Suspect in ‘Chilling’ Plot to Bomb U.S. Airliners Pleads Not Guilty

A suspect in a terrorist plot to detonate “numerous” bombs almost simultaneously aboard U.S. airliners flying from Asia to California pleaded not guilty Wednesday as further details of the ambitious plan were revealed.

The extradition from Malaysia of Wali Khan Amin Shah on charges of conspiracy and attempted bombing underlined the scope of the plot designed to kill thousands of passengers--a plot that prosecutors said was headed by Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the alleged mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Khan, a heavyset man with a mustache and with several fingers missing on his left hand, told his captors he is 29 years old. He was held without bail here by U.S. District Judge Kevin Duffy.

The judge rejected defense arguments that Khan was abducted from a Malaysian street and was taken to what he believed to be a mobile home in a jungle area, where he was held for 10 to 12 hours before being transferred to the United States.

“The crimes in this indictment are chilling,” said U.S. Atty. Mary Jo White, who appeared in court. “Their objective was to kill innocent American passengers flying home to the United States, completely defenseless.”

White said that the motive behind the alleged scheme was to punish the United States for its support of Israel. The U.S. attorney declined to say how many planes were targets, but said “numerous” flights were involved.

Khan, who faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted, is the third suspect in the plot to be arrested. He joins Yousef and Abdul Hakim Murad, who also faces conspiracy charges.

Duffy said that he planned to sever the airline trial from the trade center case. Only Yousef also is a defendant in the trade center bombing that killed six people and injured more than 1,000 in February 1993. Four people were previously convicted in that attack and sentenced to 240 years each in prison.

Investigators said Khan is a close associate of Yousef--who was captured earlier this year--and alleged that he bought at least one Casio watch designed to be used as a timer for explosives destined for the planes.

Prosecutors charged that Khan traveled from Singapore to Manila using travel documents with various aliases and that he possessed three passports used by Murad. Prosecutors said bomb timers found in an apartment Yousef had rented in Manila were designed from Casio products.

In a test for the larger attack, authorities said, a Japanese passenger was killed when a single bomb exploded aboard a Philippines Airlines flight en route from Manila to Tokyo on Dec. 11, 1994.