Man claims he met key terrorist figures in Afghanistan

PARIS -- A Frenchman who claims to have crossed paths in Afghanistan with key figures tied to the Sept. 11 attacks, a thwarted millennium plot on Los Angeles and other threats on American citizens is providing French authorities with a treasure-trove of information on al-Qaida, officials revealed Monday.

Yacine Akhnouche, 27, was arrested on Feb. 4 outside Paris with two others suspected of involvement in a two-year old plan to bomb a cathedral in Strasbourg, France, judicial officials and anti-terrorism investigators told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Speaking freely during sessions with investigators, Akhnouche apparently offered details on the training camps he went to during three trips to Afghanistan, and the Islamic militants he met there.

"He talked a lot," said one investigating judge. "Akhnouche confirmed a certain number of things that we already knew, or supposed."

Investigators told AP they were taking Akhnouche's testimony seriously and following up on his leads.

Akhnouche, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, visited training camps in Afghanistan in 1997, 1998 and 2000, investigators said. While there in 2000, he met Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the United States in connection with the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Moussaoui, a French citizen, could face the death penalty if convicted.

During that same trip, Akhnouche said he also met Richard C. Reid, who was arrested on Dec. 22 after allegedly trying to ignite explosives in his sneakers on a Paris-Miami flight. According to the French officials, Reid told U.S. investigators that he never went to Afghanistan.

Reid, a British citizen, was indicted in federal court in Boston on eight charges, including the attempted murder of 197 passengers and crew members aboard American Airlines Flight 63. He has pleaded innocent.

On a trip to Afghanistan in 1998, Akhnouche said he met Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian later convicted in the plot on the Los Angeles airport in the days before Jan. 1, 2000. Ressam had been trained in terrorist camps financed by Osama bin Laden, according to U.S. investigators.

Tied to airport plot

In Paris, investigators said Akhnouche also implicated Abu Doha, an alleged terrorist jailed in Britain in connection with the plot to blow up the Strasbourg Cathedral during the millennium celebrations.

The plot was foiled after German police discovered video footage of the cathedral and marketplace during a raid on an apartment. Four people were arrested in Frankfurt, and other suspects were arrested in France, Spain and Belgium.

Abu Doha, also known as Amar Makhlulif, is wanted by U.S. officials in connection with the Los Angeles airport plot. He has been portrayed in a U.S. grand jury indictment as a key figure in al-Qaida who ran an Algerian terrorist cell.

Akhnouche claimed that Abu Doha steered young Islamic militants toward Afghanistan's training camps, the judicial officials said.

Akhnouche has also provided information on Abu Zubaydah, top military operations chief in al-Qaida, as well as information on a man identified as Abu Jafar. It was unclear whether he is the same man as Abu Jafar al-Jaziri, an al-Qaida finance and logistics chief who was apparently killed in bombing raids by the U.S.-led coalition.

In addition, Akhnouche provided names of people in France linked to the assassination of Afghan resistance leader Ahmed Shah Massood just days before the Sept. 11 attacks, investigators said.

Two men were placed under investigation in Paris in mid-January on suspicion of providing support to the assassins, who posed as journalists, and it was not immediately clear whether the names matched.

Among items found at Akhnouche's residence was an address book noting the name of Djamel Beghal, a prime suspect in a foiled plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Paris. Beghal was arrested at the Abu Dhabi airport on his way back from Central Asia and is now jailed in France.

Experts also were studying chemical formulas found in Akhnouche's residence, investigators said. Akhnouche had reportedly once been a chemistry student.