Geciteerd de tekst van de FBI 'Ten Most Wanted Fugitives' lijst:

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MURDER OF U.S. NATIONALS OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES; CONSPIRACY TO MURDER U.S. NATIONALS OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES; ATTACK ON A FEDERAL FACILITY RESULTING IN DEATH

USAMA BIN LADEN

Date of Photograph Unknown

Aliases: Usama Bin Muhammad Bin Ladin, Shaykh Usama Bin Ladin, the Prince, the Emir, Abu Abdallah, Mujahid Shaykh, Hajj, the Director

DESCRIPTION

Date of Birth: 1957
Hair: Brown
Place of Birth: Saudi Arabia
Eyes: Brown
Height: 6' 4" to 6' 6"
Complexion: Olive
Weight: Approximately 160 pounds
Sex: Male
Build: Thin
Nationality: Saudi Arabian
Occupations: Unknown
Remarks: Leader of a terrorist organization known as Al-Qaeda "The Base".
He walks with a cane.
Scars and Marks: None

CAUTION

USAMA BIN LADEN IS WANTED IN CONNECTION WITH THE AUGUST 7, 1998, BOMBINGS OF THE UNITED STATES EMBASSIES IN DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA AND NAIROBI, KENYA. THESE ATTACKS KILLED OVER 200 PEOPLE.

CONSIDERED ARMED AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS

IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS PERSON, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL FBI OFFICE OR THE NEAREST U.S. EMBASSY OR CONSULATE.

REWARD

The United States Government is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading directly to the apprehension or conviction of Usama Bin Laden.

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Op Tuesday 11 September 2001 19:51 schreef the_undertaker het volgende:
ging op een soortgelijk topic net niet een slotje?

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Op Tuesday 11 September 2001 19:56 schreef yvonne het volgende:

[..]

Heel misschien kan hier een discussie ontstaan over historie en achtergronden van deze heer.

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His Vow: To Kill Americans

An Exclusive Interview with the World's Most Wanted Terrorist

Aug. 20 - His fatwa was clear: Americans must die, the sooner the better.

The threat, two months ago, was taken seriously: the State Department reinforced U.S. military bases and warned all Americans traveling in the Mideast to be extremely cautious.
U.S. troops will leave Saudi Arabia when Islamic terrorists "send the bodies of American troops and civilians home in wooden boxes and coffins," Osama bin Laden vowed in an exclusive interview with ABCNEWS Correspondent John Miller.
"We don't differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and civilians. They are all targets in this fatwa."
Today, the United States struck at what it said were terrorist bases linked to him.

He Organized a Terror Summit

bin Laden recently convened a meeting of fundamentalist extremists and sponsors of terrorism. More than 150 clerics named themselves the "International Islamic Front for the Jihad against Jews and Crusaders," and issued a variety of fatwas. But bin Laden's is the one that most concerns U.S. security analysts.
A multi-millionaire who runs a private terror network of Islamic extremists from a hideaway in the mountains of Afghanistan, bin Laden threatened to attack American women and children as well as soldiers if necessary. He said his people were well-equipped, with an arsenal that includes surface-to-air missiles, and would strike within the next few weeks. One possible date: June 20, the anniversary of the bombing in al Khobar that killed 19 U.S. servicemen.
"Osama bin Laden may be the most dangerous non-state terrorist in the world and we certainly have discussed that with the Saudis, who will take every precaution," National Security Advisor Sandy Berger told ABCNEWS.

He Has a Global Reach

No idle talk from a man who has become a folk hero--as well as a principal funder of terrorist activity--for a growing number of Muslim extremists. bin Laden has been linked to almost every Muslim extremist movement in the world in the last five years, according to Vince Cannistraro, who tracked extremists around the globe when he was the counter-terrorism chief at the Central Intelligence Agency.
"He is a role model for a lot of Islamic militants in the world today. I mean, his personal story is so compelling to them," says Cannistraro, an ABCNEWS consultant.
bin Laden, an exiled Saudi national who now enjoys the protection of Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban regime, says the Saudi royalty has committed a crime against Islam by allowing the U.S. military to occupy bases in Saudi Arabia. bin Laden has committed himself--and his considerable wealth--to expelling all Americans and Jews from Muslim holy lands, and to overthrowing the Saudi royal family along the way.

