By Peter Finn
The Washington Post
MILAN, Italy — Chinese nationals visited Osama bin Laden terrorist camps in Afghanistan after a U.S. cruise missile attack there in 1998 and paid for the right to study and remove unexploded missiles, according to a conversation between two veterans of the camps that was secretly taped by Italian police.
"From every part of the world, businessmen who hate Americans have come to study the strategy of American missiles," said Lased Ben Heni, 31, a Libyan who was arrested in Munich this month on an Italian warrant. "In particular, businessmen have come from China. (Bin Laden) works a great deal with China. He’s got good relations with them."
Heni also said that bin Laden himself had studied the missiles’ technology and that in the caves of Afghanistan he has weapons "that you can’t even imagine."
A CIA spokesman said stories have circulated since the 1998 attacks about unexploded U.S. cruise missiles landing in Pakistan or Afghanistan, but he added that there has been no confirmation of a Chinese study of any such missiles. The spokesman said he doubted that bin Laden received the amount of money stated in the intercepted conversation.
U.S. forces launched the missile attacks in retaliation for the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which U.S. investigators blamed on bin Laden’s organization. About 80 missiles were fired at suspected bin Laden facilities in Afghanistan and Sudan.
Pakistani government sources later said that a Tomahawk cruise missile had come down largely undamaged on Pakistani soil, short of its apparent target in Afghanistan, and that Pakistani experts were studying it. China, however, has consistently denied that it ever studied or obtained missiles used in the strike, either from Pakistan or Afghanistan.
Aerospace technology has been a major point of friction between China and the United States. In 1999, a congressional committee accused China of stealing U.S. technology related to jet fighter guidance systems and missile technology. The United States has also pressed China to limit its missile exports.
Experts say that the airframe and engine of a Tomahawk are based on aging technology. But China might be interested in electronic systems that guide the missile over long distances at low altitudes and guard it against jamming.
The intercepted conversation between two members of a Milan-based terrorist cell that was allegedly part of bin Laden’s network was taped at 10:30 p.m. on March 9 at an apartment in Gallarate, a suburb of Milan, Italian authorities said. An Italian-language transcript of the tape was obtained by The Washington Post.
Heni was speaking to Essi Sami Ben Khemais, 33, a Tunisian, who was arrested in April on charges of conspiracy, trafficking in arms and explosives and using false documents. Both Heni and Khemais spent time at terrorist camps in Afghanistan, according to Italian officials.
Heni appears in parts of the transcript to be trying to impress the other man with his inside knowledge of the bin Laden operation and its strength. There is no way to verify much of what he said.
In one part of the conversation, Heni said, "If one wants to be a martyr, he has to ask for the authorization" of bin Laden.
"Perhaps the Americans are convinced (about) the bombing of the sheik’s training centers," said Heni about the 1998 strike. "For them, it was a victory. But in reality it has been a defeat because the majority of the missiles aren’t even explosive. On the contrary, they enriched the sheik’s armament." Bin Laden is often called "the sheik."
Heni then claimed that the United States has supplied bin Laden with weapons before, an apparent reference to U.S. support for Afghan rebels fighting Soviet troops during the 1980s. He also said bin Laden has weapons left behind by the Russians.
"With these weapons," Heni said, "he has boosted his financial resources. … There are Chinese professors in the group that studies American weapons. You see them and you ask, ‘But what are they doing here?’ In the end, you understand that they work for the sheik and that they came to study these missiles. Thanks to the money that comes (from) these studies from outside, he created the army of mujaheddin headed by Omar Zayan (or Zhagan) in Chechnya."
"He bargained with the Chinese and sold (missiles) to them for an enormous sum — I think 10 million dollars — but only after the sheik had studied them," Heni said.
Later in the conversation, someone who was apparently not completely trusted enters the room, and Heni’s interlocutor, Khemais, tries to get Heni to stop talking. He fails and later reprimands Heni for his behavior, according to the transcript.
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