New York, Sep 01: World`s most wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden convened a huge `terror summit` in Afghanistan shortly after Saddam Hussein regime collapsed in Iraq, in which he outlined plans to launch "unbelievable" attacks using biological weapons, a media report said today. At the meeting held in a mountain stronghold in April, bin Laden said he was working on "serious projects", a news magazine quoted Taliban officials in Pakistan and Afghanistan as saying in its latest issue.
"His priority is to use biological weapons," a source, who claimed that al-Qaeda already has such weapons, was quoted as saying. The source insisted he did not know any further details like how these would be transported, but bragged, "Osama`s next step will be unbelievable." The plan was reportedly delayed and revised after the march capture of al-Qaeda`s operations chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Rawalpindi, the report said.
US intelligence officials were quoted as saying that no one disputed bin Laden`s interest in germ warfare. Nevertheless, they argued, his main priority was to kill Americans by any means readily at hand - and most bio-weapons are harder to get and use than many of the alternatives. Two years after the September 11 attacks, the world`s most wanted terrorist remains free.
"We don`t know where he is," US Army Col Rodney Davis, spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, told the magazine. "And frankly, it`s not about him. We`ll continue to focus on killing, capturing and denying sanctuary to any anti-coalition forces, whether they are influenced by bin Laden or not," he added. Bureau Report