Bojinka plot’s link to 9/11 highlights evolution of transnational terrorism
A historical account traces the connection between the 1995 Bojinka aviation plot, the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the September 11 attacks. It argues that terrorism evolved into a more dispersed threat after 9/11, while warning that ideology, grievances, networks and state support can help sustain militant movements.
The discovery of a terrorist plot in a Manila apartment in 1995 helped expose a plan that later became connected to the September 11 attacks, according to an account examining the evolution of transnational terrorism. Firefighters and Philippine intelligence officers entered the apartment after an accident produced thick smoke. They found bomb-making materials, electrical equipment, timers, counterfeit passports and clerical clothing.
Documents and a computer revealed the Bojinka plan, which involved placing bombs on 12 US-bound commercial aircraft and detonating them after the conspirators had left the planes. The plotters also discussed assassinating Pope John Paul II and attacking President Bill Clinton during his 1994 visit to Manila. Ramzi Yousef fled to Pakistan, while Abdul Hakim Murad was eventually arrested.
Investigators later connected a figure known as Mukhtar to Yousef’s uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. In 2002, FBI agent Ali Soufan learned from captured al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah that Mukhtar was one of Mohammed’s many aliases. Pakistani intelligence, working with US personnel, captured Mohammed in Rawalpindi on March 1, 2003.
He was later held in a CIA secret detention programme and subjected to coercive interrogation methods. The account presents Bojinka as an important step in the development of the September 11 plot. Instead of using bombs to destroy aircraft, the later plan turned the aircraft themselves into weapons.
Nineteen hijackers killed 2,977 people in the attacks of September 11, 2001. It also says the consequences of the post-9/11 wars extended well beyond the attacks. Brown University’s Costs of War Project estimates that more than 940,000 people died directly from violence in major post-9/11 war zones.
The account argues that militant threats have since become more geographically dispersed, including in parts of Africa. It attributes terrorism’s persistence to interacting factors such as ideology, grievance, money, opportunity, political manipulation and social networks, while noting that governments have sometimes supported violent groups for short-term strategic reasons.
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