Should Osama bin Laden explain that he made a "tragic" mistake and that he meant only to bomb the building across the street and walk free after expressing "regret".
Food for thought.
Henry C.K. Liu
Friday May 14 1999
Bin Laden linked to killings
REUTERS in Cairo
The man accused of bombing the US
Embassy in Kenya also financed the 1997
shooting of 58 tourists in Egypt, it was
claimed yesterday.
Egypt suspected that Saudi-born Osama bin
Laden had paid for the attack in which
Muslim militants opened fire on buses at
Luxor, Switzerland's police chief said. Many
of those killed were Swiss.
Police chief Urs von Daeniken was speaking
in Cairo after meeting Egyptian officials.
He said Egypt suspected that Mustafa
Hamza, a leader of Egypt's biggest militant
group, al-Gama'a al-Islamiya, had ordered the
attack from Sudan with funding from bin
Laden.
"We bring together the knowledge of our
services and the Egyptian authorities to find
the people behind the attack," Mr von
Daeniken said.
"As far as we know today, one can conclude
that it is an act of the Gama'a Islamiya and
that it has been ordered directly or indirectly
by a Gama'a member in Sudan."
He named the member as Hamza and said it
was believed he was no longer in Sudan and
might now be in Afghanistan.
"The finance man of this member of Gama'a
seems to be bin Laden," Mr von Daeniken
said. He said this was Egypt's version of
events, adding: "I think so far we are
satisfied."
Mr von Daeniken was part of a Swiss
delegation, including Attorney-General Carla
Del Ponte, visiting Egypt to get a final report
and answers to 116 questions they had about
Cairo's investigation of the massacre, in
which 35 Swiss died.
The United States accuses bin Laden of
masterminding the bombing of the US
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania last
August. More than 220 people were killed.
Bin Laden is based in Afghanistan.