- NEW YORK (Reuters)
- Two Al Qaeda computers containing hundreds of documents and files, including
plans to launch a chemical and biological weapons program, have been found
in Kabul, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
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- A Wall Street Journal reporter bought the computers for
$1,100, the report said.
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- Containing text and video files dating back to early
1997, the IBM desktop computer was used by the leadership of al Qaeda,
the militant organization led by Osama bin Laden, to coordinate secret
operations around the world, the newspaper said.
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- According to the computer's internal records, it was
also used last May to type a letter to anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massoud,
the newspaper said.
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- Written in what the Journal described as "clumsy
French in the name of an obscure London-based Islamic information agency,"
the letter requests an interview with Massoud for a television report on
Afghanistan. Massoud was killed Sept. 9 by two French-speaking Arabs posing
as journalists.
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- The Wall Street Journal said the computer was apparently
recovered by a looter who found it and a Compaq laptop in an office used
by al Qaeda in Kabul.
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- U.S. officials have confirmed the authenticity of the
video files and text documents, many of which are protected by passwords,
the newspaper reported.
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- The computer contains correspondence with militant Muslims
around the world, while files discuss subjects ranging from fund-raising
to efforts to create a chemical and biological weapons program, dubbed
al Zabadi, or curdled milk, the Wall Street Journal said.
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- Also found was a letter written by someone using the
name Abu Yaser which states that "hitting the Americans and the Jews
is a target of great value and has its rewards in this life and, God willing,
the afterlife."
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- The files apparently do not outline the plotting of Sept.
11 or show any clear plans for additional attacks, the newspaper said.
But there is a video file of bin Laden discussing what he says is America's
anti-Muslim crusade and mentioning the Sept. 11 attacks during a 23-minute
speech.
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- Documents and memos found on the computer refer to al
Qaeda as "the company" and leadership as "the general management,"
the Wall Street Journal reported.
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