WASHINGTON -- The suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has told interrogators that Osama bin Laden himself proposed the targets to chief hijacker Mohamed Atta, U.S. counterterrorism officials said yesterday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they don’t know if Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is telling the truth.
Mohammed, who was captured March 1 in Pakistan, also said bin Laden proposed several other targets to Atta: the U.S. Capitol, the White House, the Israeli Embassy in Washington and the Sears Tower in Chicago, the officials said.
Al-Qaida operatives, including some prisoners, have previously said that either the Capitol or the White House was the target of the fourth hijacked plane on Sept. 11. It crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers attacked the hijackers.
Mohammed also said senior al-Qaida operatives proposed other attacks to bin Laden in early 2001, including strikes at bridges, gas stations and nuclear-power plants in the United States. Bin Laden did not approve those operations because they would take too long to prepare, officials said.
Previously, officials had little evidence bin Laden played a personal role in planning the attacks.