NEW YORK, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Al-Qaida terrorists originally plotted far more destruction and planned to hijack five jets on each coast Sept. 11, 2001, reports said Monday.
Captured terror leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed said Osama bin Laden also was planning a second wave of attacks in Asia but eventually scaled back the plan to crash planes into the World Trade Center and targets in Washington.
Bin Laden thought "it would be too difficult to synchronize" attacks in the United States and Asia, the New York Daily News reported.
The startling details have emerged since Mohammed was captured by the CIA and Pakistani intelligence agents in a March 1 raid in Pakistan.
Interrogators are picking through his claims to eliminate deliberate misinformation.
Mohammed said he hatched the terror plot in 1996 and convinced bin Laden "to give him money and operatives so he could hijack 10 planes in the United States and fly them into targets," a report said.
