A terror plot against a Los Angeles, California office tower was thwarted in 2002, according to President George Bush, speaking today to the National Guard Association. More coverage at Yahoo! and the New York Times.
In October 2001, Khalid Sheik Muhammed, the mastermind of the September 11th attacks, had already set in motion a plan to have terrorist operatives hijack an airplane using shoe bombs to breach the cockpit door, and fly the plan into the tallest building on the West Coast.
The intended target is believed to have been the Library Tower.
To avoid arousing suspicion, men were recruited from Southeast Asia. The operatives met with Osama Bin Laden and began preparations for an attack. Their plot was derailed in early 2002, when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key al Qaeda operative. According to reports, subsequent debriefings and other intelligence operations made clear the intended target and how al Qaeda had hoped to execute its plot.
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