In a 9/11 Commission hearing on June 16, 2004, former CIA Deputy Director of Intelligence Douglas MacEachin said: ” ‘Whether Bin Laden and his organization had roles in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center and the thwarted Manila [Philippines] plot to blow up a dozen U.S. commercial aircraft in 1995 remains a matter of substantial uncertainty… Ramzi Yousef, who was a lead operative in both plots, trained in camps in Afghanistan that were funded by Bin Laden and used to train many al Qaeda operatives. Whether he was then or later became a member of al Qaeda remains a matter of debate, but he was at a minimum part of a loose network of extremist Sunni Islamists who, like Bin Laden, began to focus their rage on the United States. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who provided some funding for Yousef in the 1993 WTC attack and was his operational partner in the Manila plot, later did join al Qaeda and masterminded the al Qaeda 9/11 attack. He was not, however, an al Qaeda member at the time of the Manila plot. A number of other individuals connected to the 1993 and 1995 plots or to some of the plotters either were or later became associates of Bin Laden. We have no conclusive evidence, however, that at the time of the plots any of them was operating under Bin Laden’s direction.’ ”
– Peter Lance, Cover Up, Page 209