Ex-FBI Agent Tells Israeli Paper al-Qaida Planned Attack on Israeli Nightclubs

Al-Qaida intended to carry out simultaneous terror attacks on Israeli entertainment venues in 2002, a former FBI agent told an Israeli newspaper. The plot to blow up several Israeli nightclubs was in its final stages but was stopped due to the intervention of US intelligence officers. Ali Soufan told Israel’s Hebrew-language Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that he learned about the terror plot whole interrogating a Palestinian al-Qaida terrorist caught in Afghanistan. The attacks had been expected to kill about 200 Israelis. Once the terrorist, identified as Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn or Abu Zubaydah, who was a  close associate of Osama bin Laden, spilled the beans about the attack, US officials notified several intelligence agencies and officials in Israel. The details of the planned attacks have been blocked for publication by the CIA until now.