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Operation Bojinka

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Operation Bojinka (also known as Project Bojinka, Bojinka Plot, Bojinga, from Arabic: بجنكة; -- slang in many dialects for explosion and pronounced Bo-JIN-ka, except in Egyptian where it is Bo-GIN-ka) was a planned large-scale terrorist attack and precursor to the September 11 Terrorist Attacks.

The term can refer to the "airline bombing plot" alone, or that combined with the "Pope assassination plot" and the "CIA plane crash plot". The first refers to a plot to destroy 11 airliners on January 21 and 22, 1995, the second refers to a plan to kill John Paul II on January 15, 1995, and the third refers a plan to crash a plane into the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia and other buildings. Operation Bojinka was prevented on January 6 and 7, 1995, but some lessons learned were apparently used by the planners of the September 11 terrorist attacks. This article will cover all three plans.

The money handed down to the plotters originated from Al-Qaida, an international terrorist organization which was then based in Sudan. Philippines authorities say that Operation Bojinka was developed by alleged Al-Qaida operatives Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed while they were in Manila, Philippines in 1994 and early 1995.

Several media outlets, including TIME Asia [1], wrongly claim that the word Bojinka means "loud bang" or "explosion" in Serbo-Croatian.

Not all media or text that refers to Operation Bojinka will call it by that name.

Table of contents
1 Financing
2 Planning of Operation Bojinka
3 Phase I
4 Phase II, CIA plane crash plot
5 Discovery and Termination of Operation Bojinka
6 The evidence in Room 603
7 Murad's Confession
8 Manhunt
9 The end result
10 Opinions on Operation Bojinka in relation to September 11
11 Bibliography
12 External links






Planning of Operation Bojinka

As soon as Yousef arrived in Manila along with other Arab Afghans that were making cells in Manila, he started to work on making bombs. Yousef had shown up in Singapore with Khan earlier in fall 1994. The two got their Philippine visass in Singapore. It was likely that Al-Qaida sent him to Manila to plot and implement a terrorist attack against the United States.


He left Manila for several days, but was met by Al Qaida emissaries upon his return to Metro Manila. They asked him to attack United States President Bill Clinton, who was due to arrive in the Philippines on November 12, 1994 as part of a five-day tour of Asia. He thought of several ways to kill the president, including placing a bomb on Clinton's motorcade route, firing a Stinger missile at Air Force One or the presidential limousine, and killing him with a chemical weapon called phosgene. However, he abandoned the idea as it would be too hard to kill the President. However, he would then incorporate his plan to kill the Pope into Operation Bojinka.


The two had already converted fourteen bottles of contact lens solution into bottles containing nitroglycerin, which was readily available in the Philippines. Yousef taped a metal rod to the arch of his of foot in place of the detonators. Yousef and Mohammed wore jewelry and clothing with metal to confuse airport security. They packed condoms in their bags to support their alibi that they were meeting women. [7]

On December 8, Yousef moved into the Doña Josefa Apartments under the alias Najy Awaita Haddad and purported himself to be a Moroccan. Edith Guerrera, the manager, laughed with the receptionist after the two men asked for new registration forms. "Perhaps they have forgotten their names," she said as the first ones were torn up. Yousef had accidentally put his "real name" on the first form. He didn't want to get discovered too early. [1] [12]

Yousef had booked Room 603 in advance. He had made an 80,000 Philippine peso ($3,300 U.S.) deposit, and had added 40,000 pesos ($1,665 U.S.) up front before taking the elevator to Room 603. [12]

A conspirator named Abdul Hakim Murad came to Manila with Yousef and stayed at that apartment.

The apartments are located in the Malate district, 200 meters away from the embassy of the Vatican City in the Philippines, and 500 meters down the street from Manila Police Station No. 9 on Quirino Avenue. One of the windows at Suite 603 looks down on the path that the Papal motorcade was to take. Middle Easterners often rent units there to hang out at nightclubs in the Malate district, which are often nonexistent in their home countries. [1]



According to Abdul Hakim Murad, Yousef got an idea for crashing a plane into the CIA from Murad while at the apartments. According to Murad, Yousef replied, "OK, we will think about it," before heading off with Khalid Shaikh to Puerto Galera for scuba diving.

