New York terror attack: how did the idea of hijacking the plane come about?

New York terror attack: how was the idea of hijacking the plane born?

Osama bin Laden lived in Afghanistan at the time of the terror attack. On the territory of the state controlled by the Taliban, he established a military training camp and trained terrorists. His hiding places were among the mountains. Because he did not use electronic devices, finding his location was not easy. However, MI6, one of the world's most powerful intelligence agencies, managed to plant its agent close to bin Laden. More precisely, they won over one of the people close to the Al-Qaeda leader. His name was Ayman Dean. Like bin Laden, he was a Saudi.

Ayman had once fought in Bosnia and had personally sworn allegiance to bin Laden. He was one of the group's veteran members and one of the main specialists in making explosives. In 1998, hundreds of civilians were killed as a result of Al-Qaeda's bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. After these events, Ayman realized that bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were not participating in any "holy war," but were actually engaged entirely in terror. Believing the deaths of women, children, and innocent people to be contrary to Islam, Ayman decided to leave the group.

When he left Afghanistan and went to Qatar, the local intelligence service detained him and handed him over to Britain. The British offered Ayman to become a double agent, that is, an informant. Having agreed, Ayman returned to Afghanistan and continued to work without revealing that he was an agent. Since he could not use electronic devices, he would occasionally travel to Pakistan under the pretext of group business or his health and pass information to MI6 agents there.

It is said that the terror attack in the New York subway was prevented precisely based on the information he provided. Even after the September 11 terror attacks, Ayman Dean continued his activities within the group. However, in 2006, after the Americans disclosed secret information he had uncovered, Ayman's exposure became inevitable. Britain quickly evacuated him.

In one of his stories, Ayman Dean shared an interesting incident related to the New York terror attack. One of the group members told Ayman about a dream in which he rode a large green bird shaped like an airplane and crashed into a tall tower, which was his target, and asked him for its interpretation. As a bomb specialist, how else would he interpret it, he said, you will probably find death in distant lands.

This conversation was overheard by Abu Hafs al-Masri, one of the leaders of Al-Qaeda's military wing, whom many know as Mohammed Atef. Atef, who had once worked in the Egyptian police, asked the young man if anyone had spoken to him about our plans. The young man said no.

The perceptive former policeman took him to Osama bin Laden and asked him to tell what he had seen in his dream. After he told it, bin Laden said, "then we will send you, hopefully your dream will come true." The young man did not understand the leader's words, but later the whole world would hear about it. This was a member of the group of terrorists who hijacked the plane flying on American Airlines Flight 11 and crashed it into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Ayman Dean witnessed all of this conversation, but thought it was not necessary to report it to British intelligence officers, thinking it was just a simple dream. In other words, when bin Laden chose the group member who personally participated in the New York terror attack, the British intelligence agent was right there, but could not prevent the attack.

Because these things were not done for orders, money, or other material things as depicted in movies. Everything was decided by feelings, emotions, a sense of resentment, and even plans made in such dreams. It is easy to watch 3-4 movies and say everything happened like this, but it does not even cross many people's minds to think for a moment what thoughts went through those people's heads.

When Ayman Dean was on his way to London to report to British intelligence officers, he saw people gathering on the city streets and watching television. When he went to look, the twin buildings in New York were in flames. It was then that Ayman realized that this was the target from that young man's dream.

As those close to him in Al-Qaeda recall, bin Laden was neither a scholar nor a religious cleric. Jihadists like Ayman al-Zawahiri simply tried to use his charisma and powerful speech. This Egyptian man became one of bin Laden's closest associates and tried to influence him with his ideas. According to group representatives, it was Zawahiri who repeatedly told bin Laden that they needed to hijack and blow up long-distance planes in America, and that because they flew with more fuel, the explosion would be larger. Later, having obtained the leader's consent, Zawahiri was involved in training the group members participating in the attack to pilot planes and financing them. Zawahiri led the group after bin Laden. The Americans killed him on July 31, 2022, in a drone strike in Kabul.

Another organizer of the terror attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is still alive, and many movies have been made about him. Recently, the trial of this terrorist, who is being held in Guantanamo prison, was postponed once again. Khalid proposed a very extreme plan to bin Laden. According to it, the terrorists were to hijack ten planes at once, and the aircraft were to crash into the Pentagon, CIA, FBI buildings, the World Trade Center, and even a nuclear power plant.

Khalid aimed to fly on the tenth plane himself, kill all the men on board, hold a press conference at a US airport with the participation of journalists, and express their grievances to America. However, bin Laden said this would be too big of an operation and impossible to manage, and settled on the option of hijacking 4 planes.