Bush: Al Qaeda Wanted to Hit West Coast

Feb. 9, 2006 — -- President Bush outlined details of a thwarted terror plot to attack the tallest building on the West Coast, saying the plot shows the United States faces a threat from a determined enemy and that global cooperation is needed to stop it.

In remarks at the National Guard Memorial Building, the president gave details on the disruption of a plot by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to have terrorist operatives hijack a commercial airplane using shoe bombs to breach the cockpit door and fly the plane into the tallest building on the West Coast, the Library Tower in Los Angeles.

Bush said Mohammed sought out young men from Southeast Asia who may have aroused less suspicion by U.S. authorities and enlisted a terrorist leader named Hambali to head the plan. But the president said the plot was derailed in early 2002 when a Southeast Asia nation that he did not identify arrested a key al Qaeda operative, which led to the capture of the ringleaders and operatives who were recruited for the plot.

White House Homeland Security adviser Fran Townsend said on a conference call with reporters that the agency does not know when the plot was scheduled for but that Mohammed began to initiate it in October 2001.

Between then and February 2002, when the lead operative was arrested, the terrorists involved traveled to Afghanistan and met with Osama bin Laden. Townsend would not release the names of these terrorists or say if they met with bin Laden after U.S. forces were in Afghanistan.

No Attacks Since 9/11

Bush reiterated the administration's assertion that just because there hasn't been an attack in the United States since 9/11, it does not mean the threat has disappeared.

"America remains at risk, so we must remain vigilant," the president said this morning. "We'll stay on the offensive. We will hunt down the terrorists. And we will never rest until this threat to the American people is removed."

This is a common refrain of Vice President Dick Cheney, who said as recently as Tuesday on PBS that it is not an accident that the United States has not been hit with a terrorist attack in four years. "Some people think it's just dumb luck," Cheney said. "No, it's not."

The vice president speaks tonight at the Conservative Political Action Conference dinner and will take on critics who have challenged Bush on national and economic security.

To show the global cooperation in the war on terrorism, Bush highlighted the efforts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. He said:

"Afghan forces are risking their lives to fight our common enemy. The coalition forces are proud to serve along with such courageous and bold and determined allies."

"Today Pakistan forces are risking their lives in the hunt for al Qaeda. President Musharraf has faced several attempts on his life since his courageous decision to join the war on terror."

Since the Riyadh bombings in May 2003, the Saudi government has recognized that it is a prime target of the terrorists. And in the past two-and-a-half years, Saudi forces have killed or captured nearly all the terrorists on their most-wanted list. They've reduced the flow of money to terror groups and arrested hundreds of radical fighters bound for Iraq.

On Oct. 6, in a speech to the National Endowment for Democracy, Bush said that the United States and its partners had disrupted at least 10 serious al Qaeda plots since Sept. 11, including three plots to attack inside the United States and five more efforts to case targets in the country or infiltrate operatives.

The White House was reluctant to provide much more detail that day, and spokesman Scott McClellan said that the plots that are known publicly are the capture of Jose Padilla, the "dirty bomb" case, and Iyman Faris, who allegedly plotted to blow up a New York bridge.

Acknowledging 'American Mistakes'

Bush also commented on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Speaking about the terrorists, the president said they spread "blatant lies about America" to "feed public resentment" across the Muslim world.

But he acknowledged that American mistakes have given them more ammunition in that effort.

"Other times it is American mistakes, like the abuses of Abu Ghraib, that give them ammunition in their campaign to foment anti-Western sentiment and rally Muslims who support their dark ideology," he said.

These remarks follow the president's comments in a recent interview with CBS, where he said the pictures from Abu Ghraib gave the enemy "an incredible propaganda tool."