Operation Bojinka
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The Bojinka plot ( Arabic بجنكة; tagalog Oplan Bojinka) (also: Project Bojinka ) was a sequence of attacks planned by Ramzi Ahmed Yousef (also: Ramsi Jussef) and Chalid Sheikh Mohammed , which should take place in January 1995. Among other things, the plan provided for several airplanes to be blown up, and Pope John Paul II was to be killed in an assassination attempt. It was only by chance that the attacks planned in Manila were prevented by the Philippine authorities. The masterminds of these plans let the findings flow into the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in New York City .
Origin of the term
The name for the planned attacks comes from a later discovered file with the file name “Bojinka”. In addition to a few notes, this file also contained eleven possible flights and their travel routes.
Various sources suspected that the term was taken from Serbo-Croatian slang , in which it means "big explosion". The 9/11 Commission Report indicates that the term has no particular meaning.
Planned assassinations
Plane attacks
planning
The plan was to blow up several planes en route from Asia to the United States. Various sources report that eleven or twelve aircraft were hijacked. For the explosion of one should nitroglycerin existing liquid bomb be used. If carried out successfully, 4,000 people could have been killed.
Preparations
As early as 1994, Ramzi Yousef and Chalid Sheikh Mohammed tested airport security by transporting nitroglycerine, disguised as contact lens fluid, on different flight routes. As a reason for their trip, the men said they would meet women. They always carried condoms with them to support their claims .
To test the effectiveness of his homemade bomb, Ramzi Yousef hid a bomb on Philippine Airlines Flight 434 . It exploded in midair as planned after Ramzi Yousef got off the plane on a layover. A Japanese passenger was killed and ten others injured, but the plane was able to land safely in Japan after the attack . Shah also performed a demolition test in a theater in Manila.
Other goals
- An assassin disguised as a priest was supposed to detonate a bomb near the Pope. He would have had the opportunity to do so on World Youth Day in 1995 when the Pope visited Manila in the Philippines .
- Planes were to be hijacked and directed to the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia .
- Buildings like the US Congress , the White House or the Pentagon were seen as alternative destinations .
Mastermind and assassin
Ramzi Yousef was already involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing . The involved assassin Chalid Sheikh Mohammed is also one of the masterminds of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and probably got the idea to use airplanes as flying bombs.
One of the masterminds who from the world of al-Qaida come, includes Wali Khan Amin Shah . He was one of the people who financed the planned attacks, and he was also responsible for money laundering . He used gifts to induce some women, including his partner, to open bank accounts into which the required money flowed. In order not to arouse suspicion, only small, three-digit amounts were transferred.
Discovery and thwarting
Operation Bojinka failed on January 6, 1995 - six days before the Pope was due to visit the Philippines - after a fire in the apartment where the assassins lived. It was triggered by a chemical reaction when one of the accomplices, Abdul Hakim Murad , brought a previously unknown chemical substance into contact with water. The fire was noticed after local residents noticed a strange smell. The landlord then called the fire department; the police were also called in later.
While the attackers were initially able to flee, material that was used to build bombs was seized. Ramzi Yousef's computer was also searched, which ultimately found the travel routes of possible flights and contact information. Yousef's notes were saved in a file named Bojinka . Abstract:
- SETTING: 9:30 pm to 10:30 pm TIMER: 23HR. BOJINKA: 20: 30-21: 30 NRT Date 5
Investigators found road maps showing the routes of the Pope's motorcade, several copies of the Bible , crucifixes , priestly clothes , twelve false passports, a business card and five different phone numbers of Mohammed Jamal Khalifa , another sponsor of the action. Ramzi Yousef was later arrested in Pakistan .
reception
As a trailblazer for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 , Operation Bojinka was dealt with in documentaries on this subject, for example in The Path to 9/11 - Ways of Terror .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d NY Times: Portrait of 9/11 'Jackal' Emerges as He Awaits Trial
- ↑ a b c d "Operation Bojinka" The Terror Model from 1995 Thomas Frankenfeld, Hamburger Abendblatt, August 11, 2006
- ↑ a b c d e Toronto Star (January 2, 2002): Operation Bojinka's bombshell ( Memento of June 14, 2002 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Time Asia: Asia's Own Osama ( Memento from June 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c cnn.com: Plane terror suspects convicted on all counts ( Memento from July 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ cnn.com: Philippines: US missed 9/11 clues years ago ( Memento from July 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ heaventrust.com: Pope John Paul II
- ^ Historycommons.org: Operation Bojinka
- ↑ a b Homeland Security: Operation Bojinka