LONDON: Simply three years after planning the September 11, 2001, atrocity, Osama bin Laden is planning a second terrorist assault on the USA, in keeping with CBS Information.
Letters and different paperwork obtained by the previous al-Qaeda chief after he was killed by US Navy SEALs in Pakistan in 2011 present he wished to launch one other assault utilizing a way much like 9/11, however utilizing a non-public jet slightly than a passenger jet.
The plans had been found by safety and terrorism skilled Nelly Lahoud whereas analyzing paperwork. She informed CBS that if bin Laden’s plan to make use of a non-public jet proved unattainable, he wished to destroy America’s railroad tracks, inflicting derailments and inflicting large casualties.
She added that whereas hiding after 9/11 to flee seize by U.S. troops, bin Laden remained in contact with different al-Qaeda leaders and commenced planning the following assault, utilizing his engineering background to design as many deaths as potential and destroy strategies as a lot as potential.
“He wished to take away the 12-meter rails so the trains could possibly be derailed,” Lahoud stated. “We discovered him explaining a easy toolkit they might use. You would use a compressor, you possibly can use an ironmaking software,” he stated. “
One other concept of bin Laden was to have al Qaeda undercover to explode small wood fishing boats in U.S. ports to sink oil tankers with a purpose to devastate the U.S. economic system.
“Osama bin Laden advised that al-Qaeda members may disguise themselves as fishermen and combine into the port space,” Lahoud stated. “He instructed his crew the place to purchase particular vessels to evade radar and detailed how these vessels could possibly be used to move explosives.”
The struggle in Afghanistan finally hampered al Qaeda’s capacity to hold out different large-scale assaults, and by 2006 the group had solely about $200,000 in obtainable funds, she added.
Almost 3,000 individuals had been killed within the 9/11 assaults, and Lahoud stated bin Laden didn’t anticipate such a drastic U.S. response, together with a full-scale invasion and subsequent struggle in Afghanistan.