The United States warned its allies in the Middle East
of a series of plots linked to Iran and Al Qaida to stage suicide attacks in
such countries as Egypt, Israel and Turkey.
U.S. officials said information received over the last five years
asserted that Islamic insurgents connected to Al Qaida and Iran and Iraq
were planning attacks on allies as well as against U.S. military
installations in the Persian Gulf. The officials said the CIA determined
that many of the alerts represented disinformation by Al Qaida.
The alerts of the Middle East attacks were reported during a hearing on
Wednesday by the Joint Senate-House Select Intelligence Committee. The
panel, chaired by Sen. Donald Graham and Rep. Porter Goss, has launched an
investigation of the Al Qaida suicide attacks on New York and Washington
more than a year ago.
Eleanor Hill, director of the Joint Inquiry Committee, said many of the
alerts were reported from 1996 through 1998. She said Iran was behind one
plot to stage an attack that was similar to the Al Qaida destruction of the
World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
"In October 1996, the intelligence community obtained information
regarding an Iranian plot to hijack a Japanese plane over Israel and crash
it into Tel Aviv," Ms. Hill said. "An individual would board the plane in
the Far East. During the flight he would commandeer the aircraft, order it
to fly over Tel Aviv, and then crash the plane into the city."
Miss Hill did not say whether the CIA determined that the attack was
foiled or Iran shelved the plan. An Al Qaida plot to hijack five passenger
airliners in East Asia was foiled in 1995.
The joint committee was also told that in November 1998, U.S.
intelligence obtained information that an Islamic insurgency group based in
Turkey planned to launch a suicide attack. Ms. Hill said the insurgents,
with the help of Al Qaida, intended to crash an airplane packed with
explosives into a crowd full of Turkish leaders and officials who would be
attending a government ceremony.
Three months later, in February 1999, U.S. intelligence obtained
information that Iraq had formed a suicide pilot unit for attacks against
British and U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf. Ms. Hill said the CIA
determined that this was "highly
unlikely, and probably disinformation."
Ms. Hill said that in March 1999, the intelligence community obtained
information that Al Qaida would send a U.S. national to attack Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak. She said the attacker would fly a hang glider into
the presidential palace and detonate a bomb he would be carrying.
That plot was abandoned, Ms. Hill said. "The individual who received
hang glider training in the United States brought the hang glider back to
Afghanistan," she said.
The committee was told that the CIA and FBI became concerned in 1997
over the possibility that Al Qaida or an aligned group would use an unmanned
air vehicle for an attack. One unidentified group had already purchased a
UAV, Ms. Hill said.
