An informant working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation had contact with terrorist leader, Osama bin Laden, eight years before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, a media reported on Thursday.
The report said that an FBI mole inside the al-Qaeda terrorist network met with bin Laden and knew that he wanted to finance attacks.
It said that the FBI informant had worked as a driver and a confidant of the radical Egyptian preacher, Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheikh serving life in prison for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Centre in New York.
According to the reports, neither Congress nor the 9/11 Commission knew about the mole despite extensive investigations into the attack, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
Meanwhile the 9/11 Commission made serious accusations against the FBI and the CIA.
It said during the administration of President George W. Bush and his predecessor, Bill Clinton, there were 10 missed opportunities to uncover plans for the attacks.
Report says that Bin Laden was killed in a raid by US Special Forces in 2011.
Alleged 9/11 plotters – Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, Walid bin Attash, Mustafa al-Hawsawi and Ramzi Binalshibh – have been held for years by the US. Preparations are underway for their trial in a US military court set up at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
dpa/NAN.
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