Telegraph

How bin Laden strategy thwarts the FBI By Ben Fenton in Washington (Filed: 24/11/2001)

SOME 18 months ago Osama bin Laden authorised a secondary tier of terrorists with only indirect links to al-Qa'eda, FBI sources say.

The network was to operate on his behalf and on its own initiative in Europe, the Middle East and America.

The bureau believes that this devolution of responsibility has thwarted it from bringing a single charge against anyone for involvement in the suicide hijackings that killed about 4,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Today, 74 days and almost six million man-hours into the largest criminal investigation in the nation's history, the FBI cannot even prove that a terrorist conspiracy took place on American soil on September 11.

More than 1,200 people, almost all of Arab or Central Asian descent, have been arrested and at least half are still in jail.

About 4,000 FBI agents and another 3,000 support staff have been involved in the investigation. But at best they have only four people regarded as likely to be involved in the attacks.

Despite the huge investment of time and money, the FBI's senior officers have regretfully concluded that the answer to their problems will come from Europe.

A government source said last week: "The major investigative activity is coming outside the United States."

Hundreds of FBI agents are already working with police in Britain, Europe and the Middle East. American information has helped in the arrest of 360 people suspected of links to bin Laden, including 100 in Europe.

Bureau sources said they were confident that the arrest and pursuit of several men in European and Arab countries, who can be tied both to the 19 suicide hijackers and to bin Laden, would provide the evidence to conclude the American side of their investigation.

At present, most of those being held in America are accused of immigration offences. One man, Agus Budiman, an Indonesian, has been charged with document fraud for helping his countryman Mohammed bin Nasser Belfas to obtain a Virginia driver's licence.

Both men came from Hamburg, where American officials believe the conspiracy was fomented. But there has been no proof so far of their complicity.

Like the other four men regarded as likely co-conspirators, Ayub Ali Khan, Mohammed Jaweed Azmath, Nabil al-Marabh and Zacarias Moussaoui, Budiman has not co-operated.

Khan and Azmath, both Indians, were arrested on a train on September 11 after their aircraft was grounded. They were carrying knives like the ones used in the hijacks, more than £3,400 in cash and hair dye.

Both men had shaved their bodies, the normal practice of Islamic suicide terrorists preparing for entry to paradise and both were extremely nervous when approached by police.

Al-Marabh, a Kuwaiti, was a taxi driver in Boston, where two of the planes were hijacked. The FBI says he has close links to Raed Hijazi, a known associate of bin Laden, who is in prison in Jordan on bomb conspiracy charges.

Moussaoui, a French-Moroccan named as a terrorist suspect by authorities in Paris, attracted attention when he tried to get time on a commercial airliner flight simulator despite not having a light aircraft pilot's licence.

The silence of these men has frustrated the FBI and the White House so much that the bureau has subtly persuaded the American media, with a series of leaked stories, to begin a debate about the morality of torturing suspects in such grave investigations.

But with or without truth drugs or beatings, it seems certain that the breakthrough in the investigation will come in Germany, Spain or some other foreign country.

And whether or not the FBI has interrupted other planned terrorist attacks, we will never know for sure.

One result of the attacks was a revolution in attitudes to airport security. Before September 11, Britons were always stunned by the relaxed attitude Americans had to security regulations at airports.

Now, President Bush has reluctantly nationalised security staff at American airports and passengers endure long queues and invasive spot checks.

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001