After more than a year's meticulous investigation and obtaining evidences from various fields, American "9.11" Independent Investigation Committee member and the Committee published a tentative investigation report on June 16 and June 17 respectively, disclosing a great many rarely known inside stories about the event.

Embarrassment--Saddam did not take part in the scheming

The most embarrassing finding to Bush is that Saddam had nothing to do with the "9.11" event. The report points out definitely: "no credible evidence" showed that the former Iraqi regime ever had any collaborative relationship with the "Al-Qaeda". It also indicates that Saddam once rejected the request for collaboration brought forward by the "Al-Qaeda" side.

In 1994, Laden held a closed-door session with a senior Iraqi intelligence official at some place in Sudan. He proposed to Iraqi side to establish terrorist training camps in Iraq, and assist the "Al-Qaeda" to obtain weaponry. However, Saddam obviously did not make any response to Laden's request. The report states that certain connections between "Al-Qaeda" and Iraq could not prove that the two sides had any collaborative relations.

Rejoicing--The scale of attack was greatly reduced

The most rejoicing finding to the Americans is, although the scale of "9.11" attack was unprecedented in history, it could only be taken as a "reduced" version as compared to what was initially schemed.

The report states: the conspiracy of this attack and the chieftain of "Al-Qaeda" Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who had already been arrested, originally planned to send 26 people to hijack 10 planes and respectively crash them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, the White House or the U.S. Capitol, the FBI and CIA headquarters, as well as nuclear plants and the tallest buildings in California and Washington D.C. Mohammed planned to pilot one of the planes himself, and after killing all of the adult men on board first, land it at a U.S. airport, and make a statement "denouncing the United States policies in the Middle East, and finally free the women and children".

The report also states, "Al-Qaeda" once planned to capture a missile launching installation, and force Russian scientists to launch a nuclear missile toward the USA; carry out mustard gas or cyanide attack in the Jew-populated area in Iran; and discharge toxic gas into the air-conditioning system of the target buildings. "Al-Qaeda" had always wanted to disseminate radioactive substance to the attack targets by way of traditional explosion device; they had also thought of using ordinary chemical material to launch chemical attack, for instance, attack one local chemical plant or a ship transporting chemical materials and so on; they even considered using anthrax. But these plots were all given up eventually.

The investigation report also discloses that the target of attack was not confined only to the U.S. territory in the initial plot. It also planned in 1999 to hijack many commercial airplanes and crash them into the U.S. targets in Japan, Korea and Singapore. "But in April or May, 2000, Bin Laden decided to cancel the hijack plot targeting at southeast Asia because he believed it would be too difficult to synchronize the operations on opposite sides of the globe."

Indifference--Slow reaction hindered military operations

The most intolerable finding to the U.S. government is that the reaction of the U.S. high-ranking was extremely slow. The sound recording on the day "9.11" made public for the first time by the Investigation Committee indicated that, faced with the terrorist attack, American Air Control and Air Defense departments were in chaos for more than an hour, missing the opportunity to prevent the "9.11" event from happening, or otherwise the fighter planes would have been scrambled to intercept the hijacked planes.

The first airplane was hijacked soon after it took off at 08:00 AM. In the recording, one hijacker said to the passengers on board: "Stay still, then you'll be fine. We are going back to the airport!" These words were information received the earliest by the Air Controllers indicating that the airplane had been hijacked. Boston Air Control Center, Federal Aviation Administration, spent a great deal of time contacting the military, and finally got through to the US air defense in the northeast at 08:37: "One of our airplanes was hijacked! We need you to send some F-16 Fighter Planes or other fighter planes for help!" The official who answered the phone asked in a skeptical tone: "Is it true, or just a manoeuvre?" At 08:46, some F-15 Fighter Planes lifted from Otis Air Base for interception, however, 40 seconds later, that airplane crashed into the north building of the World Trade Center.

The third hijacked airplane was Flight 77 of American Airlines. It took off from Dulles International Airport near Washington at 8:20 AM. At 8:45, it suddenly changed the original course and flied back to Washington. At 9:24, some fighter planes at Langley Air Force Base, after receiving instructions, scrambled to carry out the interception. Nevertheless, because of the unclear situation, these fighter planes did not fly northward to Washington, but eastward to the midair of the Atlantic instead.

Anxiety--"Al-Qaeda" is still intriguing attacks

The Investigation Committee also discloses other rarely known details, for example, the outlay of "Al-Qaeda" mainly came from donations of various circles, rather than from "business investment or Laden's own property" which was universally agreed in the past; Omar, the top leader of Taliban once objected to attack USA; it was totally accidental for the terrorist attack to take place on Sep. 11, 2001, for Laden once planned to launch the attack in 2000 after Israeli Prime Minister Sharon visited the Temple Mount tunnel, which preceded a Palestinian intifada, or on May 12, 2001, the seven-month anniversary of the US "Cole" being attacked, or in June or July, when Sharon was due to visit the White House.

The report finally reveals a piece of information which will send worry into the hearts of all the Americans: at present, the "Al-Qaeda" organization is still preparing to launch large-scale bio-terrorist, chemical or "body" attacks to American territory.

By People's Daily Online