily Telegraph on Sunday said that Israeli intelligence officials had warned their counterparts in the United States last month that large-scale terrorist attacks on highly visible targets on the American mainland were imminent.
The paper said that two senior experts with Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, were sent to Washington in August to alert the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to the existence of a cell of as many of 200 terrorists said to be preparing a big operation.
"They [the Israeli delegation] had no specific information about what was being planned but linked the plot to Osama bin Laden and told the Americans that there were strong grounds for suspecting Iraqi involvement," said a senior Israeli security official told the paper – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
