Conspiracy Shows Signs of Following Classic Bin Ladin Doctrine:

“…(T)he entire operation seems to have followed classic al-Qaida rules. Advance teams may have arrived in the U.S. several years before the attacks to lay the ground work, build up a small local support network, collect information, rent houses, etc. These teams would be followed by the actual operational teams, who would learn their jobs as they waited to be activated.

The suicide squads seem not to have relied on cover identities at all, but used their own names, or at least consistent work names. Under these names they enrolled in flight schools, rented apartments, bought and rented cars. Some of the men seemed to have used the same Visa card, on which they rang up substantial charges, and gave the same postal addresses. This was also the same card that was used to buy plane tickets from the East Coast to California on September 11. As attack day drew near, the men may not have been as careful as they might have been about leaving a paper trail; they may have known that it wouldn’t matter.

As was the case in the East Africa embassy bombings, the teams appear to have operated almost completely on their own, meeting with their commanders only at key moments as the plot unfolded. The commanders alone would have known the full picture and how all the pieces were meant to fit together. They’re the ones Washington desperately wants to find, because they might provide the definitive link to bin Ladin, and–of more immediate urgency–could be the key to stopping any other attacks that may be in the making.

Sources: Time magazine, Associated Press, Reuters.” The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Herzliya, Israel