Original 9-11 plot called for striking both coasts

WASHINGTON — Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, has told American interrogators that he first discussed the plot with Osama bin Laden in 1996 and that the original plan called for hijacking five commercial jets on each U.S. coast before it was modified several times, according to interrogation reports reviewed by The Associated Press.

Mohammed also divulged that, in its final stages, the hijacking plan called for as many as 22 terrorists and four planes in a first wave, followed by a second wave of suicide hijackings that were to be aided possibly by al-Qaida allies in Southeast Asia, according to the reports.

Over time, bin Laden scrapped various parts of the plan, including attacks on both coasts and hijacking or bombing some planes in East Asia, Mohammed is quoted as saying. The reports shed new light on the origins and evolution of the plot that led to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Addressing a question raised by congressional investigators, Mohammed said he had never heard of a Saudi named Omar al-Bayoumi, who provided assistance to two hijackers when they arrived in California.

Congressional investigators have suggested that al-Bayoumi could have aided the hijackers or been a Saudi intelligence agent, charges the Saudi government vehemently denies. The FBI also has cast doubt on the theory.

No assistance in U.S.?

In fact, Mohammed claims he did not arrange for anyone on U.S. soil to assist hijackers Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi when they arrived in California. Mohammed said there "were no al-Qaida operatives or facilitators in the United States to help al-Mihdhar or al-Hazmi settle in the United States," one of the reports states.

Al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were on the plane that was flown into the Pentagon.

Mohammed portrays those two hijackers as central to the plot and even more important than Mohammed Atta, initially identified by Americans as the likely hijacking ringleader. Mohammed said he communicated with al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar while they were in the United States by using Internet chat software, the reports state.

Mohammed said al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar were among the four original operatives whom bin Laden assigned to him for the plot, a significant revelation because those were the only two hijackers whom U.S. authorities were frantically seeking for terrorist ties in the final days before Sept. 11.

U.S. authorities continue to investigate the many statements that Mohammed has made in interrogations, seeking to eliminate deliberate misinformation. But they have been able to corroborate with other captives and evidence much of his account of the Sept. 11 planning.

Mohammed told his interrogators that the hijacking teams were originally made up of members from different countries where al-Qaida had recruited, but that in the final stages bin Laden chose instead to use a large group of young Saudi men.

Saudis recruited

As the plot came closer to fruition, Mohammed learned "there was a large group of Saudi operatives that would be available to participate as the muscle in the plot to hijack planes in the United States," one report says Mohammed told his captors.

Saudi Arabia was bin Laden's home, though it revoked his citizenship in the 1990s and he reviled its alliance with the United States during the Gulf War and beyond. Saudis have suggested for months that bin Laden has been trying to drive a wedge between the United States and their kingdom.

U.S. intelligence has suggested that Saudis were chosen, instead, because there were large numbers willing to follow bin Laden and because they could more easily get into the United States because of the countries' friendly relations.

Mohammed's interrogation reports state that some of the original operatives assigned to the plot did not make it because they had trouble getting into the United States.

Mohammed was captured March 1 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, by Pakistani forces and CIA operatives. The CIA is interrogating him at an undisclosed location.

He told interrogators about other terrorist plots that were in various stages of planning or had been temporarily disrupted when he was captured, including one planned for Singapore.

The sources who allowed The Associated Press to review the reports insisted that specific details about those operations not be divulged because U.S. intelligence continues to investigate some of the methods and search for some of the operatives.

The reports make dramatically clear that Mohammed and al-Qaida were still actively looking to strike U.S., Western and Israeli targets across the world as of this year.

Mohammed told his interrogators he had worked in 1994 and 1995 in the Philippines with Ramzi Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan Amin Shah on the foiled Bojinka plot to blow up 12 Western airliners simultaneously in Asia.

After Yousef and Murad were captured, foiling the plot in its final stages, Mohammed began to devise a new plot that focused on hijackings on U.S. soil.

In 1996, he tried to persuade bin Laden "to give him money and operatives so he could hijack 10 planes in the United States and fly them into targets," one of the interrogation reports states.

Mohammed told interrogators his initial thought was to pick five targets on each coast, but bin Laden was not convinced such a plan was practical, the reports state. Mohammed said bin Laden offered him four operatives to begin with — al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi as well as two Yemenis, Walid Muhammed bin Attash and Abu Bara al-Yemeni.

"All four operatives only knew that they had volunteered for a martyrdom operation involving planes," one report states.

Plans changed in 1999

Mohammed said the first major change to the plans occurred in 1999, when the two Yemeni operatives could not get U.S. visas. Bin Laden then offered him additional operatives, including a member of his personal security detail. The original two Yemenis were instructed to focus on hijacking planes in East Asia.

The plot eventually evolved into hijacking a small number of planes in the United States and East Asia and either having them explode or crash into targets simultaneously, the reports state.

By 1999, the four original operatives picked for the plot traveled to Afghanistan to train at one of bin Laden's camps. The focus, Mohammed said, was on specialized commando training, not piloting jets.

Mohammed's interrogations have revealed the training of operatives was meticulous, including how to blend into U.S. society.

A key event in the plot, Mohammed told his interrogators, was a meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in January 2000 that included al-Mihdhar, al-Hazmi and other al-Qaida operatives. The CIA learned of the meeting beforehand and had it monitored by Malaysian security, but it did not realize the significance of the two eventual hijackers until just before the attacks.

The interrogation reports state bin Laden further trimmed Mohammed's plans in 2000 when he canceled the idea for East Asia hijackings. Bin Laden thought "it would be too difficult to synchronize" attacks in the United States and Asia, an interrogation report quotes Mohammed as saying.

Mohammed said that around that time he reached out to an al-Qaida linked group in Southeast Asia known as Jemaah Islamiyah. He began "recruiting JI operatives for inclusion in the hijacking plot as part of his second wave of hijacking attacks to occur after Sept. 11," one summary said.

One of those who received training in Malaysia was Zacarias Moussaoui, the Frenchman accused of conspiring with the Sept. 11 attackers.