FBI detects Al-Qaeda base in Xinjiang

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Publication: Newsinsight.net
Date: November 2, 2004
URL: http://www.newsinsight.net/nati2.asp?recno=3018

An FBI team which is touring India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Armenia has found intelligence of a pact between local Chinese authorities in Xinjiang and some Al-Qaeda members. According to the unwritten agreement, Al-Qaeda members may stay in Xinjiang so long they don't support the East-Turkistan separatist movement. But a senior FBI counter-terrorism official said that Osama Bin Laden could have used the Xinjiang shelter in the past. FBI officials are coordinating with host countries and their security agencies to focus on small inputs about Osama's movements and the Al-Qaeda plans. The bulk of FBI's information is based on its key sources in Pakistan presumably within the ISI. Both the CIA and FBI are getting regular feedback from disgruntled elements of the ISI about Osama and the Al-Qaeda, which have led to more than three- hundred raids in the last two years, some with marked success. Osama's movements are being closely monitored by the CIA and FBI, and tracing his hideouts in Xinjiang is causing diplomatic concern, because of the first-time involvement of China in terrorism.
 

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