the Yemenis: operatives would hijack U.S.-flagged commercial airlines flying Pacific routes, and would explode them in mid-air instead of flying them into targets. By mid-1999, Bin Attash [(a.k.a. "Khallad")] and Abu Bara were slated for that portion of the planes operation....In any case, the plan at this point was to have all planes in the United States and East Asia either explode or crash at roughly the same time, to maximize the psychological impact of the attack.
[I]n the spring of 2000...Bin Laden cancelled the East Asia portion of the planes operation in April or May, claiming that it would be too difficult to synchronize the U.S. and East Asia portions of the operation.
8. For the September 11 operation. Sheikh Mohammed said that the initial plan called for crashing planes in southeast Asia at the same time as the attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. Saudis were primarily chosen for the attacks in the United States because they could easily travel there. Sheikh Mohammed wanted to use Yemeni operatives for the southeast Asia portion of the attacks because a person with a Yemeni passport could more easily travel to places like Hong Kong and Malaysia, allowing the Yemenis an opportunity for a martyrdom operation. Sheikh Mohammed said that, while he would have considered Yemenis for the attacks in the U.S., he noted that
