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| The Alliance |
| Egyptian sez Binny's bought anthrax spores |
| 2001-10-24 |
A follower of Osama bin Laden has claimed that the suspected terror mastermind bought anthrax spores and other deadly bacteria, it emerged today. The claim came from Ahmad Ibrahim al-Najjar, a convicted follower of bin Laden, who told authorities in Egypt that the al-Qaeda chief openly bought the bacteria from laboratories in eastern Europe and Asia. Al-Najjar was convicted in Egypt of trying to overthrow the country’s government in favour of a fundamentalist Islamic regime and jailed for life last year. He has become an informer on the activities of al-Qaeda and the New York Post reported that translations of his evidence to Egyptian authorities showed the germ warfare purchases. Al-Najjar claimed that bin Laden was quite open in his operations, attempting to buy germ warfare agents including anthrax, e-coli and salmonella. His group ordered the bacteria to be sent by mail, and as long as it paid £5,000 up front to the biological plants selling the agents, the identities of the purchasers were not checked. So-called factories in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in eastern Europe, were used to provide e-coli and salmonella, while a facility in south-east Asia sold the group anthrax. It was supplied to the Indonesia-based Islamic Moro Front, which is linked to bin Laden and also to Abu Sayaf, the terrorist group trying to establish a breakaway fundamentalist Muslim regime in the Philippines. Bin Laden’s agents paid just £2,585 plus shipping costs for the anthrax spores, al-Najjar told Egyptian intelligence. The claims came after mounting suspicion that bin Laden was connected to the anthrax attacks which have killed three people and infected at least ten more in America. However, No link has been established between the September 11 and anthrax attacks, Robert Mueller, the FBI Director said today. The claim from al-Najjar coincided with a report that American investigators have found magazines relating to germ warfare at the home of two men arrested soon after the suicide hijackings. Mohammed Jaweed Azmath and Ayub Ali Khan, were arrested on September 12 after being found on a train in Texas with boxcutters, thousands of dollars in cash and black hair dye. The New York Times reported that the FBI is checking documents found in their apartment for traces of anthrax after discovering two magazines with cover stories about poison gas and biological weapons. Neither man is cooperating with investigators. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |