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Bin Laden and Sudan disavow government informant

Al-Fadl, whose face cannot be shown, was questioned for two days about his service with the terrorist network, al Qaeda, by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.  

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A spokesman for Osama bin Laden, the absent lead defendant in the embassy bombings trial, issued a statement Thursday denying a connection to Jamal Al-Fadl, the U.S. government's confidential informant-turned-witness against bin Laden.

Al-Fadl, 37, from Sudan, spent the previous two days testifying about the history of "al Qaeda," the organization bin Laden founded with other Islamic militants in the waning days of the Afghanistan war against Soviet occupiers.

Al-Fadl, who said he was an original member of al Qaeda, described the group's membership, military training, and business operations from its founding around 1989 to its years based in Sudan, from 1991 to 1996, when Al-Fadl left.

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"This witness does not have any connection with al Qaeda," said a spokesman for the group to Al-Jazeera television, based in Qatar. Al-Jazeera forwarded the Arabic paper statement to CNN.

The al Qaeda spokesman, considered reliable by Al-Jazeera, said that Al-Fadl had no special relationship with bin Laden.

Al-Fadl testified that he split with bin Laden after he got caught pocketing $110,000 in unauthorized commissions, in effect stealing money, from oil and sugar sales for bin Laden's companies.

"I don't care about the money, but I care about you because you start this from the beginning. You work hard in Afghanistan, you are one of the best people in al Qaeda group," bin Laden told him in a private meeting, Al-Fadl testified.

Unable to pay back the money, Al-Fadl told the court he soon fled to an unnamed country and approached the American embassy there with information on al Qaeda's alleged plans for terrorism.

"They try to make war against your country and they train very hard," Al-Fadl told embassy officials, he said.

The al Qaeda spokesman told Al-Jazeera that the country Al-Fadl fled to was Kuwait, but federal prosecutors could not confirm that.

Al-Fadl testified he next went to Europe, told his story to the FBI, and for the last five years, has been a confidential informant living in protective custody in the United States.

Part of his testimony implicated the Sudanese government in the activities of al Qaeda, a point which Sudan is disputing.

On Tuesday, Al-Fadl testified that Sudan's president since 1993, Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, provided one of bin Laden's businesses with a handwritten letter enabling it to bring goods into the country without being searched.

"Like when we go to Port of Sudan and we bring some stuff that comes -- when we have some guys from outside Sudan to go inside Sudan, that letter, we don't have to pay tax or custom, or sometime the Customs, you don't have to open our containers," Al-Fadl said.

A Sudanese official told CNN that Sudan "categorically denies having involvement with bin Laden's organization, let alone that the President would write such a letter as the witness has mentioned."

"These allegations are totally unfounded," the official added.

Al-Fadl is expected to be cross-examined Tuesday. He's one of four defendants accused of conspiracy to kill Americans and destroy U.S. government property, culminating in the August 7, 1998, bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.



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RELATED SITES:
Links to United States Embassies and Consulates Worldwide
Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1999
FBI Websites Document Evidence Against Bin Laden
Dept of State/International Information Programs:
Ussamah Bin Laden
US District Court, Southern District of New York
U.S. State Department - Counterterrorism
Terrorism Research Center
Africa News on the World Wide Web


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