White House '95 per cent' certain bin Laden to blame, says Congressman

3:00 pm

WASHINGTON - A Congressman who flew with President George W Bush on Air Force One yesterday said he was told then that the White House was "95 per cent confident" Saudi-exile Osama bin Laden was behind lethal attacks in Washington and New York.

"They felt 95 per cent confident it was going to be bin Laden," US Representative Dan Miller, a Florida Republican, told Reuters in a telephone interview today.

Miller said he was not sure whether Bush or a top aide also briefing on the plane told him bin Laden was the prime suspect in the attacks Tuesday.

He said the suspicion was based on the level of sophistication of the closely-spaced crashes of hijacked jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

A senior Bush administration official, asked about Miller's statement, said, "without getting into percentages, it's not a bad bet." He declined to comment on how the White House would act on its suspicions.

Another official said the United States had "fragmentary" evidence pointing to bin Laden, but this was not conclusive. Bin Laden's al Qaeda network had links to many other groups that were "very difficult to trace and define," he said.

Miller said the White House believed bin Laden was the only person able to plan and execute such an attack, "unless it was state terror, but they didn't believe it was that."

He said Bush had dismissed an early report a Palestinian group had claimed responsibility.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post website has reported that United States officials believe they have identified most of the suicidal hijackers.

There were between 12 and 24 hijackers the report said.

Their identities were gleaned from passenger manifests, passport records and other sources, the report said.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said some of the suspected hijackers and their accomplices had ties to several terrorist groups, but he declined to provide details.

But the Washington Post said other US officials have said several of the groups are known to have ties to bin Laden.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is a member of the Armed Services Committee, said bin Laden was high on the suspect list, "but he is not the only one they're looking at".

- REUTERS, HERALD ONLINE STAFF

The New Zealand Herald has published another special edition with extensive coverage of the terrorist attacks in the USA. Look for your copy on sale throughout the Herald circulation area this afternoon.

Full coverage: Terror in America

Pictures

Brooklyn Bridge live webcam

Video

The fatal flights

Emergency telephone numbers for friends and family of victims and survivors

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

Survivor databases

Air New Zealand flights affected

Air NZ flight information: 0800 737-000.