Warning of 9/11 attack 'ignored'

American officials were investigating yesterday reports that US diplomats in Peshawar were warned by a moderate Taliban minister that a 'huge attack' by al-Qaeda in the United States was imminent.

The warnings are said to have been delivered at a meeting towards the end of July last year in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar by an aide to Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the then Taliban foreign minister and a key moderate.

He in turn is said to have learnt of the plan from an Uzbek Islamic militant who was close to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group. Muttawakil, who feared the repercussions of such an attack being launched from Afghan soil, tried to warn the Americans, it is claimed, and requested Washington launch a huge military operation to clear al-Qaeda out from Afghan soil.

The warnings were not apparently passed on to Washington. At the time 19 hijackers were already in place in America, waiting to launch their deadly attacks.

Muttawakil's aide also warned United Nations officials in Kabul but again the warnings apparently did not travel any further up the UN hierarchy.

However, terrorism experts have questioned the extent to which Muttawakil could have known of the plans. Despite intensive investigations the FBI has yet to find evidence that the hijackers were in close communication with bin Laden or his aides.

'All the indications are that this was an arm's-length operation facilitated by bin Laden but not necessarily run in detail by him,' said one intelligence source. 'And even if bin Laden knew exactly what was going on why would he start talking about it?'

Others have pointed out that Muttawakil, who is in American custody in Kandahar, has much to gain by projecting himself as a moderate and a friend of the West.

In the last year of the Taliban's rule Muttawakil found himself frozen out of power by the hardliners grouped around Mullah Omar, the Islamic militia's reclusive leader. Muttawakil was unhappy at the direction they were taking the Taliban movement.

The disclosure is likely to embarrass US intelligence agencies who have admitted missing warnings that could have prevented the 11 September attacks.