Osama bin Laden knows mountainous Afghanistan well enough from his days fighting Soviet occupation to stay several steps
ahead of his Western pursuers, Arab security sources said Monday.
And the world's most wanted man has the wealth, ambition and audacity to pose varied threats to his enemies through an organization built around
``grapevines'' of cells, the sources told Reuters in a wide-ranging briefing.
One source, citing anecdotal evidence, said the Saudi-born militant in June floated the general idea of using an aircraft to attack July's G-8 Genoa
summit of world leaders.
Asked about bin Laden's ability to move around Afghanistan, one of the sources said:
``He had problems with some of the leaders within the Taliban over his activities in Afghanistan -- issuing fiery press interviews and 'mobilization'
videotapes.
``So about four months ago he actively worked on a direct (escape) route from Kandahar through to rebel territory in Chechnya and another to the
Tajik-China border,'' he added.
One of Bin Laden's provisional plans was to flee alone, using his existing relationships with nomadic Afghans who live on the border with China to
blend in with that community and become almost invisible to inquisitive outsiders.
CHECHNYA ESCAPE ROUTE?
Another plan was to go to Chechnya.
``It is very dangerous terrain ... not even Russia can go in and get him. What are the Americans going to do, look behind every tree and under every
rock in Chechnya?'' said one source.
The security sources, from a country that has long sought to follow his movements closely, said they believed that bin Laden was still in
Afghanistan despite word from its Taliban rulers that they do not know where he is.
Bin Laden has denied any role in the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States that killed thousands of people. But Washington says he is the prime
suspect and has sent a large military force toward Afghanistan to hunt him down.
Bin Laden began learning the terrain of Afghanistan in the early 1980s when he enlisted with mujahideen fighters battling Soviet troops who had
invaded in 1979. He has lived in the country for much of the past 20 years.
The sources said intelligence services were worried that the militant Islamist in recent years had tried to obtain chemical and biological weapons
from former Soviet republics.
The United States Sunday ordered crop-dusting planes temporarily grounded as the FBI warned operators to check for suspicious activity.
Published reports said those who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks might have been looking for crop dusters as potential vehicles for a chemical and
biological weapons assault.
PERU CONNECTION
The sources also said suspects linked to bin Laden's al Qaeda network of militants allegedly tried to obtain weapons of mass destruction in Peru,
echoing fears voiced last year by Peru's jailed former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos that Islamic militants linked to bin Laden had infiltrated the
South American state.
``There was a deal for chemical weapons under way in Peru and you will not believe who ruined it -- Cuba. (Al Qaeda) likes to have its people
spread all over and its assets close to potential (Western) targets,'' said an Arab security expert.
Some of the sources said they doubted bin Laden was directly involved in the planning of complex ``terrorist'' attacks, arguing he acted more as a
launching pad for cells and operatives.
``He and al Qaeda are facilitators. They train, teach ideology, finance and then the people are sent out,'' said the Arab expert.
``They operate (a financial empire) in 26 countries -- legitimate businesses -- including in the United States, Egypt and many others,'' he said.
The security expert said it could prove as difficult trying to link him directly with the whole range of attacks attributed to him as it was to connect
him with the financial empire U.S. authorities say he uses to finance attacks on Western targets.
He said al Qaeda set up ``grapevines'' of cells to operate overseas and far away from the actual base in Afghanistan.
But according to an Arab security official, an Arab intelligence agent planted in al Qaeda for the past two years had taped bin Laden speaking
about the possibility of attacking President Bush and other world leaders with an aircraft at the Genoa G8 summit.
``He managed to tape Osama on June 13 speaking of an attack on Bush with an aircraft in Italy ...,'' added the source.
