Sayeret
07-22-2004, 10:39 PM
In the summer of 2001, shortly before the September 11 attacks, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the terrorist plot against the US, suggested to Osama bin Laden that al-Qaida recruit a Saudi pilot "to commandeer a Saudi fighter jet and attack the Israeli city of Eilat," the final report of the national commission investigating the attacks says.
Bin Laden, the 567-page report released in Washington on Thursday says, reportedly "liked this proposal" but urged Mohammed to focus on the 9/11 operation first.
Earlier in 2001, at Bin Laden's direction, Mohammed had also dispatched an al-Qaida operative "to case potential economic and 'Jewish targets' in New York City." Scattered through the report are references to al-Qaida's desire to strike at Israeli and Jewish targets as well as American ones. Bin Laden, as has been reported, had urged Mohammed to advance the date of the attacks so they could coincide with the controversy over Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount in September 2000.
Bin Laden, so eager to get the plot going, told Mohammed it would be "enough for the hijackers simply to down planes rather than crash them into specific targets." Mohammed, who was captured in 2003, says he "resisted the pressure."
Bin Laden was keeping a close eye on the intifada. "One senior al-Qaida operative claims to recall Bin Laden arguing that attacks against the United States needed to be carried out immediately to support insurgency in the Israeli-occupied territories and protest the presence of US forces in Saudi Arabia," the report says.
The report also says that Mullah Omar, the ousted and now fugitive Taliban leader, pressed al-Qaida to attack Jews, "not necessarily the United States," perhaps out of fear of retaliation.
The report speculates that Daniel Lewin, a former IDF officer who was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first to be hijacked and subsequently piloted into the World Trade Center, may have been the first to try to rebel against the hijackers.
As Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker, and Abdul Aziz al Omari moved toward the cockpit, "passenger Daniel Lewin, who was seated in the row just behind Atta and Omari, was stabbed by one of the hijackers – probably Satam al Suqami, who was seated directly behind Lewin," the report says.
"Lewin had served four years as an officer in the Israeli military. He may have made an attempt to stop the hijackers in front of him, not realizing that another was sitting behind him," it adds.
Lewin, 31, had served in the elite General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, and was a hi-tech entrepreneur.
Dov Shefi of Or Yehuda, whose son, Hagay, 34, was among the victims of the September 11 attack, said he was not comforted by the report's release. "I lost my son and nothing will return him, no report whatsoever will bring him back," he said. Shefi watched its release on television Thursday, but said he did not want to comment on it.
Hagai Shefi had moved to New Jersey in 1992 along with his wife Sigal. He was director-general of the GoldTier Technologies Inc, which he set up along with another colleague.
More information on it
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1090466089457&apage=1
Bin Laden, the 567-page report released in Washington on Thursday says, reportedly "liked this proposal" but urged Mohammed to focus on the 9/11 operation first.
Earlier in 2001, at Bin Laden's direction, Mohammed had also dispatched an al-Qaida operative "to case potential economic and 'Jewish targets' in New York City." Scattered through the report are references to al-Qaida's desire to strike at Israeli and Jewish targets as well as American ones. Bin Laden, as has been reported, had urged Mohammed to advance the date of the attacks so they could coincide with the controversy over Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount in September 2000.
Bin Laden, so eager to get the plot going, told Mohammed it would be "enough for the hijackers simply to down planes rather than crash them into specific targets." Mohammed, who was captured in 2003, says he "resisted the pressure."
Bin Laden was keeping a close eye on the intifada. "One senior al-Qaida operative claims to recall Bin Laden arguing that attacks against the United States needed to be carried out immediately to support insurgency in the Israeli-occupied territories and protest the presence of US forces in Saudi Arabia," the report says.
The report also says that Mullah Omar, the ousted and now fugitive Taliban leader, pressed al-Qaida to attack Jews, "not necessarily the United States," perhaps out of fear of retaliation.
The report speculates that Daniel Lewin, a former IDF officer who was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first to be hijacked and subsequently piloted into the World Trade Center, may have been the first to try to rebel against the hijackers.
As Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker, and Abdul Aziz al Omari moved toward the cockpit, "passenger Daniel Lewin, who was seated in the row just behind Atta and Omari, was stabbed by one of the hijackers – probably Satam al Suqami, who was seated directly behind Lewin," the report says.
"Lewin had served four years as an officer in the Israeli military. He may have made an attempt to stop the hijackers in front of him, not realizing that another was sitting behind him," it adds.
Lewin, 31, had served in the elite General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, and was a hi-tech entrepreneur.
Dov Shefi of Or Yehuda, whose son, Hagay, 34, was among the victims of the September 11 attack, said he was not comforted by the report's release. "I lost my son and nothing will return him, no report whatsoever will bring him back," he said. Shefi watched its release on television Thursday, but said he did not want to comment on it.
Hagai Shefi had moved to New Jersey in 1992 along with his wife Sigal. He was director-general of the GoldTier Technologies Inc, which he set up along with another colleague.
More information on it
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1090466089457&apage=1