Attacks may be linked to bin Laden, US officials say

WASHINGTON - People who conducted attacks on New York and Washington destroying the World Trade Center and damaging the Pentagon may have had links to Saudi exile Osama bin Laden or his organisation, US officials said today.

Names of suspected "terrorists" with possible ties to bin Laden's organisation were found on the passenger rosters of the hijacked planes, a government source said.

US officials throughout the day have said the massive attacks by hijackers who crashed commercial airplanes into the buildings may be linked to bin Laden.

The United States has accused the Saudi exile, who has refuge in Afghanistan, of masterminding the co-ordinated 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa.

An Arab journalist with access to bin Laden told Reuters in London that bin Laden had warned three weeks ago of an "unprecedented attack" on US interests.

But US officials said they had no advance warning that such an attack was in the works.

"There was no advance warning of this," one official said on condition of anonymity.

Asked if he believed bin Laden was responsible, Senator Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican who is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said: "A lot of things point to him."

"There are indications that people with links to bin Laden and the al Qaeda organisation may have been responsible," a US official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "There is reason to believe people with links to him may have been responsible for this," he added.

The attacks, the worst on the US mainland in modern history, plunged the country into chaos and panic, paralyzing communications, forcing the evacuation of key buildings, closing financial markets and schools.

US investigators have also been looking into whether the suicide bombing of the USS Cole warship in Yemen last year, which killed 17 American sailors, had ties to bin Laden.

But some intelligence analysts urged caution in making snap judgments about who was responsible for Tuesday's attacks, saying it could have been the work of other groups tied to the Middle East, angry over a perception that the United States supports Israel to the detriment of the Palestinians.

At noon today, the New Zealand Herald published a special print edition with extensive coverage of the terrorist attacks in the USA. It is on sale throughout the Herald's circulation area this afternoon.

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