In mid-2002, as the US was still shaking from the trauma of the Twin Towers' fall, the US intelligence community working with Israeli and European intelligence agencies, foiled an Al Qaeda terror attack against several youth clubs in Tel Aviv, Ynet reported.
The attack was in its final stages of planning and almost ready to be carried out, the site said, adding that Al Qaeda's leadership expected that if the attacks were carried out, at least 200 Israelis would die.
Until now, Al Qaeda had been known to have made only one significant plan to harm Israel.
The tipoff came from the FBI's Ali Soufan, who in 2005 was in charge of the Al Qaeda files. Soufan retired from the FBI in 2005.
In an interview published Friday with Yediot Aharonot, Soufan explained how a surprise admission from a wanted terrorist led to intelligence authorities' success in foiling previously-unknown plans for a largescale Tel Aviv attack.
In June 2001, Richard Reid, also known as "the Shoe Bomber," arrived in Israel to examine the possibility of blowing up an El Al plane using an explosive device placed in his shoes. Reid return to his Al Qaeda commanders and in light of Israel's aviation security procedures recommended that the terror group choose a different target, which he attempted to blow up in December.
US intelligence, which was hit hard by the failures which led to the attack, began to strike back. In March 2002, the US succeeded in catching Zayn al-Abidin Mohammad Hussein, also known as Abu Zubaydah, an Arab from the Palestinian Authority who entered and was released from an Israeli prison, and later joined the mujihadeen in Afghanistan, becoming a senior Al Qaeda official.
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