Bush details foiled 2002 al Qaeda attack on L.A.
CNN Thursday, February 9, 2006; Posted: 1:33 p.m. EST (18:33 GMT)
The U.S. Bank Tower, center, in Los Angeles, California, is the tallest building on the West Coast.
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Shortly after 9/11, al Qaeda began planning to use shoe bombers to hijack a commercial airplane and fly it into the tallest building in Los Angeles, President Bush said Thursday.
The details were the first from the administration about the West Coast airliner plot, which was thwarted in 2002 and initially disclosed by the White House last year, Bush said.
The plot was set in motion by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks, a month after those happened, Bush said. It involved terrorists from al Qaeda's Southeast Asia wing, Jemaah Islamiyah. (Watch Bush's disclosure on the timing and location -- 1:45)
"Rather than use Arab hijackers, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed sought out young men from Southeast Asia whom he believed would not arouse as much suspicion," Bush said.
Mohammed was captured in Pakistan in 2003.
Bush said the plotters planned to use shoe bombs to breach the cockpit door and hijack the plane.
Al Qaeda's Southeast Asia leader, known as Hambali, had recruited Jemaah Islamiyah operatives for the plot, Bush said. Hambali was arrested in 2003 in Thailand.
The operatives met with al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and then began preparing for the attack, which was derailed in early 2002, Bush said.
The purported plot was one of 10 on a list first released by the White House in October. (Full story)
The intended target of the attack was a building then known as the Library Tower. It was renamed the U.S. Bank Tower in 2003 and, at 1,018 feet, is the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.
Bush credited international cooperation in the war on terrorism with saving American lives.
"The West Coast plot shows we face a relentless and determined enemy that requires unprecedented cooperation from other nations," he said.
"By working together, we stopped a catastrophic attack."
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