突然、ナゾの最新報道をするため先月から日本の各紙でもヤタラ引用されるようになった英紙ガーディアン（日曜はオブザーバー）（ええいウットーしい）
昨日２０日は「中国がビン・ラディンに見返り報酬として巨額の支払い」ナドと、相変わらずの恐れを知らぬ（或いは無秩序な）報道ぶり。上海から締め出しクラってねえでしょうか。
先月１１日の同時テロ以降「問題」の記事は主にこんな所。日本語部分は主に産経様を利用させていただきました：
【９月１７日（ガーディアン） →不明】
関係筋の話として、米国で発生した米中枢同時テロの主要容疑者とされるサウジアラビア出身の富豪、ウサマ・ビンラーディン氏が米国による軍事行動を恐れて、潜伏中のアフガニスタン南部のカンダハルに近い主要拠点を放棄し、家族やアラブ系の支持者らとともに山間部に避難したと報道
The hunted: Bin Laden and family flee to the hills and family go into hiding
（Guardian 2001.09.17）
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4258524,00.html
【９月１９日（ガーディアン） →不明】
アラブ筋の情報として、ビンラーディン氏が十七日にカブールで支持者に「別れの演説」を行い、その後四人の妻や護衛と馬で北部の山間部へ向かったと報道
Hide-out: Bin Laden heads off on horseback
（Guardian 2001.09.19）
【９月３０日（オブザーバー） →ハズレ】
米中枢同時テロの黒幕ウサマ・ビンラーディン氏率いるテロ武装組織「アルカーイダ」などのアフガニスタン国内の拠点に対し、米英両軍が「今後四十八時間以内」に攻撃を開始する見通しだと報道
US and Britain to strike terror camps within days
（Observer 2001.09.30）
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4267263,00.html
【１０月０２日（ガーディアン） →不明】
米の偵察衛星かパキスタン三軍統合情報部（ＩＳＩ）が、ビンラーディン氏が先週カブールにいたことを察知したと報道
Bin Laden seen in Kabul as net tightens
（Guardian 2001.10.02）
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4268205,00.html
【１０月１４日（オブザーバー） →不明】
米国で続発している炭疽菌事件に関連して、炭疽菌をテロリストに提供した主要容疑者として米捜査機関がイラクの名前をあげていると報道
Iraq 'behind US anthrax outbreaks'
（Observer 2001.10.14）
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4276938,00.html
【１０月２０日（ガーディアン） →中国政府は「事実無根」と否定】
中国が米中枢同時テロの首謀者とされるウサマ・ビンラーディン氏に対し、米軍がアフガニスタン内のビンラーディン氏の基地に発射した巡航ミサイルを見せてもらったことへの見返りとして一九九八年に数百万ドルを支払っていたと報道
昨日２０日は「中国がビン・ラディンに見返り報酬として巨額の支払い」ナドと、相変わらずの恐れを知らぬ（或いは無秩序な）報道ぶり。上海から締め出しクラってねえでしょうか。
先月１１日の同時テロ以降「問題」の記事は主にこんな所。日本語部分は主に産経様を利用させていただきました：
【９月１７日（ガーディアン） →不明】
関係筋の話として、米国で発生した米中枢同時テロの主要容疑者とされるサウジアラビア出身の富豪、ウサマ・ビンラーディン氏が米国による軍事行動を恐れて、潜伏中のアフガニスタン南部のカンダハルに近い主要拠点を放棄し、家族やアラブ系の支持者らとともに山間部に避難したと報道
The hunted: Bin Laden and family flee to the hills and family go into hiding
（Guardian 2001.09.17）
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4258524,00.html
【９月１９日（ガーディアン） →不明】
アラブ筋の情報として、ビンラーディン氏が十七日にカブールで支持者に「別れの演説」を行い、その後四人の妻や護衛と馬で北部の山間部へ向かったと報道
Hide-out: Bin Laden heads off on horseback
（Guardian 2001.09.19）
【９月３０日（オブザーバー） →ハズレ】
米中枢同時テロの黒幕ウサマ・ビンラーディン氏率いるテロ武装組織「アルカーイダ」などのアフガニスタン国内の拠点に対し、米英両軍が「今後四十八時間以内」に攻撃を開始する見通しだと報道
US and Britain to strike terror camps within days
（Observer 2001.09.30）
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4267263,00.html
【１０月０２日（ガーディアン） →不明】
米の偵察衛星かパキスタン三軍統合情報部（ＩＳＩ）が、ビンラーディン氏が先週カブールにいたことを察知したと報道
Bin Laden seen in Kabul as net tightens
（Guardian 2001.10.02）
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4268205,00.html
【１０月１４日（オブザーバー） →不明】
米国で続発している炭疽菌事件に関連して、炭疽菌をテロリストに提供した主要容疑者として米捜査機関がイラクの名前をあげていると報道
Iraq 'behind US anthrax outbreaks'
（Observer 2001.10.14）
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4276938,00.html
【１０月２０日（ガーディアン） →中国政府は「事実無根」と否定】
中国が米中枢同時テロの首謀者とされるウサマ・ビンラーディン氏に対し、米軍がアフガニスタン内のビンラーディン氏の基地に発射した巡航ミサイルを見せてもらったことへの見返りとして一九九八年に数百万ドルを支払っていたと報道
（Guardian 2001.09.17）
Luke Harding and Rory McCarthy in Islamabad, Brian Whitaker and Richard Norton-Taylor
Osama bin Laden has abandoned his main base near Kandahar in fear of attack by the US and has moved to an undisclosed location in the mountains, sources in the Afghan city said last night.
The Saudi-born dissident's large family, together with his Arab followers, has also left the city, the sources added. His four wives and many children have taken refuge in the countryside, according to reports.
