Slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and a top lieutenant discussed the make-up of a team of militants to attack the United States on this year’s 10th anniversary of 9/11, a report said Thursday.
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed US officials, said the communications were recovered from bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan but that there was no evidence the nascent plot ever went beyond the planning phase. “Bin Laden and his operations chief, Attiyah Abd al-Rahman, swapped views about the composition of the attack team, with bin Laden repeatedly rejecting names that Mr. Rahman suggested,” the report said.
US officials revealed in the days after the May 2 raid that killed bin Laden that notebooks and computer files seized in the Navy SEAL operation showed he was bent on more attacks against US and Western targets. Bin Laden wanted to strike at major US cities, including Los Angeles, and to hit trains as well as airplanes, and mentioned key dates such as America’s July 4 Independence Day celebrations and the upcoming 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, they said.