FBI memo links British-based Islamic group to al-Qa'ida terror suspects

The memo at the centre of the debate as to what the Bush administration knew about the threat of 11 September makes specific links between a group of Middle Eastern flight students, a leading al-Qa'ida associate and a radical British- based Islamic group with links to Osama bin Laden.

Far from being a general warning of the need to screen Middle Eastern students, Kenneth Williams, an FBI field agent, said he believed the students had shown an interest in airplane engineering and security. He also warned that at least one of them had made indirect contact with one of Mr bin Laden's leading aides and that several had links to Al-Muhajiroun, the London-based group dedicated to the establishment of an Islamic state.

The organisation is headed by the self-styled Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, who has called himself the "mouth, eyes and ears of Osama bin Laden" and was investigated by Scotland Yard after voicing support for al-Qa'ida and calling on young Muslims to engage in terror attacks in Britain. No one from the organisation was yesterday available for comment.

Disclosure of the memo's specific contents will lead to further pressure for an inquiry into the events leading up to 11 September. Yesterday President Bush said he opposed a special commission.

What became of the Arizona students investigated by the Phoenix-based FBI agent is unclear, though it is not thought any of them played a direct role in the attacks of 11 September. There are reports they have gone to ground, while others suggest that at least two them remain under surveillance.

According to a report in The Los Angeles Times, the memo makes a direct link between these students and others linked to al-Qa'ida, proof that the terror network was using American flight schools.

"This was not some vague hunch," said one congressional source, following a briefing by Mr Williams. "He was doing a case on these guys. He put in all the history about this pattern of radical Muslims and [Mr Bin Laden having] links to Arizona. He talked about fatwas targeting US airports.

"He noted that one guy was asking about airport security – that's specific information, not guesswork. The memo was very specific. It named names."

Both the FBI and the CIA have declined to comment on the memo, which Mr Williams wrote on 10 July last year. But after 11 September the CIA confirmed two of the students had links to al-Qa'ida and that one of them had made indirect contact with Abu Zubeida, a senior leader with the terror network now in US custody.

Yesterday it was reported that Mr Zubeida had confirmed the target of hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania, was the White House.