Bin Laden and his men have apparently moved to one of their many hideouts in a remote part of the country. His decision to vacate the southern Afghan city was not only for his personal security, but to reduce the chances of civilian casualties in case of an attack, his aides said.
In a statement faxed to the pro-Taliban Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) agency, Bin Laden yesterday denied having anything to do with last week's attacks in New York and Washington. "I am residing in Afghanistan. I have taken an oath of allegiance [to the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar] which does not allow me to do such things from Afghanistan," he claimed.
"We have been blamed in the past, but we were not involved," he said. The fax, written in Arabic, was sent from a secret location, AIP said.
In the past, Bin Laden has shifted base whenever there has been any threat of American retaliation, most recently last October after the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, in which 17 sailors were killed.
He has several main bases inside Afghanistan - a large camp next to Kandahar airport, where several hundred of his Arab followers live, a smaller base in the Oruzgan mountains and a third camp near the south-eastern city of Jalalabad, cut into a rockface.
But he is also believed to have a network of smaller hideouts, many of which were used by the mojahedin in the 1980s in their guerrilla war against Soviet troops. Afghanistan is a large country with mountains, deserts and remote valleys.
One source said that Bin Laden had the choice of many isolated and secure sanctuaries, adding: "There are plenty of places to hide."
Locating him is only one problem that the Bush administration faces. The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, said yesterday that he had "no doubt" that Bin Laden was the "prime suspect", but proving that he had directly instigated or funded last week's attacks on the US was likely to be another matter.
Although no evidence linking Bin Laden to the attacks has been disclosed, reports yesterday linked one of the suspected hijackers to the suicide bomb attack on USS Cole.
Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times said that Khalid al-Midhar, who died in the crash at the Pentagon, had earlier been captured by a surveillance video meeting one of the Cole suspects in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
But despite strong suspicions that Bin Laden was behind the attack on the warship in Aden, no specific evidence of his role has emerged. One of the most tantalising pointers is that Abdul al-Muhsin al-Taifi, named as one of the two suicide bombers in Yemen, was wanted for questioning about the 1998 bombing of the American embassy in Nairobi, for which Bin Laden has also been blamed.
British intelligence sources say that Bin Laden's sympathisers have no formal structure, making it extremely difficult to penetrate his al-Qaida organisation or to find hard evidence against it.
"It is an informal network which crosses international boundaries", one source said. The members do not see themselves as a part of a group and, unlike the IRA and other terrorist groups, they do not operate in cells.
Rather they are a collection of individuals "inspired" by Bin Laden, the intelligence sources added.
（Guardian 2001.09.19）
Luke Harding in Islamabad
Osama bin Laden took an oath of allegiance from some 500 of his Arab supporters in Kabul before setting off towards a secret location in the mountains on horseback, reports in Pakistan said yesterday.
