(Independent-UK) - Paul Lashmar According to the report of a high-level inquiry into the September 2001 attacks by U.S. Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees, which is due to be released this week, between 70,000 and 120,000 terrorists from more than 70 countries were trained by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan - three times higher than previous estimates, according to testimony by senior U.S. intelligence officials. The British security services estimate that some 600 people who trained in the Afghan camps now live in the UK, according to one Whitehall source. Nearly an entire section has been removed from the final report at the insistence of the intelligence agencies. It describes the actions of foreign governments, including Britain and Saudi Arabia, before the attacks. One remaining mystery in the wake of 9/11, says the inquiry team, is how 19 young men, mostly from Saudi Arabia, could conspire to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon without the knowledge of the Saudi government.
2003-07-23 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive