The 9/11 that never happened: What Britain saved the world from

and What Nigeria Must Learn By Jide Ajani TWENTY-FIVE years after the planes struck America, the most frightening part of 9/11 may not be what the terrorists achieved, but what they originally intended to achieve – and what intelligence agencies have since learned to prevent. Twenty-five years ago, the world watched in disbelief as four commercial aircraft became weapons of mass destruction. Two disappeared into the towers of the World Trade Centre. Another tore into the Pentagon. The fourth came down in a Pennsylvania field after its passengers fought back. Nearly 3,000 people died. But that was not the end of the story. In some ways, it was not even the most frightening part. Because the 9/11 that happened was, in important respects, a reduced version of the 9/11 that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and his associates had imagined. Evil reigned in their hearts.

The plot was much bigger When Vanguard wrote about 9/11 fifteen years ago, to mark the tenth anniversary, what was most fascinating was the audacity of the original conspiracy. The 9/11 Commission documented how KSM’s thinking had evolved from the earlier Bojinka Plot, in which his nephew, Ramzi Yousef, and others had contemplated the destruction of multiple aircraft. The idea that eventually emerged was chilling in its simplicity: if an aircraft could be turned into a bomb, why bother planting a bomb inside it? Hijack the aircraft. Control the aircraft. Fly the aircraft into the target. The terrorists’ imagination had moved from destroying an aeroplane to weaponising it. And KSM’s original vision went considerably beyond the four aircraft eventually hijacked on September 11. The intended targets included, but were never limited to multiple American landmarks and institutions. The plan envisaged simultaneous…