The Saudi dissident apparently made a farewell speech to his followers in the centre of the Afghan capital on Monday. "The fidayeen [militant supporters] were all Arabs, who vowed to fight to the last man," an Arab source was quoted as saying.
According to the source, Bin Laden said goodbye to his comrades-in-arms before disappearing with his bodyguards on horses.
"They left behind the vehicles and left on horses. He must have gone to some place which is not motorable," the source said.
The report appears to be the latest confirmation that Bin Laden has gone to ground in the face of an overwhelming US attack. Sources in Kandahar two days ago said that all of Bin Laden's Arab followers had left the city, together with his four wives and many children.
Bin Laden is known to have at least three bases in Afghanistan: a large Arab camp next to the airport north of Kandahar, where some 300 of his supporters live; a smaller base in the remote Oruzgan mountains; and a third camp in the eastern city of Jalalabad. The last camp is cut into a rockface and is supplied with an Islamic library and three uncomfortable beds.
Bin Laden is known to be fond of riding. He owns several horses at his two farms, one in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and another in Ningrahar, near Jalalabad, an area famous for its fertile citrus groves.
As well as his main bases, Bin Laden is also able to draw upon a network of smaller, near-impregnable hide-outs deep in the Hindu Kush mountains. His followers would also be able to make use of the innumerable hidden bases used by the mojahedin in the 1980s in their fight against invading Soviet troops.
In the unlikely event that the Taliban decide to hand over Bin Laden to the Americans later today, they may have a difficult job in finding him. Since the Americans fired 70 Tomahawk cruise missiles at his training camps in August 1998, Bin Laden no longer carries a satellite phone. Instead, he relays urgent messages to subordinates.
The Saudi dissident has so far steadfastly denied having anything to do with the attacks in New York and Washington. In a statement to the Afghan Islamic Press agency on Sunday he protested his innocence. "I am residing in Afghanistan. I have taken an oath of allegiance (to the Taliban's leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar) which does not allow me to do such things from Afghanistan," he claimed.
Most sources say that Bin Laden is quite capable of disappearing for months at a time.
He vanished from Kandahar last October, when there seemed a prospect of another revenge strike against him, following the death of 17 American sailors in an attack on the USS Cole in Yemen.
（Observer 2001.09.30）
Ed Vulliamy, Washington, Jason Burke, Peshawar, Peter Beaumont and Paul Beaver
Observer
Devastating attacks on bases controlled by Osama bin Laden are set to be launched in the next 48 hours as part of a tightly focused military operation approved by US President George Bush and backed by Britain.
The strategy, which is a victory for pragmatists in both Britain and America, is designed to kill bin Laden and his forces, and will be launched in tandem with strikes against air and ground forces of the Taliban regime supporting him.
The operation, which British and US sources say could be launched as early as today, would begin with air and missile strikes to destroy the Taliban's 20-aircraft air force, remove anti-aircraft missile batteries, and destroy Taliban tanks and other armour.
In a clear sign that strikes were imminent, Bush declared last night, after a meeting with military advisers at Camp David: 'America will act deliberately and decisively, and the cause of freedom will prevail.'
In a live radio address, he added: 'We did not seek this conflict, but we will end it. This war will be fought wherever terrorists hide, or run, or plan. Other victories will be clear to all.'
The aim of the first phase, likely to be launched from aircraft with US and British ships in the Arabian Sea, would be to remove any threat from the Taliban for the substantial incursion that would follow.
Sources say this would be in the form of a so-called desant operation - an airborne assault deep into Taliban-held territory - led by helicopter-carried troops of the US 82nd Airborne Division. Sources said that the 101st Air Assault Division has also been ordered to be ready for action.
Also fully mobilised was the 10th Mountain Division, which would be the main ground force in what Bush called an upcoming 'guerrilla war' fought by US and British forces. Although soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division are trained for low-level parachute jumps, any assault is likely be made by first abseiling down fixed lines from helicopters.
American forces would be supported by US Special Forces - including US Army Rangers and Green Berets, and by British Special Forces. British units understood to have been earmarked include mountain warfare cadres of G-troop, 22 SAS Regiment; the Special Boat Service's Mountain Troop - which is trained for cliff assault and Arctic warfare - and the Mountain Leaders' section of 4/5 Royal Marine Commando. All are trained and equipped to operate in mountainous terrain for periods of up to a fortnight without being resupplied.