At the time, Khalid Sheik Mohammed was staying at a lavish apartment across the street from a person that would become the President of the Philippines. He often went trips elsewhere to promote Konsojaya. [9]

On December 1, Shah placed a bomb under a seat in the Greenbelt Theatre in Manila to test what would happen if a bomb exploded under an airline seat. The bomb went off. Several patrons got injured. [12]

On December 11, 1994, Yousef built another bomb, which had one tenth of the power that his final bombs were planned to have, in the lavatory of the aircraft and left it under his seat, 27F, after he got off the plane from a flight that arrived in Cebu. Yousef had boarded the flight under an assumed name. The aircraft was Philippine Airlines Flight 434 using that aircraft on a Manila to Narita route. Yousef had set the timer for four hours after he got off the aircraft. The bomb exploded while the aircraft was over Minami Daito Island, near Okinawa, Japan. A Japanese businessman named Ikegami was killed after the bomb detonated. The Boeing 747-200 safely made an emergency landing. None of the aircraft's other two-hundred and seventy-two passengers were killed, although 10 passengers in front of Ikegami were injured. None of the crew members were killed. Yousef then planned which flights to attack for Phase I.

Phase I

The details of Phase I were found in the evidence discovered in the investigation into Room 603 in the Doña Josefa (for more information, see Section: The evidence in Room 603)

If Phase I of Operation Bojinka was pulled off, it would have been the most devastating terrorist attack in history in terms of casualties.

Pope assassination plot

The first plan was a plan to kill Pope John Paul II when he visited the Philippines. On January 15, 1995, a suicide bomber would dress up as a priest while John Paul II was in his motorcade on his way to visiting the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conference at the San Carlos Seminary, which is located along Edsa, Guadalupe, Makati City. The assassin would stick a bomb inside one of his sleeves of the robe. He would then use the disguise to get closer to the Pope, and detonate the bomb when Pope John Paul II would approach to kiss him. The planned assassination of the Pope was intended to divert attention from the next part of the phase. About 20 men had been trained by Yousef to carry out this act prior to January 1995.

Airline bombing plot

The next plan would have involved at least five Al Qaida operatives, including Yousef, Khan, Shah and two more unknown operatives. Starting on January 21, 1995 and ending on January 22, 1995, they would set the bombs on 11 United States-bound airliners that had stopovers all around East Asia and Southeast Asia. All of the flights had two legs. The bombs would be planted inside life jackets under seats on the first leg, when each terrorist would disembark. He would then board one or two more flights and repeat. After all of the terrorists planted bombs on all of the flights, each terrorist would then catch flights to Lahore, Pakistan. The terrorists never needed U.S visass, as they only would have stayed on the planes on their first legs in Asia.

United States airlines had been chosen instead of Asian airlines to maximize the shock toward Americans. The flights targeted were listed under operatives with codenames, such as "Zyed", "Majbos" or "Obaid". Obaid, who was really Abdul Hakim Murad, was to hit United flight 80, and then he was to go back to Singapore under another United flight which he would bomb. [1] [12] [13]

Zyed was to hit Northwest Flight 30, a United Flight going from Taipei to Honolulu, and a United Flight going from Bangkok to Taipei to San Francisco [1] [16]


The bomb

The "Mark II" "microbombs" had Casio digital watches as the timers, stabilizers that looked like cotton wool balls, and an undetectable nitroglycerin as the explosive. Other ingredients included 5 milliliters of glycerin, 15 ml of nitrate, 22.5 ml of sulfuric acid, and minute concentrations of nitrobenzene, silver azide (silver nitride), and liquid acetone. Two 9-Volt batteries in each bomb were used as a power source. The batteries would be connected to light bulb filaments that would detonate the bomb. The batteries were taken from children's toys. The wiring would be attached to the arm of the watch using a tiny space under the calculator. The alteration was so small that the watch could still be worn in a normal manner. [1] [13]


The density of the explosive cocktail would be about 1.3.

