◆ SpookStack

To: Counterterrorism From: Berlin Re: 315N-WF-227135, 12/05/2003 Congressional Report on September 11lth stated that the American intelligence community considered KSM to have been the "mastermind" for the attacks. Fromm was not permitted to testify to anything more than this statement. The Chief Judge asked again whether it was Fromm's testimony that the planning for the September 11th attacks was devised and decided upon solely in Afghanistan. Fromm testified that this was correct. Chief Judge RUhle now asked if there were any sources which could state that the Hamburg Group had not considered or conceived of the September ilth attacks on their own. Fromm answered that it was not so "black and white" as the court was trying to depict the situation. The members of the Hamburg Group were not completely clueless when they traveled to Afghanistan. They intended to undertake a "Jihad" and the trip to Afghanistan was in preparation for such activities. However, once they arrived in Afghanistan, their ultimate goal became finalized. Their purpose was re-directed and they were set upon the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as their final target. Furthermore, Fromm noted that there were two (2) of the September 11th participants who were mentioned on page 233 of the U.S. Congressional Report on September 11th as having been in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in January. It was known that Khalid Al-Midhair and Nawaf Al-Hamsi traveled to the United States from Malaysia to commence with their flight training. This was an important point, according to Fromm. If the Hamburg Group conceived of the plan on its own in Hamburg, and then traveled to Afghanistan to present this plan as alleged, then it was unlikely that Al-Midhair and Al-Hamsi would travel to the United States from Malaysia at approximately the same time for the same reason. Consequently, it was the BfV's conclusion that Al-Qaeda's senior leadership had been searching throughout the entire world for persons to be recruited for the September 11th attacks. , Of further importance was the fact that the members of the Hamburg Group never undertook any activities to prepare for the September llth attacks prior to December 1999. Although they already displayed anti-American sentiments, they never undertook any specific preparations such as seeking flight instruction in Germany. According to Fromm, it was possible that they might have undertaken some actions tn furtherance of which the BfV was unaware, but, generally, the BEV had concluded that the plan for the September 11th attacks had not originated in Hamburg.