[iwar] [fc:French.trace.Bin.Laden.link.as.World.hunts.network]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-02 20:19:49
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 20:19:49 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:French.trace.Bin.Laden.link.as.World.hunts.network]
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French trace Bin Laden link as World hunts network

    PARIS, (Reuters)      *****

 - A suspect in an alleged plot to blow up the U.S.  Embassy in Paris
has told investigators he visited Osama bin Laden's headquarters in
Afghanistan to discuss the planned attack, a source close to the case
said Tuesday. 

As investigators around the world hunted traces of the network they
believe may have been behind last month's attacks on New York and
Washington, Germany said it had frozen over 200 bank accounts, and
Uganda detained seven Pakistanis it said might be connected to bin
Laden, the Saudi-born Islamic militant. 

In Paris, the source told Reuters that Djamel Beghal admitted he had
signed a pact with an aide to bin Laden to carry out suicide attacks on
the U.S.  Embassy and an American cultural center in the center of the
French capital. 

The source quoted Beghal as testifying that a Tunisian arrested in
Belgium carrying explosives two days after the Sept.  11 attacks on the
United States had planned to sneak into the embassy with an explosives
belt strapped around him. 

Both Paris attacks were planned for this year, the source quoted Beghal
as telling investigating judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere.  The 35-year-old
with French and Algerian citizenship was extradited from the United Arab
Emirates Monday. 

U.S.  authorities have named bin Laden and his al Qaeda militant network
as prime suspects in the attacks on the World Trade Center and
Washington's Pentagon that left almost 6,000 people dead or missing. 

Beghal, who was arrested in July in Dubai, has been placed under
investigation in France on suspicion of being part of "groups linked to
terrorist activity."

The source said Beghal told Bruguiere he had recruited several militants
at mosques in Britain.  He said he had now turned his back on bin Laden
because studies of the Koran in jail had shown him the attacks were not
consistent with Islam. 

Police arrested seven suspected extremists in Paris on Sept.  21 as part
of their probe into whether U.S.  interests in France were the planned
targets of attacks. 

ROBBERY GANG

Separately, alleged members of a gang with suspected links to bin Laden
were due to go on trial Tuesday on charges of armed robbery and plotting
to blow up police headquarters in Lille, northern France, on the eve of
a 1996 G7 meeting. 

Security forces in Douai in northern France were on maximum alert for
the trial, with 300 police officers ringing the court, and police
snipers stationed on adjoining buildings. 

Defense lawyers demanded the trial be delayed, saying the atmosphere of
fear following the attacks on the United States meant their clients
could not receive a fair trial. 

An inquiry has established links between some of the accused and
traffickers of arms and false documents thought to supply bin Laden's
network, but the men were charged in a normal court rather than a
special Paris court that handles terrorism cases. 

Three of the 12 accused face charges of attempted murder of a public
official and attempted assassination.  They are alleged to have shot a
driver at point-blank range and wounded three policemen in seven attacks
on French supermarkets in 1996. 

In Berlin, Germany's Economics Ministry said it had greatly stepped up
its efforts to crack down on financial flows that may be nourishing
violent groups and had frozen 214 bank accounts suspected of being
linked to terrorists.  It said the accounts contained a total of $3.7
million. 

At least three of the hijackers who flew the planes in the U.S.  attacks
had lived in Germany, and security experts say the country has been a
safe haven because of its extensive laws to protect privacy. 

The U.S.  Treasury Department said Monday that 19 nations had ordered
their banks to freeze assets of suspected terror groups and a further
dozen had agreed to take other measures.  The United States has frozen
$6 million in suspect assets. 

BRITAIN CRACKS DOWN

Swiss officials said Tuesday they had found no evidence so far that
their internationally renowned and secretive banking system was used to
help fund the Sept.  11 attacks.  But investigators were still searching
and had blocked one account. 

In London, legal sources told Reuters that Britain was poised to use
anti-terrorism laws to arrest a prominent Muslim who has urged his
followers to kill Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for siding with
the United States against bin Laden. 

The Crown Prosecution Service said it was looking into the activities of
Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed after he issued a fatwa, or religious edict,
calling for Musharraf's death.  There was no suggestion Bakri was
himself linked to bin Laden. 

Any move, which is expected within days, would follow the arrest Monday
of a 43-year-old man on terror charges. 

Media reports said the man ran a company offering young Muslims weapons
training in the United States and claimed to have sent fighters to
Afghanistan and Chechnya. 

Ugandan police said Tuesday they had arrested seven Pakistanis and a
Zambian at Entebbe airport last week who were using fake passports. 
Police said they might be linked to bin Laden through a suspect
Pakistani travel agency. 

"Their travel arrangements were very suspicious," a police spokesman
said.  "First, they flew to Burundi and then Rwanda and then to Uganda
and were on their way to Germany, it was fishy."

11:09 10-02-01

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