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Hijackers used Afghan camps, U.S. suggests
©Associated Press,
The Associated Press quoted unnamed law enforcement and intelligence officials as saying the investigation into the origins of the Sept. 11 plot is focusing on a small number of bin Laden lieutenants, including Ayman al-Zawahri, Mohamed Atef and Abu Zubaydah. In recent days, the international police organization Interpol issued an arrest warrant for al-Zawahri, identified as bin Laden's most trusted deputy and head of the al-Jihad terrorist group in Egypt that merged in 1998 with bin Laden's al-Qaida network. That warrant, made at the request of Egyptian police, says al-Zawahri "is considered to have masterminded several terrorist operations in Egypt" and is "accused of criminal complicity and management for the purpose of committing premeditated murders." The warrant doesn't specifically link the Egyptian doctor to the Sept. 11 attacks but was issued exactly two weeks after the suicide hijackings that killed more than 5,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Separately, French authorities say a man has confessed to meeting with Zubaydah in a plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Paris. The AP quoted an unnamed U.S. official as saying there is evidence that some of the hijackers, including Atta, traveled to Afghanistan in 1999 or 2000 and received training at bin Laden camps. Time magazine reported Friday that the CIA had evidence that Atta met directly with al-Zawahri. On Thursday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said there was evidence that one top bin Laden lieutenant was responsible for the detailed planning of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. U.S. officials on Friday said investigators were focusing on a small group of bin Laden associates that include al-Zawahri, Atef and Zubaydah. All three men's names appear on lists that U.S. officials have sent allies and banks worldwide to assist the investigation. A fourth bin Laden associate believed to handle finances, Shaihk Saiid, also appears on those lists. The FBI is investigating whether he sent and received money from Atta using the alias Mustafa Ahmed, officials have said. The FBI and European authorities have asked banks to check their customer account lists for some 370 individuals and organizations wanted for questioning in connection with the terrorism investigation, according to a list released by the Finnish government. It also includes five people with addresses in Vero Beach that are in the same or adjoining apartment complexes used by three of the hijackers: Ahmed Algamhdi, Hamza Algamhdi and Saeed Alghamdi. Other links between recent terrorist activities and bin Laden's lieutenant's emerged overseas. Djamel Beghal, a French-Algerian who authorities say divulged a separate terrorist plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Paris, told investigators he met with Zubaydah in Afghanistan about the plan, French officials said. Beghal's lawyer has said he believes the confession was coerced. In other developments: • An unsealed FBI affidavit revealed a flight attendant aboard American Airlines Flight 11, hijacked in Boston, used a cell phone to contact an airline employee at Boston's Logan International Airport. She said several men of Middle Eastern descent in the area of rows 9 and 10 were armed with knives and had wounded other passengers and were hijacking the plane. • The court documents also revealed that a handwritten document in Arabic in Atta's luggage was titled "In the name of God all mighty, Death Certificate." • In London, the founder of a company that allegedly offered training in the "Islamic art of war" was denied bail Friday. Sulayman Balal Zainulabidin, 43, worked as a chef but also ran Sakina Security in London, which advertised that it trained and taught self-defense and survival skills to young recruits. According to prosecutor Patrick Stevens, Sakina's Web site, now disabled, offered a two-week firearms course called "Ultimate Jihad Challenge" in Alabama and a "First Islamic Bodyguard" course that included instruction in stalking, terrorism and use of firearms. • In France, a former French Defense Ministry official said he believes police have found a notebook belonging to a suspected member of a terrorist group containing codes that could be used to decipher messages within bin Laden's network. - Information from Knight Ridder Newspapers was used in this report.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
