| To hear Khalid Sheik Mohammed tell it, the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were nothing compared with what he had in mind. The original plan, which Mohammed says he presented to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 1998 or 1999, called for hijacking 10 jetliners on both coasts of the United States and crashing nine of them. The kicker would have been the final plane, which he would commandeer personally. After killing all the men on board, Mohammed would alert the media and deliver a speech excoriating the U.S. government for its support of Israel and repressive Arab regimes. According to the new report from the Sept. 11 commission, the idea is classic KSM -- as Mohammed is referred to in U.S. intelligence reports -- mixing grim nihilism with a flair for the dramatic and always putting Mohammed at the center of things. |