Bin Laden plans for terrorist strikes next month
September 8, 2005 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
Al Qaeda’s plans for a series of spectacular terrorist strikes in October, targeting American interests as well as U.S. allies in Europe and the Middle East and said to be coordinated by Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenant in Iraq – Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — are the subject of a non-public report issued by terrorism experts this week.
The attacks, planned to coincide with the Muslim observance of Ramadan and dubbed the “Great Ramadan Offensive,” are designed to create a “fateful confrontation” with the U.S. and Israeli forces in the Middle East, according to a May 30 letter from Zarqawi to bin Laden. The contents of the letter are referenced in the report written by Yossef Bodansky, the former director of the U.S. Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare.
The Sept. 2 report is accessible only to government officials on the Global Information System (GIS) database. Cybercast News Service obtained the report on the same day as its release. It warns of planned attacks in Western Europe, Russia and perhaps the continental U.S. The specific targets are believed to include airports at Schiphol in the Netherlands and Fiumicino in Italy.
