Top Bin Laden Aide May Be Key Planner

Oct. 7, 2001 -- Intelligence sources say that Mohammed Atef, a top bin Laden aide, took credit for planning the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

MORE INVESTIGATIVE NEWS:• Evidence Links Hijack Suspect to Past Attacks• Spanish Believe Suspect Planned Suicide Attack

Officials say it was Atef who Tony Blair referred to in his speech when he said, "One of bin Laden's closest lieutenants has said clearly that he helped with the planning of the Sept. 11 attacks and has admitted the involvement of the al Qaeda organization."

Some reports describe Atef as the "mastermind" behind the attacks, but it is still unclear what role he played and how deep his involvement was.

Atef is also suspected to have played an operational role in the planning of the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa, of the USS Cole, and of the killing of American troops in Somalia.

While British authorities believe Almihdhar played a signficant role in the attacks, a U.S. source only says that Almihdhar had contact with people involved.

The August 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. The Oct. 12, 2000, bombing of the Navy ship USS Cole killed 17 and wounded 39. The Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon is believed to have killed 189 people.

Spanish Believe Man Planned Suicide Attack

Spanish police said Friday they have evidence that Mohamed Belaziz, a 33-year-old Algerian man arrested in Spain on Sept. 26, was one of three would-be suicide bombers recruited months ago to attack American targets in France next March.

Authorities believe Belaziz's superiors had given him the option of walking into the U.S. Embassy in Paris wearing a bomb and blowing it up with himself still inside, or crashing into the building with a hijacked helicopter.

As with Mohamed Atta, the suspected ringleader of the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Belaziz was found with a will already prepared. Police said it included a drawing of a stick figure with a bomb on its belt.

Also discovered by police, hidden in Belaziz's washing machine, were 30 hours of tapes containing step-by-step instructions for how to carry out surprise attacks and graphic footage of many actual attacks.

One tape shows an attack on an Algerian truck convoy and the murder of survivors who had their throats cut. Another shows an assault against Russian troops in Chechnya, where many bin Laden operatives have fought. In that clip, a Russian soldier is riddled with automatic gunfire as the attackers calmly turn and walk away.

CIA agents arrived in Madrid Thursday to screen the tapes.

Part of Wider Plot in Europe?

The planned attack on the U.S. Embassy is believed to be part of an ambitious terrorist plot to attack a host of American interests overseas including other targets in France, such as the U.S. Cultural Center in Paris, the U.S. Consulate in Marseille and the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, as well as buildings at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

The plot was foiled when captured bin Laden operative Djamel Beghal divulged the list of targets and the identities of his fellow conspirators, intelligence sources in the United States and Europe tell ABCNEWS. Beghal, also an Algerian, was captured this July in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Under interrogation by UAE authorities, he revealed the list of targets and the identities of other members of the terrorist ring.

Investigators in Europe had reportedly been surveilling terrorist suspects for several weeks but moved in quickly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Sources say the plot involved roughly 50 individuals, most of whom have been taken into custody in France, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium.

European intelligence sources tell ABCNEWS Beghal was to have received the go-ahead for the attacks through an encrypted message on the Internet and that he had been instructed to set up a cyber cafe in Paris or London as a way to establish communication links with al Qaeda. The heavy volume of online activity at the cyber cafe, authorities say, would have helped camouflage any suspicious e-mail traffic.

Beghal told investigators in Dubai he had met with top bin Laden aide Abu Zubayda at an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and admitted signing a pact to plan the attacks, according to officials. But Beghal's lawyer tells ABCNEWS that confession was coerced, claiming his client was tortured, and is now recanting his story.

Beghal was formally placed under investigation by French authorities on Monday after being extradited from the UAE.

Interrogation Continues

French authorities also continue to interrogate Khamel Daoudi who was arrested in England on Sept. 25 after fleeing France. He was subsequently extradited to France and was placed under formal investigation on Wednesday.

In addition to being a computer expert, French intelligence believes Daoudi, also an Algerian, was a master bomb maker and that he had been given the job of building the explosive device meant to demolish the U.S. Embassy.

In Daoudi's Paris apartment, officials found a notebook they say contained codes used to scramble terrorist communications over the phone and the Internet. The codes linked Daoudi to al Qaeda, they said.

With the code book in hand, FBI investigators are now using special software to track the suspected hijackers' activity on the Internet and reviewing millions of intercepted phone conversations and e-mail messages in a search for coded messages.

ABCNEWS' Pierre Thomas and Madeleine Sauer contributed to this report.

Also discovered by police, hidden in Belaziz's washing machine, were 30 hours of tapes containing step-by-step instructions for how to carry out surprise attacks and graphic footage of many actual attacks.

One tape shows an attack on an Algerian truck convoy and the murder of survivors who had their throats cut. Another shows an assault against Russian troops in Chechnya, where many bin Laden operatives have fought. In that clip, a Russian soldier is riddled with automatic gunfire as the attackers calmly turn and walk away.

