EGYPTIAN security services recently dismantled a ”sleeping cell” of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, according to the editor-in-chief of the government’s al-Mussawar weekly newspaper. ”The mission of this sleeping cell was to conduct large-scale operations in Egypt on different very important targets, to create enormous consequences which would have complemented the terrorist series conducted by bin Laden against American interests,” Makram Mohamed Ahmed said in the issue of the paper to be published on Thursday. Ahmed said the cell ”comprised several dozen people,” including ”two pilots who were trained at the same American institutes” attended by Egyptian Mohammed Atta, the suspected pilot of one of the hijacked jetliners which was crashed into the World Trade Center in New York on September 11. Ahmed, considered close to President Hosni Mubarak, said the cell was smashed ”several weeks ago” but did not disclose where the arrests were made and immediate confirmation could not be obtained from the security services. The security services ”seized documents from the group which confirmed that the sleeping cell was part of al-Qaeda,” Ahmed said. – Sapa-AFP
Tuesday October 9, 2001