June 18, 2004
Japan Was Target Of al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda terrorists in 1999 planned to carry out large-scale attacks in Japan, South Korea and Singapore, according to a report released Wednesday by an independent panel investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.The plot to hijack commercial planes and crash them into U.S. targets in these countries represented an alternate to a plan to hijack commercial U.S. airliners on Pacific routes from Southeast Asia and blow them up in midair.
"By April or May 2000, however, (Osama) bin Laden had decided to cancel the Southeast Asia part of the planes operation because he believed it would be too difficult to synchronize the hijacking and crashing of flights on opposite sides of the globe," observes the staff report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.
The report specifies no exact targets in the three countries, though they are believed to have included U.S. military bases in Japan.
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Posted by Ithildin at June 18, 2004 11:33 AM | PROCURE FINE OLD WORLD ABSINTHE