SAN DIEGO, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Investigators believe two of the alleged terrorists who took part in the attack on the Pentagon on Sept. 11 had been lurking around San Diego the year before, possibly to carry out an attack on a nuclear aircraft carrier based in the city.
Federal law enforcement sources, quoted in The San Diego Union-Tribune on Wednesday, said that Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid al-Midhar had come to San Diego a few days after a January, 2000 meeting in Malaysia with al Qaida operatives, who allegedly masterminded the attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen nine months later.
"The FBI is investigating the hijackers' support network, examining any possible contacts the hijackers had here in San Diego with other persons or organizations," said FBI spokesman John Iannarelli.
"Our investigation is continuing, but so as not to compromise the investigation, we can't talk about the progress."
The Union-Tribune's sources refused to be identified and would not reveal why the Navy was believed to have been a potential target. But they told the newspaper that al-Midhar and Alhazmi had been sent to San Diego with the intention of scouting a Navy target, presumably the carrier John C. Stennis.
The pair was later pulled off their spy mission and brought into the plot to hijack four airliners and crash them into targets in New York and Washington.
They were subsequently identified as having taken part in the hijacking of the American Airlines jet that hit the Pentagon.
Investigators have determined that the pair met in Kuala Lumpur with Tawfiz Attash Khallad, who allegedly ran the suicide mission against the Cole, in which a small boat packed with explosives blew up alongside the destroyer during a refueling stop in Yemen.
Although the blast punched a hole in the Cole's hull and killed 17 U.S. sailors, the chance of a similar attack damaging the Stennis and its reactors was considered slim since the carrier has much thicker armor.
San Diego, however, is considered a sensitive target area because of the large number of Pacific Fleet vessels of all types docked in San Diego Bay. Shortly after Sept. 11, extra security was placed on the Coronado Bay Bridge, which spans the bay and could conceivably prevent a number of warships from reaching the sea -- due to its location between two strategic areas -- if it were somehow brought down.
The newspaper also said that law enforcement divers conducted an extensive inspection of the bridge and the hulls of several ships, although the inspection was described by sources as precautionary and not motivated by a specific threat.
"It wouldn't be appropriate to discuss the specific things the Navy has done," Navy spokesman Cmdr. David Koontz told the Union-Tribune.
"Obviously, the Navy has an enhanced security posture, and we work closely with local, state and federal agencies to make sure we maintain the appropriate security postures at our bases."
