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Bin Laden threatens U.S. over death sentence for shooter at CIA

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Saturday, July 8, 2000


LONDON -- Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden has threatened the United States with renewed terrorist attacks if the man convicted of the 1993 CIA killings is executed. His spokesman here also said Muslim commandos are being trained in Virginia, Missouri and Michigan.

Sources close to the Al Qaida group led by Bin Laden said he has relayed a warning to U.S. President Bill Clinton againt executing Aimal Kansi, extradited by Pakistan and convicted of murder in the Jan. 25, 1993, attack outside Central Intelligence Agency headquarters near Washington, D.C. which killed two CIA employees and wounded three others. A jury in Fairfax County, Virginia recommended the death penalty on Nov. 13, 1997 for Kansi.

The sources said Bin Laden warned his organization would retaliate for the execution of Kansi with the execution of 100 Americans, Middle East Newsline reported.

"If our volunteers are not able to hang 100 Americans in the United States, they would complete this number with employees of U.S. embassies all over the world," the sources quoted the telegram as saying.

The sources said Bin Laden has scores of agents throughout the United States and have undergone training for future attacks. They claimed some of them serve in the U.S. military.

Omar Bakri, head of the London-based Muhajiroun organization and regarded as a spokesman for Bin Laden, said Islamic fundamentalists have been training to help defend Muslims in Bosnia, Chechnya and Kosovo.

"Attacks on Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chechnya, and elsewhere in Western countries have prompted the fundamentalist movement to think of recruiting and preparing Muslims youths and sending them to the United States for military training in special camps set up in Virginia, Missouri, and Michigan," Bakri said. "These camps are run by American Muslims and the objective is to hoist the banner of the call and defend Muslims in Europe if they come under similar attacks."

Bakri said the plan to train Muslims in the United States came from new converts from the West. He pointed out that many European Union countries no longer need visas to enter the United States.

"They carried British and European passports, though most of them were of Asian and Arab origins," Bakri said.

In the United States, Bakri said, the fundamentalists can easily purchase firearms and organize training. He said the camps were rented for the spring and summer for up to three months. Each camp contained 40 insurgents who were trained in firearms, explosives and commando techniques.

Saturday, July 8, 2000

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