Osama planned 9/11 anniversary attack in US: report

Washington, Jul 15: Slain al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his operations head were plotting to attack the US on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 strikes, a media report has claimed.

Osama bin Laden was shot dead by US commandos during a surprise raid at his safe house in Pakistan's garrison town of Abbottabad where he lived for the last five year.

"Bin Laden and his operations chief Attiyah Abd al-Rahman swapped views about the composition of the attack team, with bin Laden repeatedly rejecting names that Rahman suggested," the Wall Street Journal reported quoting officials familiar with the intelligence taken from bin Laden's house.

It said the plan, according to US officials, were only in the discussion phase.

According to the Journal, in the days following the US raid, American officials said the materials seized from the compound showed enthusiasm for carrying out attacks on dates of symbolic significance, prompting them to worry about July 4 and September 11.

But officials didn't disclose at that time that there had been specific planning for another attack on September 11 this year, the daily reported.

In a recent meeting, Acting CIA Director Michael Morrell told his staff that one of their top priorities would be to make sure that neither that plan nor any others were carried out.

However, the information obtained so far does not give any idea about the attack sites selected by bin Laden and or if people were ready for this purpose.

PTI