Airports planned to be affected

Flights planned to be affected

Phase II, CIA plane crash plot

Abdul Hakim Murad confessed details of Phase II in his
torture and interrogation with Manila police after his capture. (for more information, see Section:Murad's Confession)




Another plot the men were cooking up would have involved hijacking of more airplanes. The Sears Tower (Chicago, Illinois), The Pentagon (Arlington, Virginia, the Washington Capitol (Washington, DC), the White House (Washington, DC), the Transamerica Tower (San Francisco, California), and the World Trade Center (New York, New York) would be the likely targets.


Discovery and Termination of Operation Bojinka

All times mentioned are in Manila, Philippines time.

The plot was abandoned after an apartment fire occurred during the night in Manila, Philippines on Friday, January 6, 1995.

The fire occurred before the Pope, John Paul II, was scheduled to visit the Philippines on January 12. Also, a typhoon had hit Manila not that long ago before the fire. The incident took place at six-story Doña Josefa apartments.

The fire was started when Abdul Hakim Murad started a chemical fire in the kitchen sink in Suite 603 in the 6th floor of the Doña Josefa apartment by pouring water on a substance. The smoke came when water was poured on to douse the fire. The fire was spotted at about 11 P.M. after residents complained about an odor. Edith Guerrera, the owner of the apartments, called the fire brigade, but the fire went out unassisted. Yousef and Murad had told the firefighters to stay away, before they fled. [3] Police, including 55-year old watch commander Aida D. Fariscal, who decided to investigate the situation, first found four hot plates in their packing crates, what looked like cotton batting soaked in a beige solution, and loops of green, red, blue, and yellow electrical wiring. The telephone rang, and the police ran downstairs thinking that it was a trap. [6] They left the apartment to seek a search warrant. Fariscal had been suspicious of the men in room 603 due to a chain of bombings that happened in the Philippines prior to January 6.

According to police records, the policemen had to ask eleven judges before they found one that would sign the search warrant. [9]

After police came back and discovered the evidence, they arrested a man who called himself Ahmed Saeed. Saeed claimed that he was a commercial pilot that was on the way to the precinct house to explain the firecrackers that he said went off. Saeed tried to run away, but he was arrested after he tripped over a tree root. He was hauled to the precinct in a taxi van with the help of two other people. Saeed offered 110,740 Philippine pesos ($2,000 U.S. dollars) to the policemen if they let him go, but the officers refused to let him go, despite the fact that Manila policemen did not make that much money in a year at the time. [6] At the precinct, Saeed signed a statement saying that he was innocent and that he was a tourist visiting his friend in his chemical import/export business. Saeed then mumbled about "two Satans that must be destroyed: the Pope and America." [1]

The evidence in Room 603

When the officers returned to Suite 603 at 2:30 a.m. on January 7, they found street maps of Manila with routes plotting the papal motorcade, a rosary, a photograph of the pontiff, bibles, crucifixes, papal confessions, and clothes similar to those worn by a priest, including robes and collars. A phone message from a reminding the occupant that the cassock was ready to be tried on suggested to the senior inspector that an assassination attempt was going to be placed on the Pope. A search warrant was granted by 4 A.M on January 7. [1] [12]

More chemicals, such as gallons of sulfuric, picric, and nitric acid, pure glycerin, acetone, sodium trichlorate, nitrobenzoyl, ammonia, silver nitrates, methanamine, and ANFO binary explosive were found. Several cans of gasoline and two large Welch's grape juice bottles containing nitroglycerin were found. Some of those chemicals were concocted into a smoking mixture of explosives in the kitchen sink. Equipment such as thermometers, graduated cylinders, large cooking kettles, funnels, fuses, filters, soldering irons, beakers, mortars, pestles, different electronic fusing systems, timers, switches, circuit breakers, and a box of Rough Rider lubricated condoms were found. A finished remote control brass pipe bomb and another pipe bomb that was about to be packed were found. A chemistry textbook and a chemical dictionary were found. A TIME magazine with the cover story on international terrorism was found. [1] [12] [9]

Also found was a pharmacy receipt and a bottle of contact lens solution.

