British try to show evidence linking bin Laden to hijackers

LONDON -- Osama bin Laden spoke of a "major attack on America" in the days before the strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and warned associates to return to Afghanistan by Sept. 10, according to a dossier released by the British government on Thursday.

The report is the first attempt by a government to lay out evidence -- albeit circumstantial -- connecting bin Laden to the attacks. The Bush administration said later it had "no reservations" about the British dossier.

Details, including the names and sources behind the evidence, were excised for security reasons, but Prime Minister Tony Blair said authorities know much more than they can say publicly.

The report assembles the growing mountain of evidence against bin Laden, including direct ties to "at least three" of the 19 suspected hijackers.

The summary asserts that one of those three hijackers played key roles in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa, which killed 219 people, including 12 Americans, and the deadly attack on the warship U.S.S. Cole in Yemen last October.

Blair said government ministers and the leaders of the British opposition had seen the full evidence and "have absolutely no doubt that bin Laden and his network are responsible" for the Sept. 11 attacks.

U.S. won't corroborate

Asked in Washington about the British dossier, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, "I don't have any reservations about the British paper. But I'm not able to offer U.S. information or endorsement of specific facts."

Bush administration officials presented similar evidence to NATO allies in Brussels on Tuesday and to Pakistan, which neighbors Afghanistan and has relations with that country's ruling Taliban militia. Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Riaz Khan said Thursday the evidence against bin Laden was sufficient to indict him for the Sept. 11 attacks.

bin Laden assertion

According to the dossier, investigators have established that "bin Laden himself asserted shortly before 11 September that he was preparing a major attack on America."

"Immediately prior to 11 September some known associates of Bin Laden were naming the date for action as on or around 11 September," the report notes.

"In August and early September close associates of bin Laden were warned to return to Afghanistan from other parts of the world by 10 September," it adds.

It also says the detailed planning for the attacks was carried out by one of bin Laden's "closest and most senior associates," who is not named.

The document says investigators have obtained "evidence of a very specific nature relating to the guilt of bin Laden and his associates that is too sensitive to release."

The dossier also accuses Afghanistan's Taliban rulers of a "close and mutually dependent alliance" with bin Laden's al-Qaida organization and alleges bin Laden has representatives serving in the Taliban military command. Bin Laden and al-Qaida supply the Taliban with "material, financial and military support" and in return receive protection, a share in Afghanistan's drug trade and freedom to operate terrorist training bases in the country, the document says.