Story filed: 15:48 Wednesday 24th October 2001Osama bin Laden has bought anthrax spores and other deadly bacteria, according to one of his followers.
Ahmad Ibrahim al-Najjar, has told authorities in Egypt, bin Laden openly bought the bacteria from laboratories in eastern Europe and Asia.
Al-Najjar was convicted in Egypt of trying to overthrow the country's government in favour of a fundamentalist Islamic regime, and jailed for life last year.
He has become an informer on the activities of al-Qaida.
The New York Post, reports translations of his evidence to Egyptian authorities which show the germ warfare purchases.
Al-Najjar claimed bin Laden was quite open in his operations, attempting to buy germ warfare agents including anthrax, e-coli, and salmonella.
His group ordered the bacteria to be sent by mail, and as long as it paid £5,000 up front to the biological plants selling the agents, the identities of the purchasers were not checked.
So-called factories in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in eastern Europe, were used to provide e-coli and salmonella, while a facility in south-east Asia sold the group anthrax.
It was supplied to the Indonesia-based Islamic Moro Front, which is linked to bin Laden and also to Abu Sayaf, the terrorist group trying to establish a breakaway fundamentalist Muslim regime in the Philippines.
Bin Laden's agents paid just £2,585 plus shipping costs for the anthrax spores, al-Najjar told Egyptian intelligence.
Copyright © 2001 Ananova Ltd
