Al-Qaeda captive caused alarm

2004-08-02 12:20

New York - An al-Qaeda computer engineer captured in Pakistan in mid-July was the source for the most recent terrorist threat in the United States, the New York Times reported on Monday, quoting senior US officials.

Pakistani officials arrested Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a 25-year-old computer engineer, on July 13, according to the Times. The suspect is believed to have used and managed an al-Qaeda communications system where information was transferred via coded messages, according to the Times.

A senior US official told the Times that "documentary evidence" found after Khan's capture showed in detail that al-Qaeda members had been studying the buildings they want to target in New York, Newark and Washington even before the September 11 2001 attacks.

A second senior US intelligence official told the newspaper the information was more detailed than any he had seen during his 24-year career in intelligence work.

Raised terror alert level

The contents of the evidence was urgently relayed to Washington on Friday afternoon, which immediately increased the importance of other intelligence gathered over the past weeks from al-Qaeda suspects held in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the Times reported.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Sunday raised the terrorist alert level for key financial centres, warning that al-Qaeda may attack the International Monetary Fund and World Bank headquarters in Washington and the New York Stock Exchange.

Ridge said there were reports that Osama bin Laden's group planned to use truck or car bombs against the targets.

Ridge said the terror threat level was being raised to "high" from "elevated" in each location.

- AFP