The US troops are equipped with a specialised version of the Black Hawk attack helicopter and long range MH-47 Chinooks armed with rotary cannon. They would also be able to call on support from AC-130 aircraft - nicknamed Puff the Magic Dragon - which can give ground support with an artillery cannon in its belly.
Initial targets earmarked for the air assault and desant operation include bases controlled by the al-Qaeda around Kabul, in particular those with usable air strips.
American security sources told The Observer they believe four of the hijackers had spent time in Afghanistan with the Taliban and possibly with al-Qaeda. One, Wali Mohamed al-Sherhi, is believed to have been taught urban warfare and terrorism in al-Farooq training camp in eastern Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border.
He is thought to have left Afghanistan 18 months ago. The dossier, for the first time, definitely links al-Farooq to bin Laden, naming four men who are bin Laden aides who it says administer and train those at the camp.
Back in Washington, the tight focus of the planned military operation is a victory for the pragmatists in Bush's cabinet, notably Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell has been involved in a battle of wills with hawks gathered around the figure of Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who would like to see US strikes against a wide range of targets, including Iraq.
It also follows words of caution from America's key ally, Britain. Tony Blair has advised that the only target of military action should be bin Laden's network and, if necessary, the Taliban.
The location of the bases was revealed yesterday by Russian intelligence, which has provided the Pentagon with the most detailed intelligence so far on the network of bin Laden camps.
The news came as British sources claimed that the Taliban was set to flood the west with heroin in an attempt to destabilise its enemies.
US Special Forces were last night already active in Afghanistan, almost certainly involved in scouting and preparing a secure forward airbase in territory held by the opposition Northern Alliance.
There were claims from Afghanistan yesterday that a team of five US commandos has been captured by al-Qaeda. The Qatar-based al-Jezeera television station said al-Qaeda claimed to have captured a unit 'armed with modern weapons and maps of al-Qaeda's bases' in the south-western Helmand province.
The Taliban and the Pentagon denied the report. US officials, however, confirmed on Friday that special forces units - possibly from the US Green Berets or the elite Rangers regiment - had been deployed in Afghanistan on reconnaissance missions.
They hinted that soldiers from the British SAS were also involved. The special forces had been deployed 'in the last few days', the sources told US reporters, and were there to gather information on Taliban positions and strengths, not to search for bin Laden.
Sources in Washington said that with British and American reconnaissance and Special Operations teams already working on the ground to locate targets with laser-guidance and sensor systems, US forces were ready to 'go into the first breach' in territory controlled by al-Qaeda.
Planning groups at the Pentagon will now increase pressure on the White House to expand the action to attack locations in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, with the elimination of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as 'a precondition' to defeating terrorism.
（Guardian 2001.10.02）
Richard Norton-Taylor
Osama bin Laden was in Kabul last week and US and British intelligence agencies have a "pretty good idea" where he is now, well-placed sources have told the Guardian.
The disclosure suggests that western intelligence has a much clearer picture of Bin Laden's recent movements than has been admitted, either by Washington and London or by the Taliban.
Bin Laden and his close circle of supporters are America's top target.
His capture or death would reduce the pressure for wider military action against Afghanistan.
It is not clear whether he was spotted by American spy satellites or whether the information was provided by Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI.
The ISI, which has had extremely close relations with the Taliban, is said by western sources to be cooperating well with western intelligence agencies.
The presence in the Afghan capital of the prime suspect behind the September 11 attacks on the US could help to explain recent statements by the Taliban saying they know where he is.
The Taliban said on Sunday that he was being held in a secret location "for his safety and security".
According to one report, in the days immediately following the attack, Bin Laden was hiding in a mountainous area near Kandahar, the seat of the Taliban's power in southern Afghanistan.
However, despite the ISI's cooperation and apparently firm intelligence that Bin Laden was in Kabul last week, defence sources say they are deeply frustrated at the failure to get "real-time" or what they call "actionable" intelligence. They are scanning Afghanistan for what they call a "window of opportunity" to find Bin Laden and his associates.
With the latest communications technology, there is a delay of some hours between a sighting of a target from a satellite and a military strike against it, defence sources say.
