Pakistani forces fighting the Taliban for control of South Waziristan, an area in Northwestern Pakistan, have discovered a passport in the name of a man suspected of involvement in the attacks in the U.S. on September 11 2001.
The passport in the name of Said Bahaji, who reportedly headed for Pakistan from Germany on September 3 2001, having been forewarned about the attacks that were planned for New York and Washington, has not, says
CNN, been independently authenticated but it seems certain to be a document of some interest to the U.S. authorities, who have linked Bahaji to al-Qaeda.
According to the
Associated Press the passport is German and was found in a hideout used by members of the Taliban before the Pakistani military moved in to South Waziristan two weeks ago.
In addition to a photograph that matches images of
Bahaji that can be viewed on the Interpol website, the man in the passport photograph is clean-cut, there are other reasons to believe that the document belongs to a man wanted by police in Germany and Spain in connection with terrorist activities and said to be a member of a cell based in Hamburg, Germany that helped fund the 9/11 hijackers.
For example the visa in the passport was issued by Pakistani authorities in August 2001 and shows that the person to whom the document belongs arrived in Pakistan on September 4 2001.
A reporter with
CNN saw the passport when she and other journalists accompanied Pakistani forces to South Waziristan. It is noted that the document is in exceptionally good condition, bearing in mind how long ago it was issued.
Bahaji, a German citizen of Moroccan descent, supposedly lived in Germany with 9/11 hijacker
Mohammed Atta prior to the attacks in the U.S. Atta, an Egyptian who went by several different aliases, studied at the Technical University of Hamburg during the 1990s.
A Spanish passport in the name of Raquel Burgos Garcia was also found by the Pakistani military. A woman of that name is married to Amer Azizi, a Moroccan man believed to be a member of al-Qaeda. Like Bahaji, Azizi has been linked to 9/11, and is thought to have been involved in the Madrid train bombings of 2004.
The
Associated Press quotes the Spanish media as saying that Ms Burgos Garcia has not contacted her family since 2001. Visas for India and Iran were found in the passport that bears her name, and a Moroccan document showing her photograph and information about her was found too.
Speaking on behalf of the Pakistani army Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said that he was not initially aware of the significance of the names on the passports, adding that he knew some militants from Europe were present in the area where the offensive against the Taliban is taking place.
