|
Indictment Says September 11 Hijackers Were in Bangkok
By Kazi Mahmood, IslamOnline Correspondent
JAKARTA, Dec. 13 (IslamOnline) - Two of the hijackers in the deadly September 11 terrorist attacks were in Bangkok before they traveled to the United States to prepare for their mission, court documents filed in Washington revealed Thursday.
The indictment of a French Moroccan man, Zacarias Moussaoui, outlines the movements of the 19 hijackers, Osama bin Laden and others the U.S. government says were directly involved in the attacks on New York and Washington.
U.S. legal authorities said Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, both Saudi citizens, were in Thailand in January last year. They flew from Bangkok to Los Angeles, where they began their fateful, final membership in the hijacking conspiracy.
It is not the first time suspected terrorists involved in the September 11th attacks were said to be in Southeast Asia. The same hijackers were videotaped having conversations with an alleged high-ranking al-Qaeda member in Kuala Lumpur.
Four others were said to be living in, or had visited, Manila before the attacks. They are said to be linked to Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted two years ago for his involvement in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.
It is possible that Southeast Asian countries were used as a base by the alleged terrorists, staging meetings and developing attack plans, sources in Manila said.
On September 11, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Ha boarded American Airlines flight 77, bound from Virginia to Los Angeles. Along with two others, they are believed to have hijacked the plane and crashed it into the Pentagon.
There is no indication, however, which flight brought the two men to the U.S. and how they entered the country before the attacks.
It is the first time a "Bangkok connection" has been mentioned in the investigation. The significance is still unclear, but sources said authorities were trying to determine if Khalid and Nawaf were using Thailand as a "safe haven".
Because of the timing, some Thai and foreign sources are investigating whether the alleged hijackers and other suspected terrorists were using Thailand as a "safe" stopover point because of its open-door tourist policies.
|
