FBI investigators have officially concluded that 11 of the 19 terrorists who hijacked the aircraft on Sept. 11 did not know they were on a suicide mission, intelligence sources in London said on Saturday.
Unlike the eight "lead" attackers, who were all trained pilots, they did not leave messages for friends and family indicating they knew their lives were over. None of them had copies of the instructions for prayer and contemplation on the eve of the attacks and for "opening your chest to God" at the moment of immolation, which FBI agents discovered in the luggage of Mohamed Atta, the man believed to be the hijackers' leader, who flew the first plane to destruction in New York.
It is understood the FBI has found evidence suggesting the 11 men expected to take part in "conventional" hijackings -- with the planes flown to distant airports, and the passengers and crew taken hostage while the hijackers presented demands. Items found among the 11 men's possessions suggest they had been preparing themselves for incarceration. One source said: "It looks as if they expected they might be going to prison, not paradise."
The FBI analysis concludes the 11 may have believed the purpose of the hijackings was to free the perpetrators of previous extremist terrorist attacks on the US, such as the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993.
Other clues suggest the purpose for the 11 was to provide muscle to overwhelm the passengers and crew. They had arrived in the US only recently and had not had pilot training.
Atta's final instructions indicate that even the most fanatical fundamentalist had to make considerable psychological preparations before setting off to cause thousands of civilian deaths. Selecting those ready to carry out such a mission would not have been easy. By keeping a majority of the hijackers in the dark as to their real purpose, these problems were avoided, the sources said.
Western intelligence services say the FBI's conclusions help to explain why, despite strong indications that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network was planning a spectacular atrocity, the West remained ignorant about its scale, location and detail. "Of course it is inescapable that this was a terrible intelligence failure," one British government source said. "But the FBI analysis at least puts it into context. The terrorists' security was extraordinarily tight.
Western security chiefs say another suicide hijacking of a passenger aircraft would be far more difficult: assuming their fate to be death, passengers would probably deal swiftly with an attempt. However, sources say they do fear other types of airborne attack, such as with hired executive jets. It is thought al-Qaeda has up to 50 trained pilots who could mount attacks of this kind.
Meanwhile, it emerged last night that MI6 has advised the FBI to carry out blood tests of the numerous suspects now in US custody in connection with the hijackings to ascertain whether they have come into contact with biological terrorist materials.
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