- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three
al Qaeda members have told Moroccan officials Osama bin Laden commanded
his fighters in December to disperse across the globe to attack "American
and Jewish interests," The Washington Post reported on Sunday.
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- The three men, citizens of Saudi Arabia, told the interrogators
they escaped Afghanistan and came to Morocco on a mission to use bomb-laden
speedboats for suicide attacks on U.S. and British warships in the Strait
of Gibraltar, the Post said.
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- The men, captured in May in a joint Moroccan-CIA operation,
appeared briefly in court in Morocco on Friday, but made no public statements,
according to the Post.
-
- Moroccan officials said bin Laden's instructions were
behind a string of recent attacks, including Friday's bombing outside the
U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, that killed 11 people.
-
- They said that information from prisoners and other evidence
shows that al Qaeda leaders continue to direct missions from afar, the
Post said.
-
- The Moroccans said that, based on their findings and
communication with other intelligence agencies, there is every indication
bin Laden is still alive, the Post said.
-
- The accounts provided by the three Saudi captives were
related during interviews with senior Moroccan officials who have direct
knowledge of the interrogations, the Post reported.
-
- The Saudis were among the al Qaeda members who assembled
in the mountainous Tora Bora region after U.S.-backed forces captured Kabul,
the Afghan capital, the Post said.
-
- While sneaking out of Tora Bora, a bin Laden lieutenant
assembled al Qaeda members for final instructions.
-
- The lieutenant, who said he was carrying direct instructions
from bin Laden, ordered the members to flee Afghanistan to whatever areas
of the world they had previously operated, including Asia, the Persian
Gulf, Africa, Turkey and Europe, according to the newspaper.
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- Bin Laden's decree directed them to launch terrorist
attacks once they had become established in familiar areas.
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- "Members who were very knowledgeable about one region
had to go back to that region to prepare and perpetuate terrorist attacks,"
a senior Moroccan official told the Post.
-
- The lieutenant noted that operations against European
targets could be launched from North Africa, and operations in the Persian
Gulf from Yemen, the Post said.
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- The Saudis were ordered to Morocco to attack the ships.
-
- Moroccan officials said the Saudi prisoners described
a final ceremony in which the men pledged allegiance to bin Laden and swore
themselves to martyrdom through suicide operations, the Post said.
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