A Track Record of Terror

Why does the U.S. take bin Laden's threats so seriously? First, he has money. His family's construction business is worth $5 billion. Second, he has experienced troops who fought with him on the front lines against the Russians in the Afghan war. Third, he has a track record.
U.S. intelligence officials believe bin Laden supplied the troops and rocket launchers that shot down U.S. helicopters in Mogadishu, Somalia in October 1993, killing 18 servicemen. They also believe he is behind the November 1995 bombing of a Saudi base in Riyadh that killed six Americans.
And he has been linked to Ramzi Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing. Yousef was living in a guest house in Pakistan paid for by bin Laden at the time of his capture--a connection that lead the FBI to investigate whether bin Laden was also the mysterious source of money behind the bombing. Yousef had access to money from several bank accounts that traced from Jersey City to Pakistan, and investigators are trying to tie bin Laden to those accounts.
When asked about the Riyadh bombing and other specific attacks, bin Laden refuses to answer directly. But he does praise the bombers: "We look at these young men as great heroes and martyrs who followed the steps of the prophet, peace be upon him. We called and they answered."

Training Terror's Next Generation
It is what bin Laden can do for the Ramzi Yousefs of tomorrow that worries American authorities. The FBI believes that bin Laden has set up what is in essence a foundation, where any terrorist can apply for what amounts to a grant.
"That's why this is a new phenomenon," says Cannistraro. "It's not a state putting unlimited resources at the disposal of a group that only does the state's bidding's...A group can con someone like bin Laden for funds to carry out an operation on an individual basis. And he will do it as long as he thinks it fits in with his religious objectives."
Meanwhile, ABCNEWS has learned the FBI has been secretly talking with someone who knows a lot about bin Laden's operations--Wali Khan. Khan, who was convicted with Ramzi Yousef of plotting to blow up U.S. airliners over the Pacific, has told the FBI he was a key organizer for bin Laden's terrorist operations, including a plot to kill President Clinton and the Pope on their visits to Manila.

Stopping Him Won't be Easy
Asked if Khan was doing his bidding, bin Laden replied: "Wali Khan is a Muslim youth. In Afghanistan he was nicknamed 'The Lion.' He is one of the best youths. We were good friends. We fought together in the same trench against the Russians."
In recent speeches, President Clinton has taken a tough stance on terrorism, promising swift retaliation for attacks on U.S. citizens. And the State Department has been zeroing in on its seach for evidence with which to prosecute bin Laden for his involvement in various plots.
But until the federal grand jury hears enough evidence to indict bin Laden, he won't have to hide. And if the U.S. does charge him, it will be faced with the challenge of extracting him from his enclave in the remote Afghan mountains, where he is surrounded by as many as 3,000 followers with guns and rocket launchers. The initiative would be the largest of its kind since the U.S. mounted a small war in order to oust Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega.
In the meantime, the United States is bracing for whatever bin Laden may have planned.

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[Dit bericht is gewijzigd door aa op 11-09-2001 20:25]

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Op dinsdag 11 september 2001 19:56 schreef yvonne het volgende:

[..]

Heel misschien kan hier een discussie ontstaan over historie en achtergronden van deze heer.

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Op dinsdag 11 september 2001 20:04 schreef Uiruru het volgende:
Waarom is hij zo gebrand op Amerika?
Iedereen zegt dat hij een miljonair is, hoe is hij dat geworden?

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Op dinsdag 11 september 2001 20:05 schreef Witchfynder het volgende:

[..]

"heer"?

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Op dinsdag 11 september 2001 20:05 schreef Witchfynder het volgende:

[..]

