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THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING
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THE SUSPECTS Authorities put a familiar name atop list: bin Laden
By Charles M. Sennott, Globe Staff, 9/12/2001
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.
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