The most damning piece of evidence found so far was a manual written in Arabic on how to build a liquid bomb. The formula went like this:

A finished time bomb was placed in a cupboard under the sink. Other Casio watches were found in the apartment.

Stacks of 12 false passports, including false Norwegian, Afghan, Saudi, Pakistani and other faked passports "issued" by other countries were also found in the apartment. Investigators found a business card from Mohammed Jamal Khalifa. Saeed was found to possess five telephone numbers from Khalifa. They found phone numbers from Rose Masquera, Mohammed's girlfriend. [1]

Yousef's Computer

Yousef's pet project was discovered on four floppy diskettes and an off-white Toshiba laptop personal computer inside his apartment, two weeks before the plot would have been implemented. Several encrypted files on the C Drive contained flight schedules, calculations of detonation times, and other items. [14] The first string of text in one of the files states, "All people who support the U.S. government are our targets in our future plans and that is because all those people are responsible for their government's actions and they support the U.S. foreign policy and are satisfied with it. We will hit all U.S. nuclear targets. If the U.S. government keeps supporting Israel, then we will continue to carry out operations inside and outside the United States to include ..." and the text ends.



A communication signed "Khalid Shaikh + Bojinka" was also found on Yousef's computer that threatened to attack targets "in response to the financial, political and military assistance given to the Jewish state in the occupied land of Palestine by the American Government." The letter also said that the terrorists claimed to have "ability to make and use chemicals and poisonous gas... for use against vital institutions and populations and the sources of drinking water." [12] [1]


The evidence found at the Doña Josefa filled three police vans. [9]

Murad's Confession


Saeed turned out to be Abdul Hakim Murad, who was sent to the apartment to retrieve the computer after the fire. Murad was sent to Camp Crame, a military installation that was on the outskirts of Manila. Murad at first taunted investigators. For sixty-seven days, he endured a torture process that Filipino investigators called "tactical interrogation", or "TI".

According to journalists Marites Vitug and Glenda Gloria, who both wrote the book Under the Crescent Moon, agents hit him with a chair and long piece of wood when Murad didn't talk. They forced water into his mouth, and crushed lighted cigarettes onto his genitals. Murad's ribs were completely cracked. Agents were surprised that he survived. According to an investigator, he finally confessed out of fear of Jews after an agent masqueraded as the Mossad and told him that he was being sent to Israel.

Murad admitted in his interrogations, "This is my -- the best thing. I enjoy it," and "because the United States is the first country in this world making trouble for our, for Muslims and for our people."

He talked about the bombs. "Nobody can think that it's . . . explosive," he said, referring to the watches Ramzi Yousef planned to put on the airliners. He said that the nitroglycerin "which even you'll put in the X-ray, you will never, nobody can" detect it.

Murad confessed that he was on a quest to be a martyr. He confessed to being the hijacker as part of Phase II of his plan. Murad would later be extradited to the United States on April 12, 1995. His testimony would help convict Yousef.


Wali Khan Amin Shah was arrested at an apartment complex at Singalong Street on January 11 after police saw that a pager called by Yousef was registered in the name of Shah's girlfriend. Shah escaped from custody about 77 hours later. Shah was found to be a conspirator after authorities saw photos of him scanned on the laptop that contained information about the plot, as well as cell phone numbers that led investigators to the apartment. Yousef and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed were able to escape from the Philippines to Pakistan. [1] [12]

After receiving Murad's phone call, Yousef made plans to leave and flew to Singapore about five hours after Murad's arrest. [12] One day after Bojinka was discovered, Yousef made his way to Pakistan. [9] Mohammed went to Pakistan days or weeks afterwards. [9] [12]


Yousef would later be arrested in a hotel room in Islamabad, Pakistan on February 7, 1995 after a 23-day manhunt. Yousef later boasted to FBI agent Brian Parr about his plan. Wali Khan Amin Shah, the financier, got picked up in Malaysia in December of 1995. His identity was revealed after he was fingerprinted. Khan also got extradited to the United States.