"heer"?

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Op dinsdag 11 september 2001 20:10 schreef PocketRocket het volgende:
Het schijnt dat ie een paar weken terug uitspraken gedaan heeft die nogal in de richting van enorme aanslagen op Amerika zouden duiden ....

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'Daders in kringen rond bin-Laden'

De daders van de aanslagen in de VS moeten gezocht worden in de kringen van de Saudische miljonair en terrorisme-verdachte Osama bin-Laden, heeft een anonieme VS-ambtenaar gezegd tegen persbureau Reuters.

De verantwoordelijkheid voor de aanslagen in de VS is nog niet opgeëist. De Afghaanse Taliban heeft in een persconferentie categorisch ontkend dat bin-Laden, die in Afghanistan huist, enige betrokkenheid heeft bij de aanslagen. Ook woordvoerders van extremistische Palestijnse groeperingen hebben ontkend iets met de aanslagen te maken te hebben.

In juni van dit jaar werden Amerikaanse burgers overal ter wereld nog gemaand tot voorzichtigheid, vanwege dreigementen die bin-Laden zou hebben geuit. Osama bin-Laden zou drie weken geleden nog gewaarschuwd hebben voor aanslagen. Dat zegt de Arabische journalist Abdel-Bari Atwan, die in Londen werkt voor de krant Al-Quds al-Arabi.

Hamas

De radicaal-islamitische Palestijnse organisatie Hamas heeft bij monde van woordvoerder Abdel Aziz Rantiz ontkent iets te maken te hebben met de aanslagen. "Wij weten niet wie achter deze aanslagen steekt. Maar ik geloof niet, dat een of andere Palestijnse organisatie erbij betrokken is. Wij Palestijnen strijden tegen Israël, niet tegen onschuldige burgers", aldus Aziz Rantiz.

DFLP

Het internationale persbureau Reuters meldde kort na de aanslag op het WTC dat de Palestijnse groepering DFLP (het democratisch front voor de bevrijding van Palestina) zei verantwoordelijk te zijn voor de aanslag. Reuters meldde dat op basis van een televisiezender in Abu Dhabi. Maar een officiële woordvoerder van de DFLP, Kari Abdel Karim, sprak dit bericht daarna tegen.

PFLP

Ook een woordvoerder van de Palestijnse organisatie PFLP, het Volksfront voor de bevrijding van Palestina, verklaarde niets te maken te hebben met de aanslagen. Na de moord op PFLP-leider Abu Ali Mustafa door het Israëlische leger zijn in de Arabische media verschillende oproepen geweest om aanslagen te plegen op de VS.

Arafat

De Palestijnse president Yasser Arafat heeft de aanslagen veroordeeld. "Mijn sympathie en de sympathie van de Palestijnse burgers gaat uit naar de Amerikaanse president Bush, zijn regering en de Amerikaanse bevolking. Dit is een vreselijke actie", zei Arafat tegen journalisten in de Gazastrook.

Palestijnen

In Libanon en Israël vierden Palestijnen feest. Ze hebben vreugdesalvo's afgeschoten met hun wapens.

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[Dit bericht is gewijzigd door aa op 11-09-2001 20:54]

[Dit bericht is gewijzigd door yvonne op 11-09-2001 21:16]

[Dit bericht is gewijzigd door yvonne op 11-09-2001 21:44]

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Op dinsdag 11 september 2001 20:34 schreef yvonne het volgende:

[..]

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[Dit bericht is gewijzigd door yvonne op 12-09-2001 07:36]

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Op dinsdag 11 september 2001 20:04 schreef Uiruru het volgende:
Waarom is hij zo gebrand op Amerika?
Iedereen zegt dat hij een miljonair is, hoe is hij dat geworden?

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Het familiekapitaal schijnt ie er inmiddels doorheen gejaagd te hebben, maar hij krijjgt veel geld binnen van sympathisanten.

