Bush giving details about foiled 2002 terror plot

The AP is reporting:

WASHINGTON — President Bush, in a speech about terror, is focusing on a foiled attack in 2002 in which plotters planned to use hijacked commercial airplanes to strike the West Coast.

The president said Al Qaeda had planned to hijack a plane with shoe bombs and fly the plane into a building in Los Angeles. This plan was foiled after the terror network succeeded in flying planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Bush has referred to the plot before, but provided more specifics in a speech Thursday.

In an address last October, Bush said the United States and its allies had foiled at least 10 serious plots by the Al Qaeda terror network in the last four years, including plans for Sept. 11-like attacks on both U.S. coasts.

The White House initially would not give details of the plots but later released a fact sheet with a brief, and vague, description of each.

Three targets cited were in the United States, including plans to use hijacked airplanes to attack the West Coast in mid-2002 and the East Coast in mid-2003. The White House said at least one planner of the West Coast attack was a key figure behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Michelle Malkin has some details about the speech as well.