Bin Laden warned three weeks ago of attacks

Followers of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden warned three weeks ago that they would carry out a ‘‘huge and unprecedented attack’’ on US interests, a London-based Arab journalist said today.

Followers of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden warned three weeks ago that they would carry out a ‘‘huge and unprecedented attack’’ on US interests, a London-based Arab journalist said today.

Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, said he received a warning from Islamic fundamentalists close to bin Laden, but did not take the threat seriously.

‘‘They said it would be a huge and unprecedented attack but they did not specify,’’ Atwan said.

‘‘We usually receive this kind of thing. At the time we did not take the warnings seriously as they had happened several times in the past and nothing happened.

‘‘This time it seems his people were accurate and meant every word they said.’’

Atwan, who interviewed renegade Saudi millionaire bin Laden in 1996 and has since maintained contacts with his followers, said he believed the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York was the work of ‘‘an Islamic fundamentalist group’’ very close to bin Laden.

The United States accuses the Saudi dissident of operating a terrorist network from his bases in Afghanistan and of blowing up two US embassies in East Africa in 1998. The Taliban, who have refused to hand him over, deny the charge.

Atwan said he was surprised by the scale of the attack, but said it was merely a continuation of bin Laden’s Fatwa religious edict against America. He said anti-American sentiment was running high in the Middle East because of perceived US support for Israel.

Tensions had increased further after the United States and Israel pulled out of the racism conference in Durban, South Africa due to anti-Israel language in the final declaration, he said.

‘‘People really are frustrated that here is a super power siding with the Israelis,’’ he said. ‘‘They made the hatred more by pulling out of the Durban conference.’’

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