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The FBI is offering $5 million for Atef who has emerged as one of the key links between Osama and the suicide attacks, London's The Sunday Times reported.
The vast electronic eavesdropping operation of Western intelligence agencies has revealed, albeit belatedly, that Atef was the likely 'mastermind' behind the meticulous planning of the September 11 operation, and conveyed the order for its execution.
"Last week, sources at both Mi6 and the CIA, (British and American intelligence agencies) independently revealed to the Sunday Times that 'technical intelligence' - believed to be intercepted telephone conversions and electronic bank transfers - implicated Atef in the suicide jet attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
In a separate instance, bin Laden contacted another associate, thought to have been in Afghanistan and discussed the scale and effect of a forthcoming operation. During the course of the conversation, bin Laden praised his colleague for his part in the planning.
Neither communication specifically mentioned the World Trade Centre or the Pentagon - bin Laden would never be so careless.
Rather, it is the timing, context and nature of the exchanges, according to the intelligence source, that make it clear that bin Laden was discussing the suicide attacks.
"This is believed to form a key part of the evidence that has convinced leaders, both within Britain and overseas, that bin Laden was responsible for the atrocities, but which has been withheld from public release for security reasons," the report said.
For more than a decade, Atef has been a loyal follower of bin Laden, rising to sit on the military committee of the Al-Qaeda, the terrorist network led by Osama. He takes 'primary responsibility', according to the CIA, for the training of new members at camps in Afghanistan.
The ties extend beyond a shared ideology: in January, in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, bin Laden's eldest son married Atef's daughter. This was more than the union of two families. It was a fusion between two of the world's most wanted men.
The FBI believes Atef, who also goes by the names Sheikh Taseer Abdullah and Abu Hafs al-masri, is bin Laden's military planner. Like his master, Atef is contemptuous of American leaders and military power.
"They are only human beings whose power has been exaggerated because of their huge media and the control they exert over the world's media," he told an Arab journalist in 1999.
It was he who guided the bombers who blew up the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, killing 224 people and injuring thousands more.
Evidence presented during the trial of the bombers showed Atef had held meetings with the conspirators in Peshawar, northern Pakistan, and kept in touch with them by satellite phone.
PTI
The Attack on America: The Complete Coverage
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External Link: For further coverage, please visit www.saja.org/roundupsept11.html
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