Editing Bojinka plot (section)

==Phase III: CIA plane crash plot==
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Abdul Hakim Murad's [[#Murad's confession|confession]] detailed Phase III in his interrogation by the Manila police after his capture.

Phase III would have involved Murad either renting, buying, or [[Aircraft hijacking|hijacking a small airplane]], preferably a [[Cessna]]. The airplane would be filled with explosives. He would then crash it into the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] [[George Bush Center for Intelligence|headquarters]] in the [[Langley, Virginia|Langley]] area in [[Fairfax County, Virginia]]. Murad had been trained as a pilot in [[North Carolina]], and was slated to be a suicide pilot.

There were alternate plans to hijack a 12th commercial airliner and use that instead of the small aircraft, probably due to the Manila cell's growing frustration with explosives, as they knew testing them in a house or apartment was dangerous and could easily give away the terrorist plot. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed likely made the alternate plan.

A report from the Philippines to the United States on January 20, 1995, stated, "What the subject has in his mind is that he will board any American commercial aircraft pretending to be an ordinary passenger. Then he will hijack said aircraft, control its cockpit, and dive it at the CIA headquarters."

Another plot that was considered would have involved the hijacking of more airplanes. The [[World Trade Center (1973-2001)|World Trade Center]] (New York City, New York), the [[The Pentagon|Pentagon]] (Arlington, Virginia), the [[United States Capitol]] (Washington, D.C.), the [[White House]] (Washington, D.C.), the [[Sears Tower]] (Chicago, Illinois), the [[U.S. Bank Tower (Los Angeles)|U.S. Bank Tower]] (Los Angeles, California), the [[Renaissance Center]] (Detroit, Michigan) and the [[Transamerica Pyramid]] (San Francisco, California) would have been the likely targets. In his confession to Filipino investigators, prior to the foiling of Operation Bojinka, Abdul Hakim Murad said that this part of the plot was dropped since the Manila cell could not recruit enough people to implement other hijackings. This plot would eventually be the base plot for the [[September 11 attacks]], which involved hijacking commercial airliners as opposed to small aircraft loaded with explosives and crashing them into their intended targets. However, only the [[World Trade Center (1973-2001)|World Trade Center]] (which was destroyed) and [[The Pentagon]] (which suffered partial damage) were hit. The original plan for the September 11 attacks was to hijack ten airplanes, with one of them confirmed to have been planned to crash into the [[U.S. Bank Tower (Los Angeles)|U.S Bank Tower]] in Los Angeles. Additionally, the United States Capitol and the White House were the potential targets of [[United Airlines Flight 93]] but were never hit due to passengers revolting against the hijackers, which caused the hijacked plane to crash into a field near [[Shanksville, Pennsylvania]].