Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 19, 2004, Winnipeg, Manitoba A20 Canada / world Winnipeg free press saturday june 19, 2004 original plot involved 10 planes nuke plants w Ashington ? five years before the worst terror attack in american history a kuwaiti pitched an outlandish idea to Osama bin Laden. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed now a . Captive concedes his apocalyptic vision of 10 planes steered into nuclear Power plants skyscrapers and other american targets received Only a lukewarm response from the Al Aida Kingpin. The meeting in Afghanistan in mid?1996, however apparently was the Gen Esis of the attacks that killed almost 3,000 people on sept. 11, 2001. Three reports issued this week by the sept. 11 commission provide the fullest picture yet of How Mohammed a scheme became reality ? and the governments chaotic response. Mohammed a 1986 graduate from North Carolina agricultural and tech Nical state University had been indicted in the United states earlier in 1996 for plotting to bomb 12 flights Over the Pacific Ocean but he want captured. Between May 1996, when bin Laden moved to Afghanistan from Sudan and the sept. 11 attacks More than 20,000 men ? including the eventual hijackers ? trained at his terror Camps where they Learned the sept. 11 commission said to think creatively about ways to commit mass Early in 1999, bin Laden gave the go ahead. According to Mohammed the two Drew up a list of potential targets. The Capitol perceived source of . Policy in support of Israel. The White House and Pentagon both advocated by bin Laden As potent Amer ican symbols. The world Trade Center favoured by Mohammed whose Nephew Yousef was in prison for the 1993 bombing of the towers that represented americas financial might. The first two potential suicide Hijack ers arrived in los Angeles on Jan. 15, 2000. During the next 18 months 17 More followed. At the airports Early on sept. 11, nine of the hijackers were pulled aside for extra Security screenings but All were allowed to proceed some with hidden knives and Box cutters. When it became apparent on the ground that the planes had been hijacked air controllers first tried to Call a military Alert site in Atlantic City n.j., unaware it had been closed. It was the Start of a Cascade of communications errors hat undermined any Chance of stopping the attacks. At 8 37 a.m., controllers reached the Northeast sector of Norad the North american aerospace defence com Mand and urged them to scramble fighter jets because a hijacked plane was headed for new York. Nine minutes later flight 11 flew into the North Tower of the world Trade Cen Ter. Those nine minutes were the most notice the military would receive of any of the four hijackings. Confusion turned to chaos during the next hour As the Federal aviation administration struggled with an unprecedented Challenge they had never encountered and had never trained to meet the commission wrote. ? associated press ;