By David Morgan WASHINGTON, Jan 22 (Reuters) - The former Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, once planned to send militants to the United States on student visas to carry out attacks on U.S. soil, officials said on Monday. But the plot, which came to light during a raid on an al Qaeda safe house in Iraq early last year, never got off the ground and Zarqawi was killed months later in an attack by U.S. forces, officials said. The plan, which was alluded to in congressional testimony last week by Defense Intelligence Agency director Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, called for using student visas to get 10 to 20 militants into the United States. Officials said the plot appeared to be Zarqawi's response to requests by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, that the Iraq militant branch of al Qaeda carry out attacks in the United States. ABC News first reported the existence of the plot on its Web site at www.abcnews.go.com. "It never happened. There were no visas obtained and none were ever applied for," said one U.S. official knowledgeable about the plan who asked not to be identified. Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said there was no credible evidence to suggest any imminent threat to the United States. "This was more aspirational than operational," he said.
