Bin Laden Terror Documents Discovered
W A S H I N G T O N, Nov. 15, 2001 -- As Taliban troops retreat from several strongholds in Afghanistan, conquering fighters are finding disturbing evidence of Osama bin Laden's efforts at plotting mass destruction.
MORE INVESTIGATIVE NEWS:
• Manhunt Seeks Suspected Surviving Hijacker• Italian Stowaway Released• Blair Presents New Bin Laden Evidence
In houses in and around Kabul, the Afghan capital, Northern Alliance troops who chased out the Taliban have found terrorist training manuals, bomb-making materials and reportedly even detailed designs of nuclear weapons.
The Times of London reported today that one of its reporters discovered partially burned plans describing how to detonate plutonium and create a nuclear explosion. The documents were found in a former headquarters of al Qaeda, the bin Laden network believed to have been behind the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
According to the Times, "attempts had been made to burn the evidence, but many documents still remained. They included studies into the development of a kinetic energy supergun capable of firing chemical or nuclear warheads, external propulsion missiles, preliminary research on the creation of a thermonuclear device, as well as a multitude of instructions for making smaller bombs."
A little more than a week ago, President Bush told a group of Central and Eastern European leaders that bin Laden's attempts to get nuclear arms represented a "threat to every nation; and, eventually, to civilization itself."
Bin Laden's men made their first move in their quest for nuclear weapons in Khartoum, Sudan, in the mid-1990s. But the man allegedly sent on the mission, key bin Laden lieutenant Mamdouh Mahmud Salim (who is now being held in New York awaiting trial in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa), was apparently cheated by Russian mobsters.
Charles Adler, the American lawyer who once represented Salim, said "there was an effort to buy enriched uranium" but the Russian Mafia tried to fool Salim.
"I think it just wasn't what it was purported to be," Adler said. "But there was nothing that would indicate that they wouldn't continue to try."
Bin Laden has boasted he has nuclear weapons, but U.S. surveillance flights over Afghanistan training camps have not detected any evidence of such arms.
—ABCNEWS
Binalshibh once shared an apartment in Hamburg, Germany, with Atta and two other hijackers. Since late September, German police have been hunting for Binalshibh and two other suspected members of the Hamburg terrorist cell: Zakariya Essabar and Said Bahaji. All three are believed to have fled Germany.
—ABCNEWS
Italian Stowaway Released
P A L M I, Italy, Nov. 15 —
An Egyptian-Canadian stowaway who wasarrested on terrorism charges after he was found with high-techequipment in an Italian port was ordered freed from prisontoday. Amir Farid Rizk, 43, was arrested Oct. 18, the first person tobe charged in Italy under a new international anti-terrorism law.
Sept. 27: Italian Police Investigate Man Found in Box
He was found in a shipping container equipped with a satellitephone, raising suspicions he was part of a terrorist network. His lawyers, however, argued that Rizk was innocent and wasfleeing religious discrimination and personal legal problems in hisnative Egypt. They said he is a Maronite Christian, a tiny minoritywithin the Muslim country. Prosecutor Roberto Di Palma said he would continue hisinvestigation despite the court's ruling. "This man is hiding something. Someone who is escaping fromEgypt in a container is certainly trying to hide something," hetold The Associated Press a few hours after the court announced itsdecision.—The Associated Press
Blair Presents New Bin Laden Evidence
L O N D O N, Nov. 14 —
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has presented new evidence tying Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda network to the Sept. 11 attacks.
A document released by the British government today claims newly declassified evidence proves nearly all of the hijackers behind the attacks were linked to al Qaeda, rather than just three who were initially tied to the group.
"The investigative material now leaves no doubt about the guilt of Osama bin Laden or his associates," Blair told members of Parliament today in London.
For the first time, the dossier also revealed that investigators have learned the hijackers were trained in Afghanistan, the home base of bin Laden and al Qaeda.
"A senior bin Laden associate claimed to have trained some of the hijackers in Afghanistan," the document revealed.
On Oct. 20, the document reports, bin Laden taped and circulated a video among al Qaeda supporters in which he discussed the Sept. 11 attacks. The video was not released to the public but excerpts of bin Laden's comments have appeared in the U.S. and British press.
"It is what we instigated for a while, in self-defense. And it was in revenge for our people killed in Palestine and Iraq," bin Laden reportedly said. "So if avenging the killing of our people is terrorism, let history be a witness that we are terrorists."
Later in the interview, according to the British government, bin Laden said, "The battle has been moved inside America, and we shall continue until we win this battle, or die in the cause and meet our maker."—ABCNEWS
Later in the interview, according to the British government, bin Laden said, "The battle has been moved inside America, and we shall continue until we win this battle, or die in the cause and meet our maker."—ABCNEWS