By Tabassum Zakaria
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Thursday disclosed new details of a thwarted al Qaeda plot to use shoe bombs to hijack a plane and fly it into a Los Angeles building, as he sought to justify his tactics in Washington's war on terrorism.
With critics questioning the legality of his authorization of a domestic spying program, Bush used newly declassified details of a previously disclosed plot to show that the threat of terrorism has not abated.
Bush said that in early 2002 the United States and its allies thwarted a plot to use bombs hidden in shoes to breach the cockpit door of an airplane and fly it into the tallest building in Los Angeles.
But he named the wrong building. "We believe the intended target was Liberty Tower in Los Angeles, California," Bush said. White House aides later said he meant Library Tower.
Library Tower is now known as US Bank Tower, but locally it is still mostly called by the former name because of its proximity to the city's central library. At 1,017 feet (310 metres) tall, it is the tallest building in the United States west of the Mississippi River.
Last October, the Bush administration had disclosed the plot to attack targets on the West Coast using hijacked planes, saying this was among 10 disrupted al Qaeda plots.
Bush said on Thursday that in October 2001, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the operational mastermind of the September 11 attacks that year, had set in motion a plot for another attack inside the United States using shoe bombs to hijack an airplane and fly it into the tallest building on the U.S. West Coast.
"Rather than use Arab hijackers as he had on September 11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed sought out young men from Southeast Asia whom he believed would not arouse as much suspicion," Bush said.
Mohammed was captured in Pakistan in March 2003 and has since been held at an undisclosed location. In his speech, Bush praised the efforts of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in fighting terrorism.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, believed by U.S. officials to be hiding in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, have so far eluded the U.S. manhunt.
Bush said Mohammed tapped a leader of an al Qaeda-affiliated group in Southeast Asia named Hambali, who recruited several operatives with training in Afghanistan. Hambali was later caught.
"Once the operatives were recruited, they met with Osama bin Laden, and then began preparations for the West Coast attack," Bush said.
"Their plot was derailed in early 2002 when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key al Qaeda operative," he said.
In another plot, "shoebomber" Richard Reid failed in an attempt to blow up an American Airlines plane from Paris to Miami in December 2001 after passengers and crew tackled him as he tried to ignite explosives in his shoe. Reid was sentenced to life imprisonment by a U.S. court in January 2003.
Bush has been fighting criticism of his decision to authorize the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without court warrants inside the United States on international emails and phone calls placed to and from people with suspected ties to terrorism.
He has said that it was a necessary tool for fighting terrorism and preventing another attack on America.
"There's a law which says with respect to electronic surveillance within America, it has to be with warrants. It cannot be warrantless," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat, told reporters before entering a closed Senate intelligence committee hearing to discuss Bush's NSA program.
Asked if she was concerned about the selective release of classified information by the White House, Feinstein said:
"The president is entitled to release whatever he wants to release. He owns the intelligence. The president is the owner of intelligence and then he makes the decision of what to share."
Bush thwarts 2002 Los Angeles terrorist attack
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