CIA Sought Ahmad Hikmat Shakir, Alleged 'Gay Terrorist,' To Infiltrate Group Of 9/11 Planners

CIA Sought Ahmad Hikmat Shakir, Alleged 'Gay Terrorist,' To Penetrate Al-Qaida

... A new story about the run-up to 9/11 has emerged--a previously undisclosed, covert C.I.A. effort to recruit a spy to penetrate Al Qaeda a year and a half before the planes crashed into the towers.

The development is intriguing in part because the informant they were after was thought to be secretly gay--a fact that gave intelligence agents leverage in their efforts to turn him against his conservative Islamist circle. But the case may also help answer one of the long-standing mysteries of the 9/11 narrative: why a terrorist known to one part of the U.S. government wasn't captured by other parts before he boarded a plane and helped carry out the most devastating attacks on the country.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot