US investigators say they have determined that Osama bin Laden's top three lieutenants helped plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The link to the leaders of al-Qaeda terrorist network was part of the rationale for the attacks yesterday in Afghanistan, where bin Laden and his associates are believed to be hiding, officials said. On Sunday, when bin Laden made a televised statement, one lieutenant sat by his side, Ayman al-Zawahiri, a surgeon and a founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.
Investigators say the others who planned the attacks were Muhammad Atef, a former Egyptian police officer, and Abu Zubaydah, previously linked to a foiled 1999 plot to attack sites in the US and Jordan.
Officials declined to detail how they linked the three men to the attacks, except to say it was established through intelligence sources. Investigators say that in recent days, they have gained a better understanding of possible connections between the 19 hijackers and al-Qaeda.
An American official said on Sunday that there was strong evidence that Mohamed Atta, identified as a ringleader and the man who piloted the first jet that hit the World Trade Center, trained at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan in the late 1990's. The official said there was less substantial evidence showing that other hijackers trained at the camps.
In addition, Mustafa Ahmad, who investigators determined had wired money to the hijackers, left the United Arab Emirates for Pakistan on the day of the attack. According to British intelligence officers, he appeared to be following directions that bin Laden issued surreptitiously for his associates to return to safety before the attacks.
Washington used evidence gathered in the investigation to persuade its allies that bin Laden and his network were responsible. Yesterday, the US used some of the evidence to select several targets, such as al-Qaeda training camps, for missile strikes, intelligence and law enforcement officials said. The investigation is an unusual hybrid of criminal justice and military planning.
"We would like very much to make a case in the American justice system against bin Laden's associates who are now scattered around the world," a senior law enforcement official said today. But officials said that the chief suspect of the investigation would probably never formally face criminal charges.
On Thursday, the first glimpse at the investigators' findings was released by British prime minister, Tony Blair, after the Americans declined to do so. But the British document includes several paragraphs that seemed to admit that some evidence was circumstantial.
The document draws parallels between the Sept. 11 attacks and previous incidents linked to al-Qaeda, like the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in east Africa and the October 2000 attack on the American destroyer the Cole in Yemen.
That document said "one of bin Laden's closest and most senior associates was responsible for the detailed planning of the attacks."
But US officials say the three deputies of bin Laden were involved.
Al-Zawahiri, 50, was the leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the terrorist group blamed for the assassination of President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt in 1981. He joined al-Qaeda as recently as 1998. After American cruise missile attacks on several al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan in August of that year, al-Zawahiri telephoned a Pakistani reporter on bin Laden's behalf and warned: "The war has started. The Americans should wait for the answer."
Atef is al-Qaeda's military commander. His primary responsibility is the recruitment and training of al-Qaeda members at camps in Afghanistan, said federal prosecutors at the trial in Manhattan of four al-Qaeda members accused in the embassy bombings.
But the authorities say he also planned the bombings of the two US embassies and is believed to have gone back to Afghanistan the night after the attacks. For years, Atef served as an aide to al-Zawahiri who had fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980's. Atef's daughter married one of bin Laden's sons in January.
Zubaydah, the only Palestinian in al-Qaeda's senior ranks, is believed to have played a role in the planning of millennium bombing plots in the US and the Middle East that were thwarted. Investigators have said that he is responsible for moving recruits in and out of the training camps.
Investigators in the US and other countries have discovered other links between the hijackers and al-Qaeda. On Thursday, the British government said one unidentified hijacker played a role in both the embassy bombings and the attack on the Cole.
That hijacker has been identified as Khalid Almihdhar, who was one of the suspected hijackers of the jet that crashed into the Pentagon. Of the 19 hijackers, investigators now say Almihdhar has the strongest ties to al-Qaeda.
Investigators say they have also found the money trail leads directly from several lieutenants of bin Laden's organization, operating out of the Middle East, directly to several of the suspected hijackers' US bank accounts.
Investigators have said that Ahmad, who is believed to have play a large role in overseeing al-Qaeda's finances, helped arrange the financing of the attacks. Federal agents say they have evidence that money was wired between Atta and Ahmad. Documents show that two other hijacking suspects wired Ahmad more than US$10,000 hours before the hijackings and before Ahmad fled for Pakistan.
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