Bin laden's plan for 9/11 anniversary

Osama bin Laden was planning a major attack on the United States to coincide with the 10th anniversary this year of the 11 September atrocity. The planning even went as far as considering candidates for the attack, a report in The Wall Street Journal claims.

Details of the planned strike have emerged after a detailed examination of the so-called "motherlode" of data recovered from the al-Qa'ida leader's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where he was killed by US Special Forces on 2 May. The paper, citing unnamed sources, says there was no evidence that the "nascent plot" ever went beyond the planning phase.

"Bin Laden and his operations chief, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, swapped views about the composition of the attack team," the report said.

The suggested attack is one of a number of claims made about evidence found in the compound. It has also been claimed that Bin Laden was briefed on the details of the attacks on London in 2005.