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Quoting intelligence sources, the New York Post said the terrorist mastermind planned the September 11 attacks believing the US would retaliate militarily.
As a result, bin Laden has readied a counterstrike, planting at least one terrorist cell to carry out a major attack on American interests either in the US, Europe, the Middle East or Latin America, the sources said.
There is a '100 per cent' chance of an attack once the US strikes Afghanistan, a top intelligence official said.
One of the reasons the US hasn't struck back at bin Laden is that it wants to give the FBI time to find the counterstrike cell and neutralise it, the sources said.
"That is part of the equation," an official said.
The sources also said the 19 hijackers of the US planes operated independently of the counterstrike cell.
Some of the material the hijackers left behind, including phone numbers and documents, was misinformation designed to throw investigators off the trail, they said.
Bin Laden's plan, the daily said, was outlined to US lawmakers on Tuesday at a classified briefing by counter-terrorism officials of the FBI, CIA and Defence Intelligence Agency.
The information was based on intelligence from sources in England, Germany, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Egyptian, Somali and Pakistani elements of bin Laden's network are thought to be involved in the plan.
PTI
The Attack on America: The Complete Coverage
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External Link: For further coverage, please visit www.saja.org/roundupsept11.html
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