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General News of Thursday, 17 June 1999

Source: Akoto

Bin Laden planning attack in Ghana?

NEW YORK (Akoto) -ABC News reported Wednesday that bin Laden appears to be preparing for another attack against a U.S. facility.

Ghana is a probable target. In Ghana, officials believe people have tried to detect weaknesses in U.S. embassy security, ABC said.

Citing unidentified intelligence sources, ABC said bin Laden appeared to be ``in the advanced stages of operational planning'' for an attack against a U.S. site, although neither the FBI nor the CIA knew where or when he would strike.

ABC said its information about plans for another attack ``is based in part on recent intercepted telephone calls and other communications by people close to bin Laden who indicate that bomb-making material and the people who assemble such devices are now being moved into position,'' the report said.

The network said U.S. facilities in the Gulf, the Middle East and Africa were on high alert and that it had learned the embassy in Mozambique was videotaped last month from a parked car which drove away at high speed when approached by police.

Intelligence sources cited in the report said there is evidence bin Laden's network has acquired ingredients for chemical or biological weapons through countries that were once part of the Soviet Union and had set up crude laboratories in Afghanistan.