THE SUSPECTS
Authorities put a familiar name atop list: bin
Laden
By Charles M. Sennott, Globe Staff,
9/12/2001
LONDON - As a worldwide search began for those responsible for
the most devastating terror attack in history, security officials
and terrorism specialists said early indications pointed to one
leading suspect: Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.
Several said that bin Laden, who called for a Muslim ''holy
war'' against the United States for its policies in the Middle
East and who has financed and plotted a number of terrorist
attacks on American targets, has been planning a large operation
against the United States for months, possibly years.
Some said the wealthy Saudi-born fugitive, who operates from a
refuge in the mountains of Afghanistan, has spent years
establishing a network of ''sleepers,'' or undercover operatives,
who are trained, funded, and ready to mount a wide-scale operation
against the United States.
But officials and security specialists remained cautious
yesterday, saying that to discover with certainty who carried out
such a sophisticated and elaborate attack will require assembling
an intricate puzzle, with pieces scattered around the world.
Security forces were scrambling to put those pieces together even
as the attacks continued yesterday morning.
Some security specialists cautioned that it could take time -
days, weeks, or longer - to establish a clear enough picture of
who was involved to decide how to ''hunt down and punish,'' as
President Bush put it, those involved.
They said there were no credible claims of responsibility
yesterday and, given the horrifying scale of the attack, there
might be none.
Senator John F. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, said that
members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence were
briefed by US intelligence officials and that there were signs
pointing to bin Liden as mastermind of the attacks.
''We know the basics,'' Kerry said. ''The basics are obvious to
everybody. Most people believe it is bin Laden. My own judgment is
that it's bin Laden, based on the warnings we have received.''
While one US official said there was no immediate, specific
warning of the attacks, Kerry added, ''The intelligence community
informed me several months ago that they knew Osama bin Laden was
working, and they even had thwarted some efforts. People who say
they had no warning of this are not telling you the truth.''
Vincent Cannistraro, former head of counterterrorism for the
CIA, agreed that the signs pointed toward bin Laden. Cannistraro
said bin Laden has had his eyes on such an attack since he helped
finance the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993.
That attack, masterminded by a Pakistani named Ramzi Yousef,
who is linked to bin Laden, was intended to take down the twin
towers by using a massive truck bomb parked in an underground lot
to send one tower tumbling into the other. The bomb detonated, but
the number of casualties was low and the building withstood the
attack and was repaired and reopened.
''This was about unfinished business for bin Laden,'' said
Cannistraro. ''Bin Laden wanted to take down the World Trade
Center back then, and it looks like he got his wish.''
He added that yesterday's terrorist onslaught bore a striking
similarity to plots that Yousef had been planning after he fled
New York in the aftermath of the World Trade Center bombing. He
was apprehended in 1995 in Pakistan, brought to trial in the
United States, and is serving a 240-year prison sentence at the
federal penitentiary in Florence, Colo.
Before Yousef's capture, a fire at an apartment where he was
living in the Philippines brought investigators to a laptop
computer that held Yousef's elaborate plans to hijack and blow up
11 airliners in the sky at one time.
Specialists on terrorism were cautious yesterday in their
assessments, but there was a consensus that bin Laden is probably
the only known international figure capable of coordinating an
attack on such a scale, one that may have involved a constellation
of terrorist groups united in opposition to US foreign policy in
the Middle East.
An attack such as this would require massive funding and years
of planning, they added.
The immediate timing and message behind the attacks was
uncertain, but most experts linked them to the surging anger in
large parts of the Middle East and the Islamic world against US
policy in the Middle East, in particular the United States'
steadfast support for Israel in its military effort to quell a
Palestinian uprising that began one year ago.
James Rubin, a spokesman for former US secretary of state
Madeleine K. Albright and now a consultant on global issues based
in London, said bin Laden was on the short list of those with the
capability of coordinating and financing such an attack.
''Clearly, they have been gathering their forces and funds for
some time for precisely these kinds of activities,'' said Rubin.
''Clearly, they see the World Trade Center as a center of American
power. But in fact the World Trade Center is a locus for an
international business community, so this is in many ways an
attack on civilized nations all over the world.''
An Arab journalist with access to bin Laden said that three
weeks ago bin Laden and his followers announced they would mount
an unprecedented attack on US interests for its support of Israel.
Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi, an
Arabic-language weekly magazine, told Reuters that Islamic
fundamentalists led by bin Laden were ''almost certainly'' behind
the attacks.
''It is most likely the work of Islamic fundamentalists. Osama
bin Laden warned three weeks ago that he would attack American
interests in an unprecedented attack, a very big one,'' Atwan
said. ''Personally, we received information that he planned very,
very big attacks against American interests. We received several
warnings like this. We did not take it so seriously, preferring to
see what would happen before reporting it.''
Atwan has interviewed bin Laden and maintains close contacts
with his followers.
Bin Laden, whose organization calls itself al-Qaeda - ''the
base'' - is wanted in the United States for the 1998 US Embassy
bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people and injured
more than 4,000.
He is believed to be hiding out in the mountainous terrain of
southern Afghanistan, near the city of Kandahar. He has preached a
particularly virulent brand of anti-American hatred and issued a
religious decree, or ''fatwah,'' calling on Muslims to fight
Americans and American interests all over the world. His group
sees America as the ultimate enemy of Islam and has demanded that
all US military troops leave Saudi Arabia.
But other groups will be scrutinized as well. They include a
number of Palestinian and Arab groups that reject the state of
Israel and vehemently oppose US policy in the Middle East, which
they perceive as having a pro-Israel bias. They include the
Islamic fundamentalist organization Hamas in the West Bank and
Gaza; Iranian-backed fighters of Hezbollah in Lebanon; Islamic
Jihad in Egypt; and the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria.
Several of these groups, according to evidence presented in the
trials of four al-Qaeda defendants charged with plotting terror
attacks, and to terrorism specialists, have formed links with bin
Laden's group. Some analysts said al-Qaeda has operatives in
several American cities, including the New York City borough of
Brooklyn; Orlando; Dallas; Santa Clara, Calif.; Columbia,
Mo.; and Herndon, Va.
A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said
there was early information that indicated direct involvement in
the attacks by the al-Qaeda network.
''Indications are that individuals associated with bin Laden
and his al-Qaeda network may have been involved,'' the official
said. Asked if there were specific leads, he said, ''If it weren't
specific, we wouldn't be telling you anything. Indications are
pointing in that direction. That's all I can say.''
Simon Bennett, a terrorism specialist for the University of
Leicester, England, said al-Qaeda had established ''sleepers'' in
most of these cities.
''These are people who can be activated at any time; that may
be what we are seeing,'' said Bennett. ''It is questionable
whether anyone will admit, in an official claim of responsiblity,
to these attacks,'' he said. ''The retaliation for it will simply
prove too devastating.''
Afghanistan's fundamentalist Islamic Taliban regime condemned
the attacks and rejected suggestions that bin Laden could be
behind them. The Associated Press reported that the Taliban's
ambassador to neighboring Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said bin
Laden did not have the facilities to carry out such
well-orchestrated attacks.
Glen Johnson and John Donnelly of the Globe Staff
contributed to this report. Material from the Associated Press and
Reuters news services was also used.
This story ran on page A8 of the Boston Globe
on 9/12/2001.
© Copyright
2001 Globe Newspaper Company. |