The failure so far to get real-time intelligence indicates that any special forces that may be on the ground have not found Bin Laden and that Pakistan's ISI is not prepared to share its latest intelligence with the US.
Even if timely intelligence locates Bin Laden in Kabul, the US and Britain would be faced with a serious dilemma, Whitehall sources admit. Any decision to launch air strikes on the capital, even with precision weapons, would carry the risk of heavy civilian casualties.
The American and British governments are determined to limit such risks, partly because of the need to maintain as broad an international coalition as possible, partly to avoid provoking retaliation by groups of protesters at home.
The Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, was reported yesterday to have said in a radio address that Afghhans should not worry about a US attack because "Americans don't have the courage to come here".
US and British intelligence agencies are throwing all their resources at their disposal in the attempt to locate Bin Laden. They include US spy satellites and GCHQ listening posts.
Defence sources still insist they are pursuing a policy of what they call "strategic patience".
However, they add that pressure is mounting to launch air strikes to "coerce" the Taliban into handing over Bin Laden. These would be aimed at Bin Laden training camps and Taliban military bases.
（Observer 2001.10.14）
David Rose and Ed Vulliamy, New York
American investigators probing anthrax outbreaks in Florida and New York believe they have all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack - and have named Iraq as prime suspect as the source of the deadly spores.
Their inquiries are adding to what US hawks say is a growing mass of evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved, possibly indirectly, with the 11 September hijackers.
If investigators' fears are confirmed - and sceptics fear American hawks could be publicising the claim to press their case for strikes against Iraq - the pressure now building among senior Pentagon and White House officials in Washington for an attack may become irresistible.
Plans have been discussed among Pentagon strategists for US air strike support for armed insurrections against Saddam by rebel Kurds in the north and Shia Muslims in the south with a promise of American ground troops to protect the oilfields of Basra.
Contact has already been made with an Iraqi opposition group based in London with a view to installing its members as a future government in Baghdad.
Leading US intelligence sources, involved with both the CIA and the Defence Department, told The Observer that the 'giveaway' which suggests a state sponsor for the anthrax cases is that the victims in Florida were afflicted with the airborne form of the disease.
'Making anthrax, on its own, isn't so difficult,' one senior US intelligence source said. 'But it only begins to become effective as a biological weapon if they can be made the right size to breathe in. If you can't get airborne infectivity, you can't use it as a weapon. That is extremely difficult. There is very little leeway. Most spores are either too big to be suspended in air, or too small to lodge on the lining of the lungs.'
As claims about an Iraqi link grew, senior health officials in Britain revealed they warned all the country's GPs last week to be vigilant about the disease. 'I think we have to be prepared to think the unthinkable,' said the Government's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Liam Donaldson. The Department of Health confirmed the Government is conducting an urgent review of Britain's ability to cope with chemical or biological attacks.
It also emerged last night that three people who worked in the Florida buildings at the centre of anthrax scares are now in the UK and undergoing tests for the disease. And in America a letter sent from Malaysia to a Microsoft office was found to contain traces of anthrax.
In liquid form, anthrax is useless - droplets would fall to the ground, rather than staying suspended in the air to be breathed by victims. Making powder needs repeated washings in huge centrifuges, followed by intensive drying, which requires sealed environments. The technology would cost millions.
Scientists investigating the attacks say the bacteria used is similar to the 'Ames strain' of anthrax originally cultivated at Iowa State University in the 1950s and later given to labs throughout the world, including Iraq.
According to sources in the Bush administration, investigators are talking to Egyptian authorities who say members of the al-Qaida network, detained and interrogated in Cairo, had obtained phials of anthrax in the Czech Republic.
Last autumn Mohamed Atta is said by US intelligence officials to have met in Prague an agent from Iraqi intelligence called Ahmed Samir al-Ahani, a former consul later expelled by the Czechs for activities not compatible with his diplomatic mission.
The Czechs are also examining the possibility that Atta met a former director of Saddam's external secret services, Farouk Hijazi, at a second meeting in the spring. Hijazi is known to have met Bin Laden.
It was confirmed yesterday that Jim Woolsey, CIA director from 1993 to 1996, recently visited London on behalf of the hawkish Defence Department to 'firm up' other evidence of Iraqi involvement in 11 September.