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Op woensdag 12 september 2001 11:31 schreef k_man het volgende:

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Hij is de 17e zoon van een rijke Saudische sjeik, die zijn fortuin vergaard heeft met de bouw van grote moskeeën in diverse Arabische landen.

Het familiekapitaal schijnt ie er inmiddels doorheen gejaagd te hebben, maar hij krijjgt veel geld binnen van sympathisanten.

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Op woensdag 12 september 2001 11:54 schreef Hiroller het volgende:

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En ook via drugshandel werd gisteren op een nieuwsuitzending gemeld...

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Op woensdag 12 september 2001 16:24 schreef Witchfynder het volgende:
En nu wordt Bin Laden misschien uitgeleverd door de Taliban. Tja, de Taliban wil ook geen raketten op de kop he?

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Op woensdag 12 september 2001 11:54 schreef Hiroller het volgende:

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En ook via drugshandel werd gisteren op een nieuwsuitzending gemeld...

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Aangezien al het vermogen van Bin Laden van sympathisanten en drugs komen denk ik niet dat het veel zou uitmaken als hij vermoordt zou worden. Het geld en het netwerk blijven er immers nog steeds.

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Op woensdag 12 september 2001 18:20 schreef Mza het volgende:

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Echt typisch dat mensen die een ongelofelijke hekel aan drugs hebben zulke belangrijke producenten zijn. Maar ze schijnen dan ook niets te gebruiken en alleen te verkopen en ze zullen wel denken het doel heiligt de middelen.

Aangezien al het vermogen van Bin Laden van sympathisanten en drugs komen denk ik niet dat het veel zou uitmaken als hij vermoordt zou worden. Het geld en het netwerk blijven er immers nog steeds.

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Als Bin LAden zou worden opgepakt of vermoord heb je denk ik wel de angel uit de organisatie gehaald. Vooral mensen die in staat zijn hun eigen leven te geven voor de 'goede' zaak hebben een sterk en charismatisch leider nodig. Zo iemand is niet zo snel vervangen. Natuurlijk zullen er splintergroeperingen blijven bestaan, maar zo grootschalig als Bin Laden het aanpakt (zeker als hij voor de afgelopen dagen verantwoordelijk is) zal niet zo snel opgepakt worden door een ander.

P.s. hier zit hij!

Odigo ID 5909816

5 million dollar als je hem zo gek kan praten dat ie bij je op de koffie komt hahaha

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Op donderdag 13 september 2001 09:49 schreef 6000068 het volgende:
Ik denk niet dat ze hem pakken hoor.. heb je de kaart van afganistan wel eens gezien?
De russen hebben ook behoorlijk huisgehouden daar in die bergen... maar geloof me... als je daar zit... op die plek op de aarde.... onder de grond... en je hebt je geld verdiend met bouwen... nou.. dan wordt je dus ECHT niet gevonden he!

P.s. hier zit hij!

Odigo ID 5909816

5 million dollar als je hem zo gek kan praten dat ie bij je op de koffie komt hahaha

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Osama Bin Laden: One of the most wanted men in US

Osama Bin Laden is both one of the CIA's most wanted men, and a hero for many young people in the Arab world.
He and his associates are being sought by the US on charges of international terrorism, including in connection with the 1998 bombing of American embassies in Africa and this year's attack on the USS Cole in Yemen.

Shadowy figure
Born in Saudi Arabia
Fought against Soviets in Afghanistan
Ploughed inherited fortune into armed activities
Rarely seen in public
Reported to have at least three wives
In May this year a US jury convicted four men believed to be linked with Mr Bin Laden of plotting the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

Mr Bin Laden, an immensely wealthy and private man, has been granted a safe haven by Afghanistan's ruling Taleban movement.

During his time in hiding, he has called for a holy war against the US, and for the killing of Americans and Jews. He is reported to be able to rally around him up to 3,000 fighters.

He is also suspected of helping to set up Islamic training centres to prepare soldiers to fight in Chechnya and other parts of the former Soviet Union.

