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U.S.: Kuwaiti man was key player in 9/11

Man linked to al Qaeda, 1995 plot

These photos of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed appear on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists page.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Kuwaiti man, wanted for his involvement in a 1995 plot to bomb commercial airliners flying to the United States from Southeast Asia, was a top al Qaeda official and a key player in the September 11 attacks, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The new information -- provided by an al Qaeda leader in U.S. custody -- is the latest indication that al Qaeda officials, operating out of the Philippines, may have prepared the blueprint in the early- to mid-1990s for the plot to hijack commercial airliners and use them as suicide bombs against U.S. targets.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is on a list of the FBI's 22 "most wanted terrorists" issued in October 2001. He had been indicted in 1996 for his alleged involvement in the Manila-based conspiracy to bomb commercial U.S. airliners.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO CNN's Maria Ressa has more on Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a top lieutenant of Osama bin Laden's who authorities say may have played a key role in the September 11 attacks. (June 5) Play video    CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk  1995 PHILIPPINES REPORT: Detailed plans for operatives to hijack American commercial aircraft, gain control of the cockpit and "dive it at the CIA headquarters." Said: "There will be no bomb ... it is simply a suicidal mission." Listed the Pentagon and the World Trade Center as other possible targets, along with commercial towers in San Francisco and Chicago. Information was handed over to FBI in 1995

Pakistani investigators say the man behind that plot -- Ramzi Yousef, convicted architect of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center -- is Mohammed's nephew.

Philippine investigators, in fact, say they recovered documents from Yousef's hideout in 1995 that all but spelled out the September 11 attacks.

"He [generic reference] will board any American commercial aircraft pretending to be an ordinary passenger," the 1995 Philippine report said. "Then he will hijack said aircraft, control its cockpit and dive it at the CIA headquarters. There will be no bomb ... it is simply a suicidal mission."

The Philippine report also listed the Pentagon and the World Trade Center as possible targets, along with commercial towers in San Francisco and Chicago.

Philippine investigators handed their information over to the FBI in 1995, CNN reported a week after the attacks, but it is not clear what happened to their reports after that.

U.S. Congressional committees are holding closed-door hearings this week into lapses in intelligence and communication between the FBI and CIA before September 11.

'He was not the mastermind'

In Washington, a U.S. official told CNN that information from Abu Zubaydah -- a senior al Qaeda official captured in Pakistan and now in U.S. custody -- describes Mohammed as having a prominent role, perhaps equal to Zubaydah's, in Osama bin Laden's organization.

"He was instrumental. He was not the mastermind," as some news agencies characterized him, said the official. Mohammed was "the money guy" of the September attacks and did play a part in the planning, another official said.

U.S. officials said they recognize Zubaydah is likely trying to play up the role of others and downplay his own responsibility. But they say certain information he has given them on the activities of Mohammed has "checked out with" other intelligence information.

Sources affirmed for CNN information that Mohammed is Kuwaiti and is thought to be in the Afghanistan region. The U.S. government has offered a $25 million award for information leading to Mohammed's arrest and conviction.

Some of the Philippine information came from Abdul Hakim Murad, who said he did structural studies for Yousef of the World Trade Center.

Murad trained in four U.S. flight schools and was among the first recruited for the hijacking plot. Murad, arrested by Philippine police in 1995, talked about friends training in U.S. flight schools, according to transcripts of his interrogation obtained by CNN.

U.S. law enforcement officials have said the FBI checked four flight schools named in the Philippine report but found no evidence of any further terrorist plans.

Authorities have cited another connection between the Philippine plot and September 11. The name of Riduan Isamuddin, an Indonesian cleric and Afghan war veteran better known as Hambali, appeared on a document from the board of directors of the Malaysian company that police say funded Yousef's cell in the Philippines.

Intelligence officials in the region allege Hambali is al Qaeda's main operator in Southeast Asia and may have helped plan the September 11 attacks.

In January 2000, intelligence sources said Hambali was videotaped in Malaysia meeting with two of the September 11 hijackers -- Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi.

-- CNN Manila Bureau Chief Maria Ressa and Correspondents David Ensor and Kelli Arena contributed to this report.