If al Quaida Had Their Way, The Skies Would Not Be Safe

[Annie]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/06/us_reveals_thre.html

Three Foiled Hijack Plots Revealed in U.S. Document

June 21, 2006 9:12 AM

Brian Ross and Christopher Isham Report:

Airplane_report_nrAl Qaeda terrorists were planning to use cameras to disguise bombs and flash attachments as stun guns in a disrupted hijack plot that targeted the U.S. east coast, Britain, Italy and Australia, U.S. officials say.

The plot was one of three previously unknown al Qaeda hijack plots disrupted before they could be carried out, according to a Department of Homeland Security report obtained by ABC News.

The report, a strategic assessment on U.S. aviation, says despite security improvements, "DHS continues to receive information on terrorist threats to the U.S. aviation industry and to the Western aviation industry worldwide."

The previously secret plots include one in which "Al-Qa'ida planned to hijack flights departing London's Heathrow Airport and crash them into the airport and a skyscraper in the Canary Wharf financial district of London."

The plot using cameras and flash attachments was foiled in the summer of 2003, according to the report.

Homeland Security officials say it is an example of al Qaeda adapting "to increased aviation security by shifting planned suicide hijackings from domestic carriers to international flights…to take advantage of perceived less effective security screening at some foreign airports."

The officials says al Qaeda's "ingenuity was evident" in its attempts to convert camera equipment and other non-threatening items into weapons that could be smuggled onto a plane. It warns such items could be used to bring down an aircraft or "to gain access to an airliner flight deck."

The third previously secret al Qaeda plot revealed in the document involved a May 2003 al Qaeda plan to fly "an explosive-laden general aviation aircraft into the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan."

The report concludes that there have been nine similar plots since September 2001 "demonstrating a continued commitment to attack aviation-related targets."

The report says, "There is no recent information to suggest near-term operational planning" for an aviation attack within the United States.

June 21, 2006 i