All three terrorists got life sentences for participating in the plot. Yousef also got 240 years along with his life sentence for the 1993 World Trade Center attacks. Yousef got sentenced on January 8, 1998, and Murad got sentenced on May 16, 1998. Shah has been cooperating with the government since August 1998.

Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, a Saudi businessman from Jeddah that is married to one of Osama bin Laden's sisters, was in the Philippines earlier in 1994, probably conspiring with Abu Sayyaf. He was arrested in 1994 in Mountain View, California for conspiring in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was financing the Bojinka plot, according to the content that the Filipino investigators forwarded to the United States. The INS deported Khalifa to Jordan in May 1995. He was acquitted by the Jordanian court and is now in Saudi Arabia.

The end result


Khalid Shaikh Mohammed decided that explosives were too risky to use in his next terrorist plot. He decided to take Phase II and make it into a new terrorist attack. The leadership of the terrorist organization Al-Qaida, which he belonged to, loved the idea of using airplanes in terrorist attacks. The plot would become known as the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks. Khalid Sheik Mohammed would be arrested in Rawalpindi, Pakistan in 2003.

Yousef filed a motion for a new trial in 2001. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit argued the case on May 3, 2002, and decided the case on April 3, 2003. It was decided that Yousef and his partners are to remain incarcerated. [10]

Opinions on Operation Bojinka in relation to September 11

People who feel that the United States Government should have discovered September 11 feel that the discovery of Operation Bojinka should have raised early warning flags that would have prevented September 11, pointing to Phase II. Some from this side of the argument also feel that the U.S. government should have connected the dots.

Those that feel that the U.S. Government could not have discovered the September 11 plot argue that the Bojinka plot was mainly about Phase I.


  1. - Brzezinski, Matthew (2002). Operation Bojinka's Bombshell. Retrieved from
  2. - Sharma, Rajeev (2001). Past acts point to Osama bin Laden. Retrieved from
  3. - Baker, Peter, Doug Struck, Howard Schneider, and Karl Vick (2001). Bin Laden Followers Reach Across Globe. Obtained from
  4. - (1998) 'Proud terrorist' gets life for Trade Center bombing CNN
  5. - Hirschkorn, Phil (2001). Convicted bomb conspirator linked to plots, CNN
  6. - Ressa, Maria (2003) Philippines: U.S. missed 9/11 clues years ago CNN
  7. - Ressa, Maria (2002) September 11: The Asian blueprint. CNN
  8. - McDermott, Terry(2002). The Plot. Los Angeles Times
  9. - 1996 Plane terror suspects convicted on all accounts. CNN
  10. - (2003). United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit - August Term 2001. Obtained from
  11. - Bokhari, Farhan, Victoria Burnett, Charles Clover, Mark Huband and Roel Landingin (2003). The CEO of al-Qaeda. Obtained from
  12. - Transcript of an interview with Abdul Hakim Murad, obtained on January 22, 2004 (GMT) from
  13. Jenkins, Brian (May 13, 1996). Terrorism Trial begins in New York. CNN.
  14. - Dueling Globalizations. Ontained from
  15. - Suicide-pilot plan uncovered six years ago in Philippines, AP and Reuters

External links

  1. Project Bojinka and Other Hijack High-jinks. Retrieved January 21, 2004 from
  2. Article about Ramzi Youssef
  3. The dog that didn't bark
  4. Ignorance is a lie article
  5. Information about Khalid Sheik Mohammed
  6. Newsmax Article on Bojinka and Ressam
  7. FuckedWorld article on "John Doe II"
  8. Information on the attack against the pope
  9. Interview with writer of article "Operation Bojinka bombshell"
  10. info about Ramzi Yousef