The raid that resulted in the capture of al-Qaeda operations chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed also netted Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, the alleged financier of the Sept. 11 attacks, two senior U.S. government sources said Monday. Al-Hawsawi, 34, is identified as a ”supporting conspirator” in the indictment of accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the USA in the attacks. The Saudi-born al-Hawsawi is said to have routed thousands of dollars to the Sept. 11 hijackers to fund the operation. In the days before the attacks, hijackers allegedly wired more than $25,000 in excess money back to al-Hawsawi in the United Arab Emirates. The identification of al-Hawsawi came as Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced that Mohammed had been planning another major assault on the United States before he was captured Saturday in Pakistan. Ridge did not identify the target of the assault. But he described it as ”a significant plot” and hinted that counterterrorism officials here may have foiled it. Ridge also said the decision to raise the national threat level to code orange last month was driven, in part, by the discovery of the plot and Mohammed’s hand in it. Full Story
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