According to a new ABC News report, the conspiracy revealed earlier today to target the PATH trains intended on carrying out their attack on September 11th, 2006. The al-Qaeda-connected terrorists planned on giving New Yorkers a reminder on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks -- and it may still be in motion:

Federal law enforcement officials tell ABC News a plot designed to use 15 to 20 suicide bombers on one commuter train as close to Sept. 11 as possible was well underway. ...

"This is a plot that would have involved martyrdom, explosives and certain of the tubes that connect New Jersey with lower Manhattan," said Mark Mershon, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI New York Field Office. "We're not discussing the modality behind that."

But law enforcement officials say the plotters had already accessed detailed blueprints and drawings of the PATH tunnels, available on the internet.

And like the London bombers, the plan was to load backpacks with explosives.

Assem Hammoud, earlier identified by his nom de guerre Amir Andalousli, has admitted to taking the bayat pledge that made him part of al-Qaeda. He had planned to go to an AQ training camp in Pakistan this summer, ahead of the plot. The description of the plot now has at least two suspects detained, five more on the run, with Hammoud the only one under formal arrest at the moment. One could surmise that one of the reasons Hammoud planned to go to Pakistan would be to get the necessary number of martyrs to execute the massive explosions.

ABC also has more details about the investigation. They have watched this cell coalesce for over a year, starting with chat room meetings that the terrorists apparently thought were secure. None of the conspirators were ever in the US, apparently, although at least one of the was in Canada at some point. Unsurprisingly, some of the plotters planned on traveling to New York to carry out this attack from ... Saudi Arabia.

Talk about irony. And deja vu. (via Hot Air)

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