More than 230 people were killed in the embassy
bombings
By BBC Middle East correspondent Frank Gardner in Riyadh
The leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taleban agreed to extradite Osama bin Laden to Saudi Arabia three years ago, the former head of Saudi intelligence says.
In a rare interview with the Saudi newspaper Arab News and the Saudi television station NBC, Prince Turki al-Faisal revealed how the deal apparently slipped away at the last minute, after the US fired cruise missiles at Afghanistan following the East Africa embassy bombings.
Prince Turki, who was head of foreign intelligence until just before the 11 September attacks on the US, said he had made two secret visits to Afghanistan to negotiate the extradition of Osama bin Laden with the Taleban leader Mullah Omar.
At that time the Saudi-born dissident had already upset the Saudi government with his calls for US forces to be expelled from Arabian soil.
Prince Turki was quoted as saying that Mullah Omar had agreed to hand over Bin Laden and had suggested setting up a joint Saudi-Afghan committee to arrange the handover.
US trial?
But a leading Saudi dissident in London, Dr Saad al-Faqih says that Mullah Omar would never have agreed to hand over his guest Osama Bin Laden, on the assumption that he would end up in US custody.
Either way, the Saudi-Afghan discussions broke down after the bombings of two US embassies in East Africa in 1998.
The US blamed Osama bin Laden and fired cruise missile at Afghanistan and Sudan, where the dissident spent several years in the 1990s.
When Prince Turki later returned to Afghanistan, he said the Taleban leader had changed his mind.
The Saudi prince said he left empty-handed warning his Afghan hosts that they would one day regret their decision.
In the same interview published on Sunday, Prince Turki also urged Saudis to believe the alleged evidence against Osama bin Laden.
The prince, who is obviously aware that many Saudis still think Bin Laden is blameless said those who still call for evidence are closing their eyes to the facts.
In words aimed at the large number of Bin
Laden sympathisers in Saudi Arabia, Prince
Turki said Osama bin Laden could not escape
his guilt. He said God will punish him.
-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001