AL-QAEDA 'PLOT TO CRASH JET INTO CANARY WHARF'.Byline: By RYAN PARRY, US Correspondent AL-QAEDA did plan to hijack and crash planes into Canary Wharf and Heathrow airport, US intelligence reports claim. The security services foiled the plot in summer 2003 but no one was arrested. Reports of an attack on Canary Wharf, home to the Daily Mirror, emerged in late 2004 but details were vague. The plot was uncovered when computer files belonging to a key lieutenant of Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden: see bin Laden, Osama. , right, were seized in Pakistan. Found among the coded messages, all in English, were layouts of Heathrow and Canary Wharf in East London including the heights of office blocks. The report from the US Department of Homeland Security Noun 1. Department of Homeland Security - the federal department that administers all matters relating to homeland security Homeland Security executive department - a federal department in the executive branch of the government of the United States also reveals that terrorists planned to sneak bomb parts on to aircraft inside cameras and convert flash guns into stun weapons. The document, marked unclassified un·clas·si·fied adj. 1. Not placed or included in a class or category: unclassified mail. 2. and dated June 16, 2006 lists nine al-Qaeda attempts to attack airliners - not including the 9/11 atrocity. Britain, the US, Australia and Italy were all targets. It tells of Richard Reid smuggling a shoe bomb on to a plane and attempts to use surface to air missiles to down planes, including one in Kenya. The official document says chillingly that al-Qaeda "likely desires a successful repeat of a 2001 suicide hijacking hijacking Crime of seizing possession or control of a vehicle from another by force or threat of force. Although by the late 20th century hijacking most frequently involved the seizure of an airplane and its forcible diversion to destinations chosen by the air pirates, when against the United States". And it says the terror group may be using lasers to blind pilots - there have been 311 such possible incidents since November 2004. Officials also say al-Qaeda wants to target international flights. Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock said the report was based on three year old flawed intelligence. r.parry@mirror.co.uk CAPTION(S): TARGET: Canary Wharf tower |
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