] In Washington, the national security agency used Echelon,
] an intelligence system coordinated by the United States
] but involving several of its allies, including the UK, to
] monitor more than 10 mobile phones used by Mohammed.

There are also some other interesting links at the bottom of the page, which trace connections between the hijackers and other members of Al Qaeda.

Echelon Helped Capture 9/11 Planner

] Finally, there was a knock on his hotel door. "I'm the
] mystery caller," the visitor said, instructing Fouda to
] take a cab to yet another location, where he was
] blindfolded and driven to another spot in Karachi. When
] the blindfold was removed, he recognized Binalshibh and a
] high-ranking associate, Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Fouda
] stayed with them for two days, eating catered rice
] dishes, kebabs and salads.

This is an account from last September about how Fouda, the Al Jazeera reporter, interviewed Binalshibh and Mohammed in Pakistan last year. Binalshibh was arrested shortly thereafter, and now we have Mohammed too.

Al Jazeera Reporter's Account of Interview with Binalshibh and Khalid Sheik Mohammed

] Government officials said Abdel-Rahman ran a training
] camp in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11 attacks
] and also had a role in operational planning.
] He is considered a senior al-Qaida operative, one of
] several operations chiefs who rank one tier below
] Mohammed in the al-Qaida hierarchy. He is known as
] Asadullah, "the Lion of God."

This caught my eye, because of the "lion" reference in that MEMRI threat about an attack within 10 days, "and the lions have taken their positions". Might just be coincidence though...

Authorities Cite 3 Major Terror Catches

] The 1988 birth of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization
] is carefully chronicled in a cache of remarkable
] documents seized last year during a raid on the Bosnian
] offices of an Illinois-based charity that covertly raised
] funds for the terrorist group. A description of the
] seized material is contained in a 106-page proffer
] unsealed this month by federal prosecutors in Chicago.

It's not quite clear when "this month" is, but the information is still fascinating. Some of it seems to be the same as the translated Al Qaeda manual that's on the DOJ and Disaster Center websites (http://www.memestreams.net/thread/bid3679/ ), but that version only included chapters 1-9, 11, 12, and 18.

This Smoking Gun Site version includes the missing chapters, including one which has detailed techniques on codes and ciphers, including how to use invisible ink, as well as using a grid system to encipher messages in Arabic.

Nothing about hiding messages in pr0n though! ;)

The Smoking Gun: Al Qaeda

A purported chapter from an Al Qaeda training manual, describing Arabic codes, ciphers, and methods of secret writing such as invisible ink.

Smoking Gun Website - Al Qaeda Codes

] There were lots and lots of terrorist attempts that most
] Americans don’t know about that were thwarted. An attempt
] to blow the Holland Tunnel and an attempt to blow up the
] Lincoln Tunnel. An attempt on the life of the Pope. An
] attempt to blow up LAX airport. Two attempts over the
] Millennium weekend to plant bombs in cities in the Northeast
] and the Northwest of the United States.

This is a transcript of ex-President Clinton's appearance on the David Letterman show on September 11th, 2002. Among other things, Clinton spoke about terrorist activities and investigations during his own presidency. I found it interesting to hear his personal perspective on things, and to hear about some of the terrorist plots that never made the news, since they were stopped *before* they happened.

Clinton on Late Show - 9/11/2002

A BBC story about the Al-Jazeera report on how the Al Qaeda terrorists communicated.

] "Ramzi Binalshibh posed in e-mails as Atta's girlfriend
] in Germany when the two communicated through the internet"

BBC NEWS | Al-Qaeda Communication

A CNN article about the Al-Jazeera report on Al Qaeda codenames:

] "About three weeks before September 11, targets were
] assigned to four teams, with three of them bearing a code
] name: The U.S. Capitol was called "The Faculty of Law;"
] the Pentagon became "The Faculty of Fine Arts;" and the
] North Tower of the World Trade Center was code-named by
] Atta as "The Faculty of Town Planning."
]
] One of the terrorists, Abu Abdul Rahman, pretended to
] send a love message via an Internet chat room to his
] German girlfriend, who was actually Binalshibh. It
] contained more code for the attacks:
]
] "The first semester commences in three weeks. Two high
] schools and two universities. ... This summer will surely
] be hot ...19 [the eventual number of hijackers]
] certificates for private education and four exams.
] Regards to the professor. Goodbye."

Al-Jazeera Accounts of 9/11 Planning

] "Tape C189 shot in a clean office, believed by coalition
] intelligence sources, who looked at this tape, to have
] been al Qaeda's secure Afghan communications room. The
] man using the two-way radio tells the person at the other
] end to look for a message on his computer and decode it."

This snippet from an August 2002 CNN report is one of the *very* few references I've ever found about Al Qaeda using any type of computerized cryptography. I would dearly love to find out what type of encryption was being referred to in this tape. PGP? ROT-13 (or an Arabic equivalent?). Anyone got a source they can tap to get more details?

Al Qaeda Encryption Reference

This site has a series of fascinating graphics showing the links within and between certain terrorist cells. It's from a study that was done about the social networks between the Al Qaeda terrorists. Very intriguing stuff, and I recommend a look.

Uncloaking Terrorist Networks