- BONN, Germany (UPI) -- Osama
bin Laden is still alive and his al Qaida network has the ability to launch
a major terrorist attack in Germany, the head of the country's Federal
Intelligence Service warned Tuesday.
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- "Osma bin Laden is not just alive, he's active ...
al Qaida is fully operational," declared August Hanning in a television
interview on the German public TV channel ZDF.
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- Hanning said the intelligence service, known as the BND,
had seen evidence gathered by American and other intelligence agencies
suggesting the network's leadership continues to be capable of launching
terrorist attacks against Germany and the rest of the world.
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- "We share this viewpoint," added Hanning.
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- Appearing on the popular German political documentary
television show "Frontal21" Hanning said al Qaida wants to prove
it still exists and is capable of mounting such an attack.
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- The U.S. government says bin Laden's organization was
responsible for the attacks on Sept. 11 last year on New York and Washington.
A full-scale search was mounted for the Saudi-born millionaire fugitive
and his followers in Afghanistan, but U.S. officials have admitted that
both he and many of his top lieutenants have not been found either dead
or alive.
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- Hanning said fears of further al Qaida attacks were "very
real" and would also be in a "greater dimension" than the
Sept. 11 hijacked plane crashes that destroyed New York's World Trade Center
and a wing of the Pentagon.
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- Key al Qaida operatives -- including alleged Sept. 11
ringleader Mohammed Atta, and others of the 19 hijackers -- spent time
in Hamburg and other German cities while planning their suicide attacks.
Since Sept. 11 2001, German police have arrested several alleged al Qaida
members including Abdelghani Mzoudi, a Moroccan who is believed to have
recruited Atta.
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- The BND chief ruled out that the possibility that al
Qaida had access to nuclear weapons but said the terror network could have
developed radiological devices -- so-called "dirty bombs" --
which use conventional explosive to scatter radioactive material over a
wide area.
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- Hanning said Germany's intelligence service suspects
bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are hiding in the Afghan-Pakistani
border area southeast of the capital Kabul.
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- "(Bin Laden) has numerous helpers. He operates in
regions where access is very difficult. He also changes his location. That
makes the situation very hard," added Hanning.
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- German intelligence believes that there are still over
5,000 al Qaida and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that
the leadership-in-hiding is looking at "forming new structures."
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- Hanning said that recent information received from collaborating
intelligence organizations shows a recognizable increase in worldwide communications
between members of the al Qaida terrorist network in recent weeks and months.
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- German authorities have increased anti-terror precautions
recently to the same level they were immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Security was tightened after a recorded message was broadcast on the Qatar-based
Arabic television news station Al Jazeera on Oct. 8. The recording -- alleged
to have been made by bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri -- mentioned
Germany in a warning to Western powers.
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- In the recorded message, the voice says, "The mujahed
(holy warriors) youth has already sent messages to Germany and France.
However, if these doses are not enough, we are prepared, with the help
of Allah, to inject further doses."
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- Hanning said that there are a number of active terror
cells in Europe, which are linked with each other and some of these have
signaled their readiness to launch attacks. "We are taking this very
seriously," concluded Hanning. "We have to presume there is a
real threat in Europe and also in Germany," he said.
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- Asked whether the new terrorist threat was in retaliation
for Germany's support in the U.S.-led war against terrorism, Hanning said
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had assured the American people of
his full solidarity.
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- "We have supported the Americans in the war against
terror in Afghanistan," he said. "We are playing an important
role in rebuilding Afghanistan, in peacekeeping in Afghanistan. German
will be assuming a so-called lead function as from January, together with
the Netherlands. The German navy has been operational in the Horn of Africa.
This brings us into the focus of the al Qaida, which is how I understand
the Zawahiri declaration."
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- Copyright © 2002 United Press International. All
rights reserved.
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