'Bin Laden is using Internet'
2001-02-07 00:05
Washington - American officials here allege that Osama bin Laden and other Muslim extremists use popular websites on the Internet to send each other coded messages, and in so doing, plan terrorist acts world-wide.
America's most popular newspaper, USA Today, reported on its front page on Tuesday how extremists hide detailed maps and photographs of targets, as well as instructions, on popular sport and pornographic websites and in chat rooms.
While the names of the websites weren't published, government officials told USA Today that it is extremely difficult for the American secret services to intercept these encoded messages.
The software to convert e-mail messages and images into code is freely available on the Internet.
The CIA's director, George Tenet, testified before the American Senate's committee for foreign relations that "terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Bin Laden's Al Qaida group are increasingly using e-mail and
encoded messages on the Internet to back their operations".
America has accused Bin Laden of planning the terrorist attacks on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, as well as on the navy ship USS Cole in Yemen last year.
Four of its alleged members are currently on trial in New York in connection with the attacks on the embassies in Africa, in which 224 people died. The trial, in which more than 100 witnesses from six different countries will be called, is expected to last more than a year.