Sponsored by US and Pakistan

His power is founded on a personal fortune earned by his family's construction business in Saudi Arabia.

Attacks linked to Bin Laden
1993 World Trade Centre bomb
1996 Killing of 19 US soldiers in Saudi
Nairobi and Dar es Salaam bombs
2000 Attack on USS Cole in Yemen
Born in Saudi Arabia to a Yemeni family, Mr Bin Laden left Saudi Arabia in 1979 to fight against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

The Afghan jihad was backed with American dollars and had the blessing of the governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

He received security training from the CIA itself, according to Middle Eastern analyst Hazhir Teimourian.

While in Afghanistan, he founded the Maktab al-Khidimat (MAK), which recruited fighters from around the world and imported equipment to aid the Afghan resistance against the Soviet army.

Egyptians, Lebanese, Turks and others - numbering thousands in Mr Bin Laden's estimate - joined their Afghan Muslim brothers in the struggle against an ideology that spurned religion.

Turned against the US

After the Soviet withdrawal, the "Arab Afghans", as Mr Bin Laden's faction came to be called, turned their fire against the US and its allies in the Middle East.

Mr Bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia to work in the family construction business, but was expelled in 1991 because of his anti-government activities there.

He spent the next five years in Sudan until US pressure prompted the Sudanese Government to expel him, whereupon Mr Bin Laden returned to Afghanistan.

Terrorism experts say Mr Bin Laden has been using his millions to fund attacks against the US.

The US State Department calls him "one of the most significant sponsors of Islamic extremist activities in the world today".

According to the US, Mr Bin Laden was involved in at least three major attacks - the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1996 killing of 19 US soldiers in Saudi Arabia, and the 1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

Islamic front

BBC correspondent James Robbins says Mr Bin Laden had "all but admitted involvement" in the Saudi Arabia killings.

Some experts say he is part of an international Islamic front, bringing together Saudi, Egyptian and other groups.

Their rallying cry is the liberation of Islam's three holiest places - Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.

The few outsiders who have met Osama Bin Laden describe him as modest, almost shy. He rarely gives interviews.

He is believed to be in his 40s, and to have at least three wives.

By Jack Kelley, USA TODAY

AP
U.S. officials say Osama bin Laden is posting instructions for terrorist activities on sports chat rooms, pornographic bulletin boards and other Web sites.
WASHINGTON — Hidden in the X-rated pictures on several pornographic Web sites and the posted comments on sports chat rooms may lie the encrypted blueprints of the next terrorist attack against the United States or its allies. It sounds farfetched, but U.S. officials and experts say it's the latest method of communication being used by Osama bin Laden and his associates to outfox law enforcement. Bin Laden, indicted in the bombing in 1998 of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, and others are hiding maps and photographs of terrorist targets and posting instructions for terrorist activities on sports chat rooms, pornographic bulletin boards and other Web sites, U.S. and foreign officials say.

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"Uncrackable encryption is allowing terrorists — Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida and others — to communicate about their criminal intentions without fear of outside intrusion," FBI Director Louis Freeh said last March during closed-door testimony on terrorism before a Senate panel. "They're thwarting the efforts of law enforcement to detect, prevent and investigate illegal activities."

A terrorist's tool

Once the exclusive domain of the National Security Agency, the super-secret U.S. agency responsible for developing and cracking electronic codes, encryption has become the everyday tool of Muslim extremists in Afghanistan, Albania, Britain, Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, Syria, the USA, the West Bank and Gaza and Yemen, U.S. officials say.

It's become so fundamental to the operations of these groups that bin Laden and other Muslim extremists are teaching it at their camps in Afghanistan and Sudan, they add.

"There is a tendency out there to envision a stereotypical Muslim fighter standing with an AK-47 in barren Afghanistan," says Ben Venzke, director of special intelligence projects for iDEFENSE, a cyberintelligence and risk management company based in Fairfax, Va.

