BIN LADEN'S AIDE PLANNED TO BUY CROATIAN COMPANY IN PAST?

WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Hina) - A close aide to Osama bin Laden, who is currently collaborating with U.S authorities, has claimed that he had at some time past travelled to Zagreb to check possibilities for buying companies which the Croatian government offered on sale in the first half of the 1990s, according to an article of Los Angeles Times daily. The article, written by Myron Levin, asserts that Jamal Ahmed al- Fadl, testifying before a New York court last February during a process against bombers who demolished U.S. Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salam, said he had been sent to Croatia to examine possibilities for investment in companies which were being sold by the Croatian government. The daily gave no more details on this alleged case, but cited this statement to show it as an example of various ways in which Osama bin Laden and his organisation Al Qaida collected money for terrorist attacks. For instance, the August 1998 terrorist attack in Kenya was financed by money from Kenyan fishermen's cooperative, whose owner is Osama bin Laden. Al-Fadl told the FBI that he had been a member of Al Qaida's 'financial committee' from 1991 to 1996 when bin Laden's headquarters was in Sudan. Some money for terrorists is ensured via donations of rich people in the Near east, some is collected through alleged humanitarian agencies but the bulk is earned via companies owned either by bin Laden or his closest associate, Al-Fadl said adding that Al Qaida's biggest investment flows were in road haulage, building, agriculture and trade. (hina) ms