<

A Mountain of Evidence Falls Into U.S. Hands
Monday, January 14, 2002
The Associated Press

"They've found evidence in documents of culpability for specific terrorist operations that have taken place in the past. They have found names of people in terrorist cells abroad who are in place to conduct another operation."

WASHINGTON -- AP
From Afghanistan to Europe to the U.S. Midwest, suspected terrorists, often beating a hasty retreat from their homes, camps and caves, have left behind a mountain of suspicious items that U.S. investigators are combing for clues.

Information in some discovered documents has led to arrests, thwarted attacks and a "peeling back of the onion of Al Qaeda," says one intelligence expert.

At a makeshift laboratory in Kabul, there were smelly liquids and charred papers covered with chemical formulas; in Minnesota, a computer disk about crop dusting.

In caves outside Kandahar, Arabic-language exams were found that quiz terrorists-in-training on the best way to shoot down a plane or kill a man.

The paper trail alone is like a confetti shower in a Manhattan parade. But there have also been videos, artifacts and digital records most foul.

What they all amount to is still being sorted out. Some may not qualify as much more than terrorist curios.

But officials believe documents and a videotape found in Afghanistan and passed to authorities in Singapore foiled a planned terrorist attack and resulted in the breakup of an Al Qaeda cell there.
(More: FoxNews.com News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan