A British newspaper says it has found a notebook at an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan that contained a terrorist "blueprint" for an attack on London.
The Observer said the 80-page document contained instructions for constructing a remote-controlled van bomb like those used against the US embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania in 1998.
A scribbled note on one page suggested the target was Moorgate, in the centre of London's financial district. Moorgate is a banking and insurance area and a stop on the London Underground railway.
The notebook was found in the city of Kandahar, where Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network had training camps.
News of the bombing plan emerged as the United States continued its relentless but still unsuccessful campaign to find bin Laden.
His whereabouts have never been known for certain by his pursuers. US and Afghan officials believed he was holed up with his al Qaeda fighters in cave and tunnel hideouts in Tora Bora, but other reports have said he had slipped away.
One hint came in the form of a voice giving orders on intercepted short-wave radio transmissions that officials were fairly certain was the Islamic militant.
An American official said it was a short-range transmission, indicating that bin Laden was in Tora Bora in the past week.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the videotape released by the Pentagon showing bin Laden discussing the September 11 suicide attacks may have been the result of a sophisticated sting operation run by the CIA through a second intelligence service, possibly Saudi or Pakistani.
One security source was quoted by the Observer saying: "They needed someone whom they could persuade or coerce to get close to bin Laden and someone whom bin Laden would feel secure talking to.
"If it works, you have got the perfect evidence at the perfect moment. It's a masterstroke."
The focus of suspicion is the Saudi dissident preacher who appears to have taped the interview, conducted according to the video timecode on November 9, in what appears to be a Kandahar guesthouse.
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