media article on ksm's interrogation with comments by 9/11 commission

8/14/2019 Media Article on KSM's Interrogation with Comments by 9/11 Commission

1/4

W I T H D R A W A L N O T I C E

RG: 148Box: 00013 Folder: 0038 Document: 3Series: Team 1A FilesCopies: 1 Pages: 3

ACCESS RESTRICTEDThe item identified below has been withdrawn from this file:

Folder Title: Detainee Interview PolicyDocument Date:Document Type: Note/NotesSpecial Media:From:To:

Subject:

In the review of this file this item was removed because access to it isrestricted. Restrictions on records in the National Archives are stated ingeneral and specific record group restriction statements which are availablefo r examination.

NND: 341Withdrawn: 07-11-2008 by :RETRIEVAL #: 341 00013 0038 3System DocID:3510


2/4

Dieter SnellFrom: Hyon KimSent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 6:28 PMTo: Dieter SnellSubject: FW: KSM articleImportance: High

Re-sending article Raj sent around about KSM "transcripts."Original Message

From: Raj DeSent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 2:15 PMTo: Dieter Snell; Hyon Kim; Mike JacobsonSubject: FW: KSM articleImportance: High

Have you guys seen this?

Rajesh DeCounselNational Commission on Terrorist AttacksUpon the United StatesT: 202.331.4368F: 202.296.5545Secure: [email protected]

Original MessageFrom: Raj [mailto:[email protected]]Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 2:06 PMTo: Raj DeSubject: KSM articleImportance: HighRaj has sent you an article from The Washington Times.Raj's comments:CHICAGO, L.A. TOWERS WERE NEXT TARGETSBy Paul MartinTHE WASHINGTON TIMES

LONDON - Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's purported operations chief, has told U.S.interrogators that the group had been planning attacks on the Library Tower in Los Angelesand the Sears Tower in Chicago on the heels of the September 11, 2001, terror strikes.

Those plans were aborted mainly because of the decisive U.S. response to the New Yorkand Washington attacks, which disrupted the terrorist organization's plans so thoroughlythat it could not proceed, according to transcripts of his conversations withinterrogators.

Mohammed told interrogators that he and Ramzi Yousuf, his nephew who was behind anearlier attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, had leafed through almanacs of Americanskyscrapers when planning the first operation.

1


3/4

"We were looking for symbols of economic might," he told his captors.He specifically mentioned as potential targets the Library Tower in Los Angeles, which

was "blown up" in the film "Independence Day," and the Sears Tower in Chicago.A British newspaper over the weekend published a detailed account that it said was

taken from transcripts of the interrogation of Mohammed, who was captured last year inPakistan.

The transcripts are prefaced with a warning that Mohammed, the most senior al Qaedamember yet to be caught, "has been known to withhold information or deliberately mislead."

According to the transcript, Mohammed has maintained that Zacarias Moussaoui, theFrench-Moroccan facing trial in the United States as the "20th hijacker," had been sent toa flight school in Minnesota to train for a West Coast attack.

That would buttress Moussaoui's contention that he is improperly charged withparticipation in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, because he waspreparing for a different al Qaeda operation.

The new transcripts confirm an earlier report by the Associated Press that al Qaedaoriginally had planned to crash hijacked airliners into targets on both coasts.

The London Sunday Times said the transcripts covered interrogations conducted during aperiod of four months after a bleary-eyed Mohammed was captured in a pre-dawn raid alittle more than a year ago.

The confessions reveal that planning for the September 11 attacks started much earlierand was more elaborate than previously thought.

"The original plan was for a two-pronged attack with five targets on the East Coast ofAmerica and five on the West Coast," he told interrogators, according to the transcript.

"We talked about hitting California as it was America's richest state, and [al Qaedaleader Osama] bin Laden had talked about economic targets."

He is reported to have said that bin Laden, who like Mohammed had studied engineering,vetoed simultaneous coast-to-coast attacks, arguing that "it would be too difficult tosynchronize."

Mohammed then decided to conduct two waves of attacks, hitting the East Coast firstand following up with a second series of attacks."Osama had said the second wave should focus on the West Coast," he reportedly said.But the terrorists seem to have been surprised by the strength of the American

reaction to the September 11 attacks."Afterwards, we never got time to catch our breath, we were immediately on the run,"

Mohammed is quoted as saying.Al Qaeda's communications network was severely disrupted, he said. Operatives could no

longer use satellite phones and had to rely on couriers, although they continued to useInternet chat rooms.

"Before September 11, we could dispatch operatives with the expectation of follow-upcontact, but after October 7 [when U.S. bombing started in Afghanistan], that changed 180degrees. There was no longer a war room ... and operatives had more autonomy."

Mohammed told interrogators that he remained in Pakistan for 10 days after September11, 2001, then went to Afghanistan to find bin Laden.When he was captured in March last year in the home of a microbiologist in Rawalpindi,

Pakistan, the 37-year-old was unshaven and wearing a baggy vest.The interrogation reports also indicate that Mohammed had introduced bin Laden to

Hambali, the Indonesian militant accused in the terror attack that killed more than 2002


4/4

yeople in Bali, Indonesia, in October 2002.Mohammed was running a hostel filtering al Qaeda recruits in Peshawar, Pakistan, when

he scouted Hambali, whose real name is Riduan Ismuddin and who ran the Islamist groupJemaah Islamiyah in Asia.

Later, Mohammed moved to Karachi, Pakistan. There, posing as a businessman importingholy water from Mecca, Saudi Arabia, he acted as a fund-raiser and intermediary betweenmilitants and sponsors in the Gulf.

His first planned anti-American attack was Operation Bojinka (Serbo-Croatian for "bigbang") a plot to blow up 12 U.S. airliners over the Pacific.

Yousuf and Hambali were involved in the scheme, which failed when the conspirators'Manila bomb factory caught fire. The men fled to Pakistan, where Yousuf was arrested.

This article was mailed from The Washington Times(http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20040330-120655-9785r.htm)For more great articles, visit us at http://www.washingtontimes.comCopyright (c) 2004 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

media article on ksm's interrogation with comments by 9/11 commission

Documents