CIA agents arrived in Madrid Thursday to screen the tapes.

Part of Wider Plot in Europe?

The planned attack on the U.S. Embassy is believed to be part of an ambitious terrorist plot to attack a host of American interests overseas including other targets in France, such as the U.S. Cultural Center in Paris, the U.S. Consulate in Marseille and the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, as well as buildings at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

The plot was foiled when captured bin Laden operative Djamel Beghal divulged the list of targets and the identities of his fellow conspirators, intelligence sources in the United States and Europe tell ABCNEWS. Beghal, also an Algerian, was captured this July in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Under interrogation by UAE authorities, he revealed the list of targets and the identities of other members of the terrorist ring.

Investigators in Europe had reportedly been surveilling terrorist suspects for several weeks but moved in quickly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Sources say the plot involved roughly 50 individuals, most of whom have been taken into custody in France, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium.

European intelligence sources tell ABCNEWS Beghal was to have received the go-ahead for the attacks through an encrypted message on the Internet and that he had been instructed to set up a cyber cafe in Paris or London as a way to establish communication links with al Qaeda. The heavy volume of online activity at the cyber cafe, authorities say, would have helped camouflage any suspicious e-mail traffic.

Beghal told investigators in Dubai he had met with top bin Laden aide Abu Zubayda at an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and admitted signing a pact to plan the attacks, according to officials. But Beghal's lawyer tells ABCNEWS that confession was coerced, claiming his client was tortured, and is now recanting his story.

Beghal was formally placed under investigation by French authorities on Monday after being extradited from the UAE.

Interrogation Continues

French authorities also continue to interrogate Khamel Daoudi who was arrested in England on Sept. 25 after fleeing France. He was subsequently extradited to France and was placed under formal investigation on Wednesday.

In addition to being a computer expert, French intelligence believes Daoudi, also an Algerian, was a master bomb maker and that he had been given the job of building the explosive device meant to demolish the U.S. Embassy.

In Daoudi's Paris apartment, officials found a notebook they say contained codes used to scramble terrorist communications over the phone and the Internet. The codes linked Daoudi to al Qaeda, they said.

With the code book in hand, FBI investigators are now using special software to track the suspected hijackers' activity on the Internet and reviewing millions of intercepted phone conversations and e-mail messages in a search for coded messages.

ABCNEWS' Pierre Thomas and Madeleine Sauer contributed to this report.

Investigators in Europe had reportedly been surveilling terrorist suspects for several weeks but moved in quickly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Sources say the plot involved roughly 50 individuals, most of whom have been taken into custody in France, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium.

European intelligence sources tell ABCNEWS Beghal was to have received the go-ahead for the attacks through an encrypted message on the Internet and that he had been instructed to set up a cyber cafe in Paris or London as a way to establish communication links with al Qaeda. The heavy volume of online activity at the cyber cafe, authorities say, would have helped camouflage any suspicious e-mail traffic.

Beghal told investigators in Dubai he had met with top bin Laden aide Abu Zubayda at an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and admitted signing a pact to plan the attacks, according to officials. But Beghal's lawyer tells ABCNEWS that confession was coerced, claiming his client was tortured, and is now recanting his story.

Beghal was formally placed under investigation by French authorities on Monday after being extradited from the UAE.

Interrogation Continues

French authorities also continue to interrogate Khamel Daoudi who was arrested in England on Sept. 25 after fleeing France. He was subsequently extradited to France and was placed under formal investigation on Wednesday.

In addition to being a computer expert, French intelligence believes Daoudi, also an Algerian, was a master bomb maker and that he had been given the job of building the explosive device meant to demolish the U.S. Embassy.

In Daoudi's Paris apartment, officials found a notebook they say contained codes used to scramble terrorist communications over the phone and the Internet. The codes linked Daoudi to al Qaeda, they said.

With the code book in hand, FBI investigators are now using special software to track the suspected hijackers' activity on the Internet and reviewing millions of intercepted phone conversations and e-mail messages in a search for coded messages.

ABCNEWS' Pierre Thomas and Madeleine Sauer contributed to this report.

Beghal was formally placed under investigation by French authorities on Monday after being extradited from the UAE.

Interrogation Continues

French authorities also continue to interrogate Khamel Daoudi who was arrested in England on Sept. 25 after fleeing France. He was subsequently extradited to France and was placed under formal investigation on Wednesday.

In addition to being a computer expert, French intelligence believes Daoudi, also an Algerian, was a master bomb maker and that he had been given the job of building the explosive device meant to demolish the U.S. Embassy.

In Daoudi's Paris apartment, officials found a notebook they say contained codes used to scramble terrorist communications over the phone and the Internet. The codes linked Daoudi to al Qaeda, they said.

With the code book in hand, FBI investigators are now using special software to track the suspected hijackers' activity on the Internet and reviewing millions of intercepted phone conversations and e-mail messages in a search for coded messages.

ABCNEWS' Pierre Thomas and Madeleine Sauer contributed to this report.