The NEFA Foundation has released a report titled "Operation Gibraltar: A Foiled Al-Qaida Plot Against NATO Ships", the second installment in NEFA's "Connecting the Dots" series.
After 9/11, one of Al-Qaida's first significant conspiracies was to plan an attack on American and British naval ships in the Strait of
Gibraltar. High level Al-Qaida planners were involved in the execution of the plot, as Abd al-Rahim Hussein Mohammed al-Nashiri, who was also the brains behind the suicide attack on the USS Cole, originated the plan.
The Al-Qaida planning cell, which was sent to Morocco to prepare the attack, was well prepared and able to assimilate into local society. The plotters were also operating with effective covers, but when Moroccan authorities were tipped off by the CIA, they were able to dismantle the plot at a critical juncture.
