9/11 Conspiracy: Did FBI Source Have Contact With Osama Bin Laden in 1993?

The FBI had a source in contact with Osama bin Laden in 1993 who learned Al Qaeda was planning terror attacks in the US, it has been revealed.

The Washington Times has reported the source gained secretive and specific information which helped uncover a terror plot against a Masonic lodge in Los Angeles.

The information was revealed in a 2010 discrimination lawsuit filed against the FBI by Bassem Youssef, a former agent. This revelation was omitted from the original 9/11 report and allegedly hidden from the 9/11 Commission and congressional investigators, which has prompted members of Congress to question what else the public may not know.

In January 1993, Youssef began developing two sources with strong connections to Omar Abdel Rahman, the "Blind Sheikh", responsible for planning the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

According to Ed Curran, one of Youssef's superiors at the time, a source told Youssef about a plot to attack a Masonic lodge in Los Angeles.

Curran said: "One source came back, had direct contact with Osama bin Laden. He had indicated to [Abdel] Rahman that he had a target picked out for an explosion in the Los Angeles area, I believe it was a Masonic lodge. [Abdel] Rahman went and told him to go get the money from Osama back in the Middle East."

Afterwards, as reported by ABC, Curran said he and Youssef had met with the potential source overseas and "eventually turned him so that he was working for us". Reportedly, the FBI "turned him" by deporting him and then promising his return to the US as "the carrot".

Curran first disclosed the high-level source's existence five years earlier in April 2005. He stated: "Bassem had been working on the development of a particular person for months at a time trying to develop him and whatever."

He continued: "And [the potential source] was deported but that did not dissuade him ... [Bassem] worked with this person's wife and set up negotiations directly with Bassem, and we were able to travel twice overseas to try to get this person to work for us."

The full transcript for the deposition is posted on the National Whistleblower Center's website. This week, US officials have not yet confirmed the accuracy of Curran's testimony, in reference to his claims that an FBI agent met with bin Laden in 1993.

In response to keeping information from the public, the FBI released a statement which read: "The FBI made all relevant information available to the 9/11 Commission and the Joint Intelligence Community Inquiry. Throughout both of these review, the FBI shared pertinent documents and knowledgeable personnel in order to present all known information to Commission and Inquiry personnel."

Philip Zelikow, who served as the 9/11 Commission's executive director, told the Daily Telegraph that evidence on the activities of Al Qaeda during the early 1990s was not investigated deeply because it was "so distant from the plotting that led directly to the 9/11 attack".

As of yet, details about the second source Youssef recruited is unknown.