Bin Laden Planned 2011 Attack on US

Financial Times reports

Osama bin Laden was plotting an attack on the US rail system, a plot uncovered by the raid that killed the al-Qaeda leader in his hideout in Pakistan, US officials say.

On Thursday night, the Department of Homeland Security said it had issued a message to authorities throughout the US about a potential al-Qaeda scheme against the rail sector.

A US official confirmed that the plot, which involved derailing a train on a bridge, was detailed in handwritten notes from February 2010 discovered among bin Laden’s effects in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

US officials had said after the raid that about five computers, 10 hard drives and more than 100 electronic storage devices had been removed from the compound.

The attack would have possibly been timed to coincide with a major event, such as the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks or the annual State of the Union address by the US president.