Y2K - bin Laden New Year's Terrorist Attack intercepted

[Guest guest]

USA TODAY

 

December 15, 1999, Wednesday,

FIRST EDITION

 

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A

 

LENGTH: 397 words

 

HEADLINE: U.S. warns bin Laden's protectors Arrests of Mideast

operatives led to overseas travel warning

 

BYLINE: Bill Nichols

 

and Jack Kelley

 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

 

BODY:

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration has warned Afghanistan's ruling

Taliban militia that it will be held responsible for any terrorist acts

by followers of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, the White House said

Tuesday.

 

The warning came as administration officials confirmed that the recent

arrests of nearly a dozen bin Laden operatives in the Middle East

prompted last week's State Department terrorism warning to U.S. citizens

who are planning to travel abroad.

 

Bin Laden has been indicted by a New York grand jury in connection with

last year's bombings that killed 220 people at U.S. embassies in Kenya

and Tanzania. He is believed to be living in Afghanistan under the

protection of the Taliban.

 

On Saturday, the State Department issued a warning to Americans abroad,

citing "credible information that terrorists are planning attacks"

through the New Year and the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

 

State Department spokesman James Foley confirmed Tuesday that arrests

had been made in connection with that threat and that the administration

believes the suspects are members of bin Laden's terrorist group, Al

Qaeda.

 

Administration officials would not say in what country the arrests

occurred. But U.S. intelligence officials said one bin Laden operative

arrested in the operation had confessed to planning an unspecified

terrorist strike against Christian sites in Vatican City.

 

"Bin Laden is going to keep running at us until he succeeds in another

major attack or we get him," says terrorism expert Neil Livingstone of

Global-Options, a Washington-based crisis management company. "This is

the best opportunity he has. It's a fight to the death."

 

Administration officials said there also is concern about potential

terrorist acts at Christian sites in Jerusalem by the radical Islamic

group Hamas.

 

Israeli undercover police killed two Hamas militants in the West Bank

town of Beit Awa this week. Hamas leaders vowed to avenge the deaths.

 

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said Michael Sheehan, head of the

State Department's counterterrorism office, delivered the warning to the

Taliban's U.S. representative in New York on Monday.

 

"We wanted to make sure they understood that their support in harboring

the bin Laden organization was noted here," Lockhart said.

 

In Afghanistan, the Taliban called the State Department's warning

"propaganda."

 

 

 

GRAPHIC: Osama bin Laden: Believed to be hiding in Afghanistan

 

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

 

LOAD-DATE: December 15, 1999