Financial Times Magazine: First Person: Ali Soufan

October 28, 2011

Financial Times Magazine
As told to Sarah Duguid

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A former FBI agent made several requests for information on a possible terror plot before the 2001 attacks

I’m the person whose team came closest to preventing 9/11, but when I tried to put my story out there, I ran up against the censors in the CIA. I wrote a book that describes the history of the war against al-Qaeda, including how the CIA missed its chance to derail the 9/11 plot by refusing to share information with the FBI. As far as 9/11 is concerned, I know what I’m talking about because I’m a former FBI supervisory special agent and interrogator.

In October 2000, days after the bombings of the USS Cole, I was sent to Yemen as the FBI’s lead investigator. I’m Lebanese American, and, back then, I was one of a handful of agents who spoke fluent Arabic. The Yemenis had brought two known associates of Osama bin Laden in for questioning: Jamal Badawi and Fahd al-Quso. They admitted a link to the Cole plot and to having been to Afghanistan, where they had met a one-legged jihadi known only as Khallad. I was startled. A source of mine in Afghanistan had told me that he had met a Khallad, with a metal leg, who was one of bin Laden’s top lieutenants.

Over time, al-Quso admitted he had fought alongside bin Laden and found him inspirational. He also said he had delivered $36,000 to Khallad in Bangkok. I found it strange that money should have been leaving Yemen just before the Cole attacks. Money always flows towards an operation, never away from it. I wondered if al-Qaeda had another plot under way elsewhere…

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To read the full article please click on the link below:http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/a951cf7a-ff60-11e0-aa11-00144feabdc0.html##axzz1c78cGULJ

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