Bojinka plot

Bojinka plot
Bojinka plot
	Aftermath of the fatal Philippine Airlines Flight 434 bombing
Location	Makati, Philippines (Phase I); Airspace (Phase II); Langley, Virginia, U.S. (Phase III)
Date	Planned to be executed January 15–22, 1995; foiled on January 6, 1995
Target	Pope John Paul II (Phase I); American airliners (Phase II); CIA Headquarters (Phase III)
Attack type	Suicide attack, bombing and aircraft hijacking
Weapons	Improvised explosive device; Cessna aircraft
Deaths	1 (test bomb in Philippine Airlines Flight 434)
Injured	10 (test bomb in Philippine Airlines Flight 434)
Perpetrators	Al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah
Motive	Retaliation for United States foreign policy in the Middle East; Christianophobia; Distraction from the following phases of the plan (assassination of the Pope);
Accused	Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Convicted	Ramzi Yousef; Abdul Hakim Murad; Wali Khan Amin Shah

The Bojinka plot (/boʊˈdʒɪŋkə/ boh-JING-kə; Arabic: بوجينكا) was a large-scale, three-phase terrorist attack planned – but never executed – by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for January 1995. They intended to assassinate Pope John Paul II; blow up 11 airliners in flight from Asia to the United States, with the goal of killing approximately 4,000 passengers and shutting down air travel around the world; and crash a plane into the headquarters of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia.

Despite careful planning, the Bojinka plot was disrupted after a chemical fire drew the attention of the Philippine National Police on January 6–7, 1995. Yousef and Mohammed were unable to stage any of the three attacks. The only fatality resulted from a test bomb planted by Yousef on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, which killed one person and injured 10 others. They also planted two other bombs in a shopping mall and theater in the southern Philippines. Elements of the Bojinka plot (including the plan to crash a plane into the CIA headquarters) would be used in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, six years later.