"But Hamas, Hezbollah and bin Laden's groups have very sophisticated, well-educated people. Their technical equipment is good, and they have the bright, young minds to operate them," he said.

U.S. officials say bin Laden's organization, al-Qaida, uses money from Muslim sympathizers to purchase computers from stores or by mail. Bin Laden's followers download easy-to-use encryption programs from the Web, officials say, and have used the programs to help plan or carry out three of their most recent plots:

Wadih El Hage, one of the suspects in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, sent encrypted e-mails under various names, including "Norman" and "Abdus Sabbur," to "associates in al Qaida," according to the Oct. 25, 1998, U.S. indictment against him. Hage went on trial Monday in federal court in New York.
Khalil Deek, an alleged terrorist arrested in Pakistan in 1999, used encrypted computer files to plot bombings in Jordan at the turn of the millennium, U.S. officials say. Authorities found Deek's computer at his Peshawar, Pakistan, home and flew it to the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Md. Mathematicians, using supercomputers, decoded the files, enabling the FBI to foil the plot.
Ramzi Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, used encrypted files to hide details of a plot to destroy 11 U.S. airliners. Philippines officials found the computer in Yousef's Manila apartment in 1995. U.S. officials broke the encryption and foiled the plot. Two of the files, FBI officials say, took more than a year to decrypt.
"All the Islamists and terrorist groups are now using the Internet to spread their messages," says Reuven Paz, academic director of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism, an independent Israeli think tank.

Messages in dots

U.S. officials and militant Muslim groups say terrorists began using encryption — which scrambles data and then hides the data in existing images — about five years ago.

But the groups recently increased its use after U.S. law enforcement authorities revealed they were tapping bin Laden's satellite telephone calls from his base in Afghanistan and tracking his activities.

"It's brilliant," says Ahmed Jabril, spokesman for the militant group Hezbollah in London. "Now it's possible to send a verse from the Koran, an appeal for charity and even a call for jihad and know it will not be seen by anyone hostile to our faith, like the Americans."

Extremist groups are not only using encryption to disguise their e-mails but their voices, too, Attorney General Janet Reno told a presidential panel on terrorism last year, headed by former CIA director John Deutsch. Encryption programs also can scramble telephone conversations when the phones are plugged into a computer.

"In the future, we may tap a conversation in which the terrorist discusses the location of a bomb soon to go off, but we will be unable to prevent the terrorist act when we cannot understand the conversation," Reno said.

Here's how it works: Each image, whether a picture or a map, is created by a series of dots. Inside the dots are a string of letters and numbers that computers read to create the image. A coded message or another image can be hidden in those letters and numbers.

They're hidden using free encryption Internet programs set up by privacy advocacy groups. The programs scramble the messages or pictures into existing images. The images can only be unlocked using a "private key," or code, selected by the recipient, experts add. Otherwise, they're impossible to see or read.

"You very well could have a photograph and image with the time and information of an attack sitting on your computer, and you would never know it," Venzke says. "It will look no different than a photograph exchanged between two friends or family members."

U.S. officials concede it's difficult to intercept, let alone find, encrypted messages and images on the Internet's estimated 28 billion images and 2 billion Web sites.

Even if they find it, the encrypted message or image is impossible to read without cracking the encryption's code. A senior Defense Department mathematician says cracking a code often requires lots of time and the use of a government supercomputer.

It's no wonder the FBI wants all encryption programs to file what amounts to a "master key" with a federal authority that would allow them, with a judge's permission, to decrypt a code in a case of national security. But civil liberties groups, which offer encryption programs on the Web to further privacy, have vowed to fight it.

Officials say the Internet has become the modern version of the "dead drop," a slang term describing the location where Cold War-era spies left maps, pictures and other information.

But unlike the "dead drop," the Internet, U.S. officials say, is proving to be a much more secure way to conduct clandestine warfare.

