Bin Laden Link to Late-’99 Bomb Plot Reported

U.S. officials have intelligence information that connects a bomb plot foiled just before New Year’s Day to Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network, sources familiar with the investigation said Sunday.

The officials base their conclusion on information from confidential informants with direct knowledge of the bomb plot and Bin Laden’s organization, data shared by foreign police and intelligence officials, monitoring of domestic telephone conversations and other forms of eavesdropping, sources said.

The FBI, CIA, National Security Agency and other intelligence organizations have been analyzing vast amounts of data collected since Ahmed Ressam, a 32-year-old Algerian, was arrested while trying to enter the United States from Canada in mid-December in a rental car filled with bomb-making materials and timing devices. They are working with law enforcement and intelligence officials in Canada and the Middle East, sources said.

Sunday, a man whose brother-in-law is a top lieutenant in Bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network, and who U.S. officials suspect played a role in the bomb plot, was released after several weeks in detention in Mauritania. Mohambedou Ould Slahi was questioned at length by Mauritanian officials, who let him go after he repeatedly denied involvement in a plot.

FBI agents in Mauritania were permitted to submit questions, review Slahi’s answers and work closely with Mauritanian officials on his interrogation. Slahi continues to be monitored by U.S. officials, sources said.

Slahi had been in Canada but left for his home in Mauritania because of the probe into Bin Laden’s ties to the bomb plot, Canadian Security Intelligence officials said.

A U.S. official said: “We believe after questioning him that we have a better understanding of the extent of his role in the al Qaeda network. We have strong indications that he did play a role in the bomb plot. He has ties that lead us to believe he is someone of significance.”

Slahi did not admit to any role in the bomb plot during the questioning, sources said.

U.S. officials have accused Bin Laden, a Saudi living in Afghanistan, of masterminding the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya that killed 224 people. The United States has been pressuring Afghanistan to turn over Bin Laden.