Colext/Macondo
Cantina virtual de los COLombianos en el EXTerior
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LONDON (AP)--Followers of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden warned three
weeks ago that they would carry out a "huge and unprecedented attack" on
U.S. interests, a London-based Arab journalist said Tuesday.
Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, said he
received a warning from Islamic fundamentalists close to bin Laden, but
didn't take the threat seriously.
"They said it would be a huge and unprecedented attack but they didn't
specify," Atwan said in a telephone interview.
"We usually receive this kind of thing. At the time we didn't take the
warnings seriously as they had happened several times in the past and
nothing happened.
"This time it seems his people were accurate and meant every word they
said."
Atwan, who interviewed bin Laden in 1996 and has since maintained
contacts with his followers, said he believed the attack on the World
Trade Center in New York was the work of "an Islamic fundamentalist
group" very close to bin Laden.
The U.S. accuses the Saudi dissident of operating a terrorist network
from his bases in Afghanistan and of blowing up two U.S. embassies in
East Africa in 1998. The Taliban, who have refused to hand him over, deny
the charge.
Atwan said he was surprised by the scale of the attack, but said it was
merely a continuation of bin Laden's "Fatwa" -religious edict - against
the U.S. He said anti-American sentiment was running high in the Middle
East because of perceived U.S. support for Israel.
Tensions had increased further after the U.S. and Israel pulled out of
the racism conference in Durban, South Africa due to anti-Israel language
in the final declaration, he said.
"People really are frustrated that here is a super power siding with
the Israelis," he said. "They made the hatred more by pulling out of the
Durban conference.
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