"Who ever thought that sending encrypted streams of data across the Internet could produce a map on the other end saying 'this is where your target is' or 'here's how to kill them'?" says Paul Beaver, spokesman for Jane's Defense Weekly in London, which reports on defense and cyberterrorism issues. "And who ever thought it could be done with near perfect security? The Internet has proven to be a boon for terrorists."

Osama bin Laden says he is committed to a "Holy War"

A leading spokesman for Afghanistan's ruling Taleban militia has said it would consider extraditing terror suspect Osama Bin Laden based on US evidence.
US officials have described the Saudi-born dissident as their chief suspect in off-the record briefings, saying they have intercepted messages between his people talking about the attacks.

The Taleban ambassador to neighbouring Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said, when asked about Mr Bin Laden's possible extradition, that the first step would be to discuss any US evidence.

I support the attacks because they constitute a reaction of the oppressed people against the atrocities of the cruel

Osama bin Laden
It would be "premature" to talk about extraditing the Saudi dissident.

"If any evidence is presented to us, we will study it," he told reporters.

"About his handover, we can talk about that in the second phase," Mr Zaeef said.

BBC World Affairs editor John Simpson says the ruling militia has consistently maintained that allowing Mr Bin Laden to remain in the country was a matter of honour.

A reversal could mean that Afghanistan's leaders are trying to rescue themselves from an all out, massive attack by American forces.

Mr Bin Laden has denied involvement in the attacks on the United States, but says he fully supports such "daring acts".

Attacks

US investigators blame Mr Bin Laden for the car bombings that killed 224 people at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and last year's bomb attack on the USS Cole at a harbour in Yemen, which killed 17 US sailors.

He has repeatedly denounced the United States for sending troops to Arab countries and for its support of Israel.

But in a statement apparently sent from somewhere in Afghanistan and published by a Pakistani newspaper considered close to Mr bin Laden, the Saudi dissident has been quoted as saying that even if he was eliminated, such attacks were not going to stop.

He was reported to have praised what he called the courage of the suicide attackers, and thanked God.

'Noble cause'

The United States would get nothing out of eliminating one Osama, the paper quoted him as saying, " as there were several Osamas".

He said dozens of known fighters and other experts were with him and were willing to give their lives for what he described as a "noble cause".

However, BBC World Affairs Correspondent John Simpson said that there was "not a lot of doubt" that Mr Bin Laden was involved.

"There is no one else that has the flair for terrorism and his men have targeted the World Trade Center before."

Usama bin Laden is not a hero.

According to international standards of law and morality, anyone who incites violence against an entire people, especially for ideological reasons, is a criminal.

August 1996 Declaration of War

On or about August 23, 1996, Usama bin Laden signed and issued a Declaration of jihad (holy war) from Afghanistan entitled, "Message from Usama bin Laden to his Muslim Brothers in the Whole World and Especially in the Arabian Peninsula: Declaration of Jihad Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Mosques; Expel the Heretics from the Arabian Peninsula."

February 1998 Fatwa Against American Citizens

In February 1998, Usama bin Laden and his close associate, Ayman al Zawahiri, endorsed a fatwa under the banner of the "International Islamic Front for Jihad on the Jews and Crusaders." This fatwa, published in the newspaper, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, on February 23, 1998, stated that Muslims should kill Americans - including civilians - anywhere in the world where they can be found.

May 1998 Fatwa

On or about May 7, 1998, bin Laden associate Mohammed Atef sent Khaled al Fawwaz a letter discussing the endorsement by bin Laden of a fatwa issued by the "Ulema Union of Afghanistan" which termed the U.S. army the "enemies of Islam" and declared jihad against the U.S. and its followers. The fatwa was subsequently published in Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

Bin Laden Endorses the Nuclear Bomb of Islam

On or about May 29, 1998, bin Laden issued a statement entitled "The Nuclear Bomb of Islam," under the banner of the "International Islamic Front for Fighting the Jews and Crusaders," in which he stated that "it is the duty of Muslims to prepare as much force as possible to terrorize the enemies of God." (end text)

Bron:
http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/99129502.htm