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01/27/2004 Archived Entry: "Afghan war halted al-Qaida terror program"

Posted by steve @ 08:05 PM EST [Link]

AFGHAN WAR HALTED CHEMICAL/BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS PROGRAMS: American and Malaysian security officials stated today that the American-led war against the Taliban halted a nascent al-Qaida program to develop biological and chemical weapons.

The information on the state of Osama bin Laden's weapons plan came from interrogations of terrorist suspects captured in Southeast Asia and from clues gathered in the Afghan battlefield, the authorities said.

The project was being developed in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Officials believe the program was being run by Yazid Sufaat, a former Malaysian army captain and U.S.-trained biochemist, under the direction of Riduan Isamuddin, or Hambali, an Indonesian accused of heading al-Qaida's operations in Southeast Asia.

Both men are suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremist group.

Yazid was arrested in December 2001 as he returned to Malaysia from Afghanistan. Hambali was arrested last August in Thailand and is in U.S. custody at an undisclosed location.

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