PERSPECTIVE: Aborted plotThe Tel Aviv Plot
Recently declassified information from the first-ever interrogation of someone presumed to be a senior al-Qaeda operative captured after 9/11 provides new insights into Osama bin Laden’s plans for a follow-up attack to Sept. 11. Bruce Riedel writes that, specifically, bin Laden was plotting a major attack in Israel. The attack was thwarted at the last minute, but information about it has been classified until now.
Recently declassified information from the first-ever interrogation of someone presumed to be a senior al-Qaeda operative captured after 9/11 provides new insights into Osama bin Laden’s plans for a follow-up attack to Sept. 11. Bruce Riedel writes in Lawfare that, specifically, bin Laden was plotting a major attack in Israel. The attack was thwarted at the last minute, but information about it has been classified until now.
Reidel adds:
Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, also known as Abu Zubaydah, was captured in Pakistan in March 2002. Abu Zubaydah is a Palestinian born in Saudi Arabia who was allegedly involved in preparing the travel and documentation of many al-Qaeda operatives. Not technically a member of the group, he had access to much information about its planning.
In the opening minute of the first interrogation meeting after his capture, Abu Zubaydah blurted out that he was working on a plot to conduct simultaneous attacks on multiple dance clubs in Tel Aviv with the goal of killing hundreds of Israelis. It was all news to the U.S. intelligence community.
The lead interrogator was FBI agent Ali Soufan, a Lebanese American who speaks fluent Arabic. He wrote about the interrogation in his book The Black Banners: How Torture Derailed the War on Terror After 9/11. Soufan believes Abu Zubaydah may have been under the misimpression that Soufan was from the Mossad because of his native fluency in Arabic. In the book, the target country of the attack plan is concealed at the request of the national security pre-publication review process. It is identified only as a country “closely allied with the United States.”
It is now clear that country is Israel. According to Abu Zubaydah, the operation was very much bin Laden’s project, which he was very excited about.
The intelligence was shared immediately with the Israelis, who wrapped up the team in the territories who were intended to pull it off. Reidel notes that Abu Zubaydah may have been under the impression that they had already been arrested before his capture and had outed him to the CIA.
