Basayev and September 11

It appears that Chechen boyevik Shamil Basayev has a pilot's licence and is able to fly passenger airliners. From Kommersant:

Stepashin: Basayev planned airstrike on Kremlin in 1995

On June 13 Sergei Stepashin, chairman of the State Auditing Chamber, stated that as early as 1995 Chechen fighter Shamil Basayev had prepared the plan of a terrorist act that was subsequently used by the Al-Qaeda boyeviks during the terrorist acts of September 11.

According to Mr. Stepashin, who in 1995 occupied the post of director of the Federal Service of Counter-espionage (FSK), at the time of the raid of Basayev's gang beyond the republic's borders the terrorists' final target was not Budennovsk. "His plan was to [to reach] Kavminvody, to seize an aircraft [there], fly to Moscow and strike the Kremlin," the chairman of the State Auditing Chamber said in his interview for the ORT television channel. According to him, the fighters "deployed and took the ROVD and hospital (in Budennovsk - Kommersant) "in their fright" (Rus. s perepugu)."

(via chechnya-sl)