Bin Laden issued warning three weeks ago, says editor 09/12/2001 South China Morning Post Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden warned three weeks ago that he and his followers would carry out an unprecedented attack on the US for its support of Israel, an Arab journalist with access to him said yesterday. Editor of the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, Abdel-Bari Atwan, said Islamic fundamentalists led by bin Laden were "almost certainly" behind the attack. "It is most likely the work of Islamic fundamentalists. Osama bin Laden warned three weeks ago that he would attack American interests in an unprecedented attack, a very big one," he said. "We received information that he planned very, very big attacks against American interests. We received several warnings like this. We did not take it so seriously, preferring to see what would happen before reporting it." Atwan has interviewed bin Laden, one of America's most wanted men, and maintains close contacts with his followers. Bin Laden has been under constant watch by America's giant intelligence network - from CIA agents probing his latest hiding place to National Security Agency computers scanning global communications for key words related to his group. The sweep and the scale of what has been attempted rules out many fringe groups. The State Department has issued periodic warnings for American's overseas as rumours and intelligence point to unspecified attacks. The most recent came last month, but initial reports suggested the US authorities had nothing pointing to such an orchestrated and devastating attack. From several mountain hideouts in southern Afghanistan, bin Laden runs al-Qaeda, one of the world's most feared terrorist organisations. He is wanted by a US court for masterminding the bombing in 1998 of two US embassies in East Africa in which 224 people died. In August 1996 he issued a "declaration of war" against the US, because of what he saw as its position as a secular superpower and because of the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia. Born in Jeddah in 1955, bin Laden is the son of a construction magnate. In the 1980s he used his inherited wealth to run the "Services Office", which provided fighters and money for Afghanistan's war against Soviet occupation. Bin Laden is believed to be responsible for an attempted assassination attack on Sunday against Ahmad Shah Masood, Afghanistan's most senior opposition commander and the only force still resisting the Taleban.