Author: Agence France-Presse
Publication: www.inq7.net
Date: October 20, 2001
URL: http://www.inq7.net/wnw/2001/oct/21/wnw_2-1.htm
LONDON - China paid suspected terrorist
mastermind Osama bin Laden several million dollars for access to unexploded
US cruise missiles following an attack on his bases three years ago, according
to a newspaper report here Saturday.
The Guardian reported that an alleged
senior agent of bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in Europe told an associate,
in a secretly taped conversation, that Chinese businessmen had paid 10
million dollars to study the missiles.
Bin Laden is the prime suspect of
the September 11 terrorist assault on New York and Washington which claimed
the lives of some 5,500 people.
Following the 1998 attack, carried
out in reprisal for the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania,
reports suggesting China had acquired two unexploded Tomahawk missiles
were attacked as "groundless" by Beijing, the broadsheet said.
The Guardian report came the day
after US President George W. Bush, in a joint press conference with Chinese
President Jiang Zemin, welcomed the Asian nation's "firm commitment" to
the war on terrorism, although Beijing has yet to explicitly endorse the
US-led campaign.
The daily said that on March 9,
a 32-year-old Libyan terrorist suspect met the head of al-Qaeda's Italian
cell, Sami Ben Khemais, in a Milan flat and told him of China's involvement
in the missiles.
The suspect, who was arrested in
Munich on Wednesday at the request of the Italian authorities in connection
with al-Qaeda, told ben Khemais: "With these weapons, he (bin Laden) has
boosted his financial resources. From every part of the world businessmen
who hate Americans have come to study American missile strategy.
"In particular, businessmen have
come from China. He works a great deal with China. He's got good relations
with them," added the suspect, named ben Heni by the paper.
The Guardian said that unknown to
the two men, the flat had been bugged by Italian anti-terrorist officers.
