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| The Investigation |
| Frenchies have al-Qaeda codebook |
| 2001-10-05 |
PARIS (AP) - A former French Defense Ministry official says he believes police have found a notebook belonging to a suspected member of a terrorist group containing codes that could be used to decipher messages within Osama bin Laden's network. Intelligence officials "may be able, with that, to go back to the messages that they may have intercepted already," said Alexis Debat, a teacher and author who until last year worked at the Defense Ministry. In a telephone interview, he said "it would be a major breakthrough" if authorities were now able to decipher terrorist codes. But he added: "I don't know if they've been able to make something of it." He said the information had been passed to U.S. intelligence officials. Debat said he got his information not from intelligence officials but from judicial officials close to the case, who told him the notebook with Arabic writing, "seemed to be a code book," and was found in the apartment of Kamel Daoudi. Daoudi has been placed under formal investigation in France for suspected links to a terror network. Daoudi, 27, is a former computer student believed by investigators to have played a key role in a network of Islamic extremists linked to bin Laden and plotting attacks on U.S. interests in France including an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Paris. He spent time in training camps in Afghanistan before returning to France this summer. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |