Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists planned to steal a plane at the Bangkok airport at Don Mueang and crash it into the Changi Airport but the plan was broken up when Thai authorities discovered key details.
The key plotter revealed details of the plot to a Singapore newspaper on Wednesday.
Mohammad Hassan bin Saynudin, a native of Singapore, said he and fellow JI member Mas Selamat bin Kastari planned to hijack the plane from Bangkok and ram it into the airport, the report said.
The plan was aborted when Thai authorities became aware of it, he told the Straits Times newspaper from a court lock-up in Indonesia on Tuesday.
Target: Changi - File photo
"We wanted to do it out of anger with Singapore for being an ally of the United States for what it did in Afghanistan," said Hassan, also an alleged member of the Southeast Asia-based Islamic militant group JI.
"What I was trying to do was to defend Islam and Muslims."
Some details of the planned attack on the airport had been previously known.
A Singapore government white paper in 2003 said that the Singapore chapter Of JI - of which Hassan was a member - had developed plans on bombing water pipes at the Singapore-Malaysia Causeway, the Singapore subway system, and US Navy repair yards in Singapore.
But the confession to the Straits Times was the first by an extremist linked to the JI plot to carry out an attack on Changi Airport, a regional aviation hub.
The exact role of the Thai authorities in breaking up the Changi terror plot is still unknown. In 2001 and 2002, anti-terrorist forces captured several JI operatives trying to hide in the South, and in most or all cases deported them to Singapore and Malaysia.
Hassan was alerted in 2001 that authorities were after him for the Singapore plots. He fled through Malaysia and southern Thailand, and eventually caught a boat to Sumatra from northern Malaysia.
"I survived seven years on the run," he told the newspaper. "It's like hijrah, or migration. Allah will give you sustenance."
Hassan was one of 10 suspected JI members who went on trial Tuesday in Indonesia for plotting attacks against foreigners and Christian priests in the country. The terrorist cell was called Jemaah Palembang, and had links to JI according to Indonesian charges.
The group was violent, and had a goal of defending its view of Islam. Members allegedly killed Christian teacher Dago Simamora for insulting Islam and preventing Muslim schoolgirls from wearing headscarves. The cell had also planned to bomb a backpacker cafe in the tourist town of Bukit Tinggi, West Sumatra, and shoot Chinese gold shop owners in Lampung, South Sumatra.
According to the charge sheet, Hassan received military training in Afghanistan around 2000 and met Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Mas Selamat, the alleged Singapore leader of JI who also fled his home in 2001 through southern Thailand, was later caught and deported to Singapore. But he escaped from a tightly guarded detention facility in the city-state last year and remains at large. (With reports by AFP)
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- Writer: BangkokPost.com
