Attack 'success' for fanatics

By RAYMOND WHITAKER

LONDON - Somewhere, almost certainly in the Middle East or Central Asia, a roomful of men must have been celebrating wildly yesterday as they saw the greatest act of terrorism in history go precisely as they planned it.

While the rest of the world watched their television sets in horror, they would have been delighted at the success of an operation that demanded precision, expertise and co-ordination of the highest order.

And the greater their success, the worse the failure of American intelligence to pick up what was happening. Some sources say there had been warnings of threats to American interests abroad, but they were so unspecific as to have been useless. The CIA and the FBI appear to have been unable to penetrate the world in which the terrorists operated.

The degree of fanaticism in yesterday's atrocity, which must have required large numbers of perpetrators willing to sacrifice their own lives, turns suspicion abroad. America's support for Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians is sure to be seen as one possible cause. Iraqi revenge for the Gulf War is another.

The man regarded as the prime suspect is Osama bin Laden, the Saudi Arabian-born Islamic radical and multimillionaire accused by the Americans of being a terrorist mastermind.

He is seen by intelligence agencies as the only man with the network and backing in the Muslim world to carry out the assault.

Next in line might be Saddam Hussein, of Iraq, believed to be harbouring one of the perpetrators of the last terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Bin Laden, who has taken refuge with the Islamist Taleban regime in Afghanistan, is accused of instigating the almost simultaneous destruction of two US embassies in east Africa just over three years ago in which more than 200 people died.

That attack called for cunning and split-second timing to penetrate security barriers; so did another with which he has been linked by the US, the suicide bombing of USS Cole in Aden last October.

Only two weeks ago, Indian police accused bin Laden of plotting to bomb the US Embassy in Delhi.

And 10 days ago the intelligence services of Britain, Israel and the United States were alerted when one of the passengers on a plane which crash-landed at Malaga Airport turned out to be a suspected bagman for bin Laden.

The name of bin Laden also crops up in connection with a failed plot to blow up Los Angeles Airport. Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian, was stopped with explosives in his car as he tried to cross into the US from Canada late in 1999.

He has 3000 Arab radicals from 12 different countries in Afghanistan.

- INDEPENDENT

Full coverage: Terror in America

Pictures

Video

The fatal flights

Emergency telephone numbers for friends and family of victims

These numbers are valid for calls from within New Zealand, but may be overloaded at the moment.

United Airlines: 0168 1800 932 8555

American Airlines: 0168 1800 245 0999

NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade: 0800 872 111

US Embassy in Wellington (recorded info): 04 472 2068

Online database for friends and family