The Bojinka plot was a 1996 operation prepared in the Philippines by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — then known to U.S. intelligence only by the pseudonym “Mukhtar” — to hijack as many as fourteen Boeing 747s in flight and crash them into buildings along the U.S. West Coast. Per John Kiriakou’s account, the plot was disrupted by an accidental civilian observation: a cleaning lady at the Manila apartment in which Mukhtar was assembling the planning materials.[1][2]
Disruption
Mukhtar left the apartment for lunch. The apartment’s cleaning lady let herself in, saw the materials laid out across the workspace, recognized them — “that looks like a terrorist attack being planned” — and called the police. The Philippine police arrived, examined the materials, agreed with her assessment, and contacted the Philippine intelligence service, who in turn contacted the CIA. Materials were confiscated; the plot was disrupted; Mukhtar fled.[2][3]
The Mukhtar identification gap
Although Bojinka was disrupted, the operation’s planner — “Mukhtar” — remained an unidentified figure within CIA files for six years. The name “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed” did not appear in any CIA document. The identification was made only in 2002, when Ali Soufan’s FBI interrogation of Abu Zubaydah produced Abu Zubaydah’s offhand correction: “You don’t know who Mukhtar is. … His name is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.”[3][4]