Two key al-Qaeda network members have said Osama bin Laden was personally involved in planning the September 11th attacks, a journalist claimed last night.
But Mr Yosri Fouda, a journalist with al-Jazeera Arabic television who interviewed the two men, said the interviews did not give evidence on whether the Saudi-born militant was dead or alive.
Mr Fouda interviewed Yemeni Ramzi bin al-Shaibah and Kuwaiti-born Khaled al-Sheikh Mohammad, who he described as the chief of al-Qaeda's military operations.
Shaibah is a former room-mate of Egyptian Mohamed Atta, the apparent leader of the 19 hijackers of the airliners.
Mr Fouda said the two admitted that the group had considered targeting US nuclear facilities in the attacks, but it then abandoned the idea, "at least temporarily."
"Sheikh Mohammad told me that they then decided against the idea 'for the time being' because they thought it might get out of their control," he said.
"Sheikh Mohammad said he headed the military committee that planned the attacks and Shaibah said he was the coordinator," Mr Fouda said in his account of remarks by the two men.
Qatar-based Jazeera television broadcast the first part of Mr Fouda's documentary, titled Top Secret, last Thursday. It will show the second part, including the interview, this Thursday.
