Kuala Lumpur Al Qaeda Meeting
Philippines investigator Colonel Rodolfo Mendoza slowly pulls on his cigarette and coolly blows the smoke thru his nose out into the musty air of the interview room….as recently arrested Abdul Hakim Murad began producing details of a grand, extensive terrorist network that would come to shock even those in the American Intelligence community for years to come. And so Colonel Mendoza began constructing a chart of Islamic terrorist groups that Murad claims were involved in the Bojinka Plot (a plot that involved the bombing of 12 airplanes, assassination of Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II). he sent the chart to U.S. Investigators, but whether they acted appropriately with the information was not readily seen. But as years passed, it seemed not only were those named by Murad growing exponentially, but they began more “abrasive” in their disregard for human life.
As the FBI and CIA began tracking a new and growing group (Al Qaeda) on orders from Bill Clinton, they began noticing the name…Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi financier who participated in the Afghan-Soviet War in 1979. On January 5, 2000…a former Malaysian Army captain and businessman, Yazid Sufat, rented a room in Kuala Lumpur.,Malaysia. During the hours and days numerous high profile terrorist members began assembling here. Malaysian authorities videotaped the meeting, but no sound recordings were made, as the CIA stood in the shadows. The attendance consisted of Arab veterans of the Soviet–Afghan War, including Riddun Isamuddin (Hambali), Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Nawaf al-Hazmi, Khalid al-Mihdhar, and Tawfiq bin Attash as well as Fauzi Hasbi (Jammat Islamiyya).
The CIA had gotten pictures taken by Malaysian authorities across the street in a hotel room of their own. But as the CIA began tracking some of the members of this meeting, they “lose” track of one….Nawaf al-Hazmi. However, CIA agents break into Khalid al- Mihdhar’s Dubai hotel room and photocopy the passport there. Either way, the information is immediately faxed to Alec Station, the CIA’s bin Laden unit. The CIA not only learns his full name, but also discovers the vital fact that he has a multiple entry visa to the US that is valid from April 1999 to April 2000. But even though the CIA now knows about this US visa which indicates he plans to go to New York City, they do not place him on a terror watch list and they fail to tell the FBI about the visa.
What would come immediately after this important meeting would have alterations in the human consciousness as well as the external world that would reverberate for decades to come
