Ahmed Ressam - Plot To Bomb LAX

Plot To Bomb LAX

He returned to Montreal, Canada, in February 1999 under the name "Benni Noris", bringing $12,000 in cash he had obtained in Afghanistan to fund the attack, as well as chemical substances known as hexamine (used as an explosive booster in the manufacture of explosives) and glycol, and a notebook with explosives concoction instructions. While in Montreal, he shared an apartment with Karim Said Atmani, an alleged forger for the Algerian Groupe Islamique Arme.

In April 1999, French investigators asked Canadian authorities to locate him for questioning, but the Canadians were unable to locate him as he was living under the name Benni Noris. In the summer of 1999, informed by Abu Doha that the other members of his cell had been unable to make it to Canada due to immigration issues, he chose to continue without them, targeting an airport.

In August 1999 he decided that he would bomb Los Angeles International Airport, the third-busiest airport in the world at the time, which he was familiar with because he had landed there in the past, and which he felt would be a politically and economically sensitive target. He planned to conduct a rehearsal using a luggage cart, putting it in a place that was not suspicious, and observing how long it would take for airport security to notice it. He planned to then execute his plan in a passenger waiting area, using one or two suitcases filled with explosives.

In September 1999 he purchased electronic equipment and components in order to build detonators, and made four timing devices. He also recruited Abdelmajid Dahoumane, an old friend of his, to help him. In November, with Dahoumane's assistance he bought urea and aluminum sulfate from nurseries, and mixed it together with nitric and sulphuric acid he stole from fertilizer manufacturers to create a TNT-like explosive substance.

He had met Mokhtar Haouari in early 1994, when he first arrived in Canada. Haouari was involved in fraudulent activity that included the theft and sale of stolen passports and creation of fraudulent credit cards, and Ressam sold him some stolen identity cards. In early November he recruited Haouari to assist him in what he described to Haouari as "some very important and dangerous business in the U.S.", by providing continued funding for his project, a credit card, and a fake ID. In addition, Haouari in turn recruited Brooklyn, New York-based Algerian illegal immigrant Abdelghani Meskini, a con man who he said was involved in bank fraud, to assist Ressam.

On November 17, 1999, Ressam and Dahoumane traveled from Montreal to Vancouver, British Columbia, where in a small rented motel cottage on the southern outskirts of the city they prepared the explosives for LAX. They left behind an acid burn stain on a table, and corroded plumbing.

In December he called Abu Jaffar in Afghanistan to ask whether Osama Bin Laden wanted to take credit for the attack, but did not get an answer. He also called Abu Doha in London, told him that he wanted to return to Algeria after the attack, and was assured he would receive money and documents.

Ressam arranged for the English-speaking Meskini to wait for him in Seattle. Meskini would assist him once he crossed the border, by helping him rent a car and communicate in English, driving him, and giving him a cell phone and money withdrawn with a stolen bank debit card.