| Date | 5–8 January 2000 |
|---|---|
| Location | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
The2000 Kuala Lumpur al-Qaeda Summit was a meeting of several high-levelal-Qaeda members held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 5 to 8 January 2000.[1][2] During this conference, theUSSCole bombing andSeptember 11 attacks were planned. The CIA and Malaysian government came under fire for failing to identify members of the summit and arrest them before the attacks were successfully carried out.
The three-day-long meeting was held in the hotel room ofYazid Sufaat, a formerMalaysian Army captain and businessman, in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur. The attendance consisted of Arab veterans of theSoviet–Afghan War, includingHambali,Ramzi bin al-Shibh,Nawaf al-Hazmi,Khalid al-Mihdhar andTawfiq bin Attash.
Before the meeting, the United States intercepted a telephone call toYemen by al-Mihdhar concerning arrangements for the trip.Osama bin Laden had called that number dozens of times.
By request of theCIA, Malaysian authorities videotaped the meeting, without audio. The men were also photographed when they came out of the meeting. American investigators did not identify these men until much later.
Ramzi bin al-Shibh's attendance at the meeting was discovered by the investigators by looking into his credit card records. Sufaat was later arrested, but he denied that he knew any of the men and said that Hambali had arranged the meeting.
The men flew to Bangkok, where the CIA lost track of them. Several months later, in March 2000, the CIA found out that Hazmi had flown to Los Angeles. Unbeknownst to the CIA, al-Mihdhar arrived on the same flight. The FBI was never notified, and nothing more was done to locate the suspects.[3]