Some observers fear linking Saddam to the terrorist attacks is part of an agenda being driven by US hawks eager to broaden the war to include Iraq, a move being resisted by the British government.
The hawks winning the ear of President Bush is assembled around Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, and a think tank, the Defence Policy Advisory Board, dubbed the 'Wolfowitz cabal'.
Their strategy to target Iraq was hammered out at a two-day seminar in September, of which the dovish Secretary of State Colin Powell had no knowledge.
The result was a letter to President Bush urging the removal of Saddam as a precondition to the war. 'Failure to undertake such an effort,' it said, 'will constitute a decisive surrender in the war against terrorism'.
In a swipe at Powell's premium on coalition-building, it continues: 'coalition building has run amok. The point about a coalition is "can it achieve the right purpose?" not "can you get a lot of members?"'
Administration officials close to the group told The Observer : 'We see this war as one against the virus of terrorism. If you have bone marrow cancer, it's not enough to just cut off the patient's foot. You have to do the complete course of chemotherapy. And if that means embarking on the next Hundred Years' War, that's what we're doing.'
（Guardian 2001.10.20）
John Hooper in Milan
China paid Osama bin Laden several million dollars for access to unexploded American cruise missiles left over from the US attack on his bases three years ago, a senior alleged al-Qaida agent in Europe has claimed.
The alleged agent's account is contained in the transcript of a secretly taped conversation between supporters of Osama bin Laden obtained by the Guardian. His revelation emerged as President Bush yesterday announced that he had won Beijing's support for the war on terrorism. After his first face-to-face meeting with China's President Jiang Zemin in Shanghai, Mr Bush said: "President Jiang and the government stand side by side with the American people as we fight this evil force".
The Chinese government has denied it obtained US missiles after the 1998 raid, which was carried out in reprisal for the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Beijing is said to have made a deal with al-Qaida to acquire the missiles despite the fact that it was facing a growing threat from Muslim separatists in the Xinjiang region. In 1999, China accused Bin Laden's organisation of training members of the independence movement in guerrilla warfare.
The US fired 75 missiles into Afghanistan during the attack on Bin Laden's camps on August 20, 1998. A report four months later in the Pakistani newspaper Ausaf, cited Taliban sources as saying that 40 were found unexploded.
The story of what happened next was taken up by Lased Ben Heni in a conversation with associates this year. Ben Heni, a 32-year-old Libyan arrested in Munich last week, is accused by Italian prosecutors of being the liaison officer between two terrorist cells owing allegiance to al-Qaida in Frankfurt and Milan.
On March 9, in a rundown flat in the Milan suburb of Gallarate, he met the leader of the Italian cell, Sami Ben Khemais Essid (alias "Saber") and told him of his experiences in Afghanistan visiting Osama bin Laden's camps. Unknown to the two men, the flat had been bugged by officers of the Italian anti-terrorist police.
"Perhaps the Americans are convinced by the bombardment of the sheikh's [Bin Laden's] training centres," Ben Heni is quoted as saying. "For them, it was a victory. But, in fact, it was a defeat because the majority of the missiles didn't even explode."
After a digression, the transcript continues: "With these weapons, he [Bin Laden] has boosted his financial resources. From every part of the world businessmen who hate Americans have come to study American missile strategy.
"In particular, businessmen have come from China. He works a great deal with China. He's got good relations with them.
"You see them and you ask 'But what are they doing here?' In the end, you understand that they work for the sheikh and that they came to study these missiles.
"Thanks to the money that comes from these studies from outside, he created the army of mohajedin headed by Omar Zayan (or Zaghan) in Chechnya".
Later, in a passage the meaning of which is not entirely clear, Ben Heni is heard to say: "When [Bin Laden] saw that the Afghan people, who were dying of hunger, passed missiles to sheikh Messaoud, he bargained with the Chinese and sold them to them for an enormous sum - I think $10m dollars - but only after the sheikh had studied them".
The transcript is the first supporting evidence from inside al-Qaida of sporadic reports in the months following the 1998 attack that China had acquired two unexploded Tomahawk missiles. In March 1999, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman described the reports as "groundless".
President Jiang told a joint press conference after his meeting with Mr Bush yesterday that they had reached a "consensus" on terrorism, although he urged that the anti-terrorist action should "hit accurately and also avoid innocent casualties".