Posted on 06/30/2002 3:58:56 PM PDT by knighthawk
RIYADH:A Saudi man detained in Morocco over suspected links with al-Qaeda has admitted meeting the network's leader Osama bin Laden and undergoing military training in Afghanistan, a newspaper reported Sunday.
But Zuhair Helal al-Tabaiti, one of three Saudis arrested in Morocco this month, denied having been asked to carry out any military attacks, saying he was only asked to gather intelligence, said the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat.
Speaking from his jail in Casablanca through his lawyer, Tabaiti said he met in Afghanistan with Mulla Ahmad Belal, also known as Abdulraheem al-Nasheri, an al-Qaeda activist, who asked him to gather information about the movements of the NATO fleet in Gibraltar.
Tabaiti also admitted that he received 2,000 dollars from Belal to "cover expenses of his movements in Morocco" and then to marry with a second Moroccan wife after his first wife, also Moroccan, and their seven-month-old baby were killed in US bombing in Afghanistan.
The Moroccan interior ministry announced earlier this month that security services had dismantled an al-Qaeda cell suspected of preparing attacks against the country and on NATO ships in the Strait of Gibraltar.
It identified the three Saudi members as Tabaiti, Hilal Jaber Awwad al-Assiri and Abdullah Mesfer Ali al-Ghamdi.
Saudi Arabia sent a team of investigators to take part in the interrogation of the cell.
Tabaiti said he was questioned about the al-Qaeda organisation and bin Laden's personality by US, Jordanian and Egyptian interrogators.
He said that he underwent military training in two bases in Kabul and Kandahar for six months, but the results were "not satisfactory" for his superiors, and that he failed religious education.
Tabaiti was not given any military assignment because he lacked the "necessary skills."
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