For the first time ever, U.S. investigators have established a definitive link between the mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the man who plotted its destruction on Sept. 11, 2001 – a development that adds circumstantial evidence to claims that Iraq played a role in the worst attack ever on U.S. soil.
According to a report Sunday by the Associated Press, 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh 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."
Yousef, of course, was the man who plotted and executed the failed 1993 World Trade Center bombing, who entered the U.S. on an Iraqi passport the year before and whose partner in the plot, Abdul Rahman Yasin, was granted sanctuary by Saddam Hussein after the attack. Yasin is still at large.
Unmentioned by the AP, Mohammed's account of meetings with Yousef has been corroborated by Yousef's Bojinka partner, Abdul Hakim Murad. After his capture in 1995, Murad told the FBI that he and Yousef were contacted by Mohammed repeatedly during their time in the Philippines. Murad's FBI 302 witness statements detailing the contacts are reprinted in the new book "1000 Years for Revenge," by investigative reporter Peter Lance.
Another intriguing detail unmentioned by the AP: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is Ramzi Yousef's uncle.
Just last week, new documents uncovered by U.S. investigators in Iraq implicated Saddam's regime in the 1993 attack.
On Thursday, USA Today reported:
"U.S. authorities in Iraq say they have new evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime gave money and housing to Abdul Rahman Yasin, a suspect in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. ...
"Military, intelligence and law enforcement officials reported finding a large cache of Arabic-language documents in Tikrit, Saddam's political stronghold. A U.S. intelligence official ... said some [U.S. intelligence] analysts have concluded that the documents show that Saddam's government provided monthly payments and a home for Yasin."
After Yousef fled the Philippines in 1995, local police discovered plans for three types of terrorist attacks on his laptop computer. One was Bojinka. A second plot called for the hijacking of an airliner with plans to crash it into a U.S. nuclear power plant.
Yousef's third plan, however, reads like an early blueprint for 9/11, calling for U.S. airliners to be hijacked then crashed kamikaze style into American landmarks. Specifically mentioned on a list of potential targets found on Yousef's laptop: The World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Sunday's AP report noted that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed worked with Yousef in the mid-1990s, then later took Yousef's plan for kamikaze airstrikes on the U.S. to Osama bin Laden for refinement and funding.
The fact that the mastermind of 9/11 borrowed his plans from the mastermind of the '93 WTC bombing is the best evidence yet that the two plots were linked.
But how clear is Iraq's involvement in the 1993 attacks? Some say evidence of Baghdad's sponsorship is compelling.
Beyond Ramzi Yousef's Iraqi passport and Abdul Rahman Yasin's subsidy from Saddam, terrorist expert Laurie Mylroie has insisted for years that Iraq helped Yousef execute his plan. She says that Jim Fox, the FBI's New York bureau chief in 1993, who headed up the WTC bombing probe, was thoroughly convinced of a connection.
After pursuing possible Iraqi links, Fox was yanked from the investigation and he died a few years later. But two months after the bombing he told ABC News he thought the attack might have been revenge for the first Gulf war against Iraq.
"During the Gulf war, we took very seriously the threat to the United States from terrorist elements," Fox told ABC's Ted Koppel. "In fact, we tripled our commitment, agent commitment, to terrorist matters during the Gulf war and thereafter. Some of the individuals involved in this case [the '93 attack] came to our attention, as you can imagine."
Former CIA Director James Woolsey also finds evidence tying Iraq to the '93 attack persuasive.
So does conservative commentator George Will, who told MSNBC's Chris Matthews last year, "People are convinced that the Iraqi fingerprints were all over the first attack on the World Trade Center."
"Do you believe that?" asked Matthews.
"I think the evidence is quite compelling," replied Will.
Incredulous at the response, Matthews repeated, "Do you believe that Iraq had something to do with blowing up the World Trade Center in 1993?"
Will answered simply, "I do."
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Al-Qaeda
Saddam Hussein/Iraq
Editor's note:
Gerald Posner reveals how Bill Clinton could have prevented 9/11 - Click here for details!
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