Deceased Al-Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden had reportedly planned a second attack against the US a weeks after the deadly September 11, 2001, which is said to be the largest ever act of terrorism ever committed on a foreign soil, that killed nearly 3,000 people.
According to CBS News, papers obtained and declassified by US Navy SEALs, the team that hunt Laden down in 2011, after his assassination, has recently revealed how the then Al-Qaeda leader encouraged the use of private jets, rather than passenger plans, to carry out a follow-up attack after 9/11.
The papers obtained by a CBS News reporter also revealed how bin Laden encouraged his followers to cut 12 metres from US train tracks to cause a spectacular derailment he hoped would kill hundreds.
Author and Islamic scholar Nelly Lahoud, who has spent much of her career researching Al-Qaeda, examined thousands of pages of Osama bin Laden’s personal letters and notes confiscated 11 years ago by a team of two dozen Navy SEALs who were in Pakistan to capture or kill the Laden.
Speaking during a 60-minute interview aired on CBS, Lahoud explained how al-Qaeda did not anticipate that the US would go to war following the 9/11 attacks.
Lahoud said that his letters showed that the Laden was surprised by how Americans reacted to September 11 disaster. According to the declassified papers, she informed Laden thought that the American people would take to the streets to protest and would pressure the US government to withdraw from the Muslim majority state.
“This was a huge miscalculation on Osama bin Laden’s part,” Lahoud stated.
Speaking to the media outlet, Lahoud informed that according to his personal letters to his organization, Osama bin Laden did not communicate with his Al-Qaeda associates for three years since 9/11, however, in 2004, he reconnected with the terrorist group, offering members his new plan to attack the United States.
Reading a chilling letter from Osama bin Laden to the head of al-Qaeda’s international terror unit, Lahoud revealed that for another attack on the US, he proposed the idea of operating through a chartered plane instead of a passenger. He further wrote that if it is too difficult to attack using a plane, then they should target US railways.
Lahoud informed that bin Laden, who had a degree in civil engineering, explained exactly how to attack the US which would lead to massive casualties.
“He wanted to have 12 metres of steel rail removed so that, this way, the train could be derailed. And we find him, explaining the simple toolkit that they could use. You know, he said, ‘You’re – you could use a compressor. You could use a smelting iron tool’,” Lahoud told CBS.
Laden, however, was never able to execute his plan.
The letters also revealed that the mastermind behind 9/11 planned an additional terror attack in 2010, targeting multiple crude oil tankers and major shipping routes in the Middle East and Africa. She further claimed that bin Laden suggested al-Qaeda operatives could integrate themselves into the port areas by posing as fishermen.
According to the letter, he instructed his team on where to buy specific boats to evade radar and detailed how the vessels should be used to transport explosives. Lahoud alleged that bin Laden “really wanted to do to the American economy”.
According to US intelligence agencies, most al-Qaeda terrorist activity is being carried out by smaller al-Qaeda offshoots. Bin Laden’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, now heads al-Qaeda.
According to CBS, this month, he appeared in a new video denouncing the enemies of Islam.