A foiled plot to bomb US-bound air planes in Britain bears a striking resemblance to a murderous plan hatched in the Philippines more than a decade ago and uncovered just days before a visit of late Pope John Paul II in 1995.
The 1995 plot, dubbed "Project Bojinka" or "Oplan Bojinka," would have been the first large-scale terrorist attack against commercial passenger air planes using "liquid bombs."
It targeted 11 US-bound airlines that had stopovers in East and Southeast Asia. It was to have been carried out from Jan. 21 to Jan. 22, 1995.
The plot was planned in Manila starting December 1994 by Ramzi Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and associates Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan Amin Shah.
It was, however, foiled when Murad was arrested in January 1995 after a fire broke out in their rented apartment in downtown Manila, which the three militants had turned into a clandestine bomb factory.
Murad returned to the apartment to retrieve various items left behind, including Yousef's laptop computer and diskettes containing details of Bojinka, but police were already swarming the area and he was caught.
Yousef was arrested in Pakistan one month later, turned over to US custody and was sentenced to life without parole. Shah was caught in Malaysia in December 1995.
According to police, the plan was to use "liquid bombs" made from nitroglycerin to attack the targeted air planes. Digital watches would have been used as timers, 9-volt batteries as power source and light bulb filaments as detonators.
Yousef allegedly tested the plan on Dec. 11, 1994 on a Philippine Airlines flight from Manila to Narita, Japan, with a stopover in the central city of Cebu. He smuggled the nitroglycerin on board by putting it inside a contact lens solution bottle.
After planting the bomb inside the life jacket under a seat of the Boeing 747, Yousef disembarked in Cebu.
A Japanese businessman was killed and 10 other passengers were injured when the bomb exploded inflight. But the plane was able to make an emergency landing in Okinawa.
With the successful test, Yousef planned the attack for 11 flights on US carriers Northwest Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Airlines from various parts of Asia. All flights had a stopover to allow the bombers to disembark after planting the explosives.
The bombers did not need US visas to implement the plot as they only booked through to the stopover destination.
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
RSS