Osama bin Laden

According to U.S. investigators, two failed plots to strike American targets last December have been conclusively linked to the Al-Qa'ida terrorist network headed by exiled Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.

On December 14, customs agents in Port Angeles, WA arrested Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian national, attempting to smuggle nearly 50 pounds of explosives detonators into the United States. Three other Algerians and a woman married to an Algerian were later taken into custody in connection with the case. Police are still searching for another Algerian allegedly involved in the plot. Investigators learned that all of the Algerian suspects were "Afghan alumni," having trained with the mujahidin in Afghanistan during the 1980's, but initially found no clear connection with bin Laden.

Last month, however, at the behest of American investigators, Mauritanian police arrested Mohambedou Ould Slahi, who is suspected of directing the Algerian terrorist cell. Slahi, a Mauritanian national, had been living in Montreal and met frequently with one of the other suspects (Mokhtar Haouri) prior to Ressam's arrest, but left the country sometime thereafter. According to a New York Times report, U.S. investigators believe that Slahi is the brother-in-law of a senior member of Al-Qa'ida that has been tied to the bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.¹ Moreover, Slahi is known to have had "constant communications" with a construction company in Khartoum owned by bin Laden. Extradition proceedings are currently underway to bring Slahi to the United States.

A second possible link between the Algerian suspects and bin Laden involves Hamid Aich, an Algerian arrested in Ireland on December 21 after authorities there received a tip that he was planning a New Year's bomb attack. Aich was associated with Mercy International Relief Agency, a Kenyan charity that American investigators have linked to bin Laden.² Although Aich was released and has since disappeared, documents and computer files seized at his residence indicated that during his stay in Canada he shared an apartment with Abdel Majid Dahoumane, who stayed in the same hotel room with Ressam in Vancouver. Dahoumane, whose whereabouts are also unknown, is wanted on explosives-related charges by the Canadian police.

Investigators believe that members of a terrorist cell arrested by Jordanian police in December for allegedly planning attacks against Western tourists may also be linked to bin Laden. One of the key suspects currently held in Jordan, a Palestinian named Khalil Said al-Deek who obtained American citizenship in 1991 has been linked to Al-Qa'ida.

  ¹ "Evidence is seen linking Bin Laden to Algerian group," New York Times, 27 January 2000.
  ² "Bin Laden terror network uses charity cover, says US," The Independent, 25 January 2000.