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Plot to attack U.S. Consulate uncoveredCapture of Al Qaeda cell leads to warning
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After the capture of an alleged al Qaeda cell in Karachi, Pakistan, including the man believed to have masterminded the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole, the U.S. warned Friday that the terrorist network is in the final stages of planning an aerial suicide attack against the U.S. Consulate in Karachi. A senior counterterrorism official said that the intelligence referred to in the advisory was gathered from one of the six suspected al Qaeda members arrested Tuesday by Pakistani authorities. One of those, Whalid ba Attash, is believed to have masterminded the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, and to have played a role in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya and the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Government sources said Friday that Attash was in U.S. custody and being interrogated in an undisclosed location. Highly placed Pakistani government intelligence sources said Attash and the five other suspects were planning to attack the U.S. Consulate and other government buildings in Karachi. The Department of Homeland Security, in an advisory to the aviation community Friday, cited "recent reliable reports" of an al Qaeda attempt on the consulate in Pakistan. According to a source who read the advisory, it says the plan is similar to a previous al Qaeda plot to fly an aircraft laden with explosives into a U.S. warship in the Persian Gulf, and "demonstrates al Qaeda's continuing fixation with using explosive-laden small aircraft." A DHS spokesman emphasized that there is no specific and credible threat of a planned terrorist attack using general aviation in the United States. The notice encourages the general aviation community to be on the lookout for unknown pilots and clients as well as aircraft with unusual modifications. It also urges them to verify baggage and cargo that is being loaded. The advisory applies to both planes and helicopters.
Sources in Pakistan believe Attash and another member of the suspected al Qaeda cell -- Ali Abed al Aziz -- may also have knowledge about where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is hiding. Aziz, also known as Amer al Baluchi, is a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- the reputed mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks, sources said. Aziz is also a cousin of Ramzi Youssef, who was convicted of a role in the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the sources said. Attash was linked to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing in Kenya by Mohamed al-'Owhali, one of those convicted in the bombing, according to a source familiar with the FBI investigation into the incident. Owhali told the FBI that an al Qaeda operative in Afghanistan named "Khallad" gave him the mission, according to the testimony of an FBI agent at the trial. The source familiar with the investigation told CNN in 2001 that the "Khallad" referred to was Attash. The source also said security videotape in Malaysia showed Attash meeting with suspected September 11 hijackers Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hamzi at a Kuala Lumpur hotel in 2001. The Attash family is a prominent Saudi family, the source said. During a speech Thursday evening, President Bush said half of al Qaeda's senior operatives have been captured or killed. FBI Director Robert Mueller told CNN that federal agents are continuing to seek out people who are recruiting for al Qaeda inside the United States. In an interview scheduled to air Saturday on CNN's "The Novak Zone," Mueller said, "There are areas in which there are individuals who are seeking others, recruiting others to go for training outside the United States with the expectation that training might provide that backdrop for participation in a terrorist act. ... We have open investigations and we are pursuing them, hard." CNN Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve, Justice Department Correspondent Kelli Arena and National Security Correspondent David Ensor contributed to this report
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(The plan) demonstrates al Qaeda's continuing fixation with using explosive-laden small aircraft.
