FBI believe White House was 9/11 target
FBI agents interrogating captured al Qaida operatives now suspect there was a plan to hijack a fifth jet on September 11 to attack the White House, it was reported today.
Debriefings with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the terror plot, and its suspected chief financier, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, have led to the new theory.
“Many, many people are saying many interesting things,” a senior FBI official told USA Today.
The interviews are being conducted as part of the probe into alleged 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui.
Court papers from defence lawyers and a US district judge show that prosecutors in the case are investigating evidence that the French Moroccan was part of a plot to hijack a fifth plane targeting the White House.
But the FBI official said it was hard to verify the details.
“You have contradictory information coming from people you think would know, so you start to think that somebody’s shading it.”
Some of the details come from briefings with al-Qaida suspect Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, who allegedly sent money to Moussaoui and some of the 19 suicide hijackers.
Moussaoui has said that Bin al-Shibh confessed to the fifth jet theory under pressure from the CIA, according to court papers made public last week.
Moussaoui was taking flight lessons in Minnesota when he was arrested on immigration charges three weeks before the September 11 strikes.
He is the only person charged in the US in connection with the terror attacks and faces the death penalty if convicted.
The 34-year-old, who formerly lived in Brixton, south London, has admitted being a member of al-Qaida but always denied any involvement in the attacks.
He has said that Bin al-Shibh, who was captured last September in Pakistan, can verify his story.
The case may be moved to a military tribunal after a deadlock between the defence and prosecution over whether Moussaoui should be allowed to see classified US government documents.
