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Asian allies foiled Al-Qaeda attack: US
US revealed four Asian nations helped it foil a plot to crash a hijacked plane into Los Angeles' tallest skyscraper.
The United States has revealed that four Asian nations had helped the country foil an Al-Qaeda plot to crash a hijacked plane into Los Angeles' tallest skyscraper.
The White House said that they were two South Asian and two South East Asian countries, but refused to disclose their names saying "our partners want to have it kept a secret".
The revelation by White House Counter-Terrorism adviser Frances Townsend came soon after President George W Bush in his speech at National Guards Memorial Building said that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the operational mastermind of the September 11 attacks, was the brain behind the plot.
Providing details about the plot, Bush said that the Al-Qaeda had planned to use bombs hidden in shoes to blow up the cockpit door of a plane, hijack it and then slam it into the US Bank Tower, popularly known as Library Tower, in Los Angeles.
"It took the combined efforts of several countries to break up this plot. By working together we stopped a catastrophic attack on our homeland," he said.
"Rather than use Arab hijackers as he had on 9/11, Mohammad sought out young men from Southeast Asia whom he believed would not arouse as much suspicion."
"Once the operatives were recruited, they met Osama bin Laden, and then began preparations for the West Coast attack," Bush said.
He added that the September 11 attacks were originally planned to include both the east and west coasts.
"It was Osama bin Laden who decided that they should just focus on the east coast, and that the west coast should be held in abeyance, as a follow-on attack,"
