Bin Laden Uses 10 Lookalikes to Foil Hunt-Paper Last Updated: November 17, 2001 08:05 AM ET

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Arab newspaper on Saturday reported an alleged follower of Osama bin Laden as saying the Saudi-born dissident had deployed 10 lookalikes in Afghanistan to foil U.S. efforts at capturing the world's most wanted man.

The London-based al-Hayat daily quoted a man with the nom de guerre 'Abul Noor' as also saying in an interview that bin Laden -- accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks -- had repeatedly spoken about taking part in World War Three.

Abul Noor, whom the paper said belonged to bin Laden's al Qaeda organization, was quoted as saying: "Even if the American attacks against Afghanistan succeeded in finishing the Taliban movement, they would not succeed in arresting bin Laden."

"Not merely because that is difficult, but because bin Laden has 10 lookalikes. Two of them are north Africans and they all are in Afghanistan," he said, adding the only physical differences between them were birthmarks on their backs.

"Bin Laden has repeatedly spoken about a third world war... he was saying 'We would enter a third World War in the coming century'," Abul Noor commented in response to being told Washington had evidence of al Qaeda's role in the September attacks.

He said bin Laden did not elaborate.

The newspaper said it had met Abul Noor, a north African Arab, in Madrid after a series of complicated contacts. Abul Noor did not disclose his real identity or nationality, but the paper said he belonged to al Qaeda's European cells.

It said he joined al Qaeda in 1998 and spent months in what he called spiritual and religious training before learning to use light weapons. He never met bin Laden in person.

The man showed scars on his body resulted from taking part in operations in Algeria, south Lebanon, Somalia and several Middle Eastern capitals. He said he had received training in the Middle East on how to make explosives and carry out kidnappings.

He said without elaborating that it was dangerous for an al Qaeda member to quit the organization, adding the group used an array of modern technologies.

He said a foiled attempt to assassinate Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia in 1995 was planned for three months in Somalia and Afghanistan and that the people who planned it allocated $200,000 for the task.

Abul Noor did not identify the planners or perpetrators. The Egyptian government blamed the attempt on members of Egypt's militant Gama'a al-Islamiya (Islamic Group) organization and said the attackers were trained in neighboring Sudan.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001

Answers

Only ten? Most all of them look alike to me.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001

Supposedly Saddam has a group of doubles also.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001

Yebbut, Osama is, like 6'4" or something like that. Very tall for that part of the world.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001

"Yebbut, Osama is, like 6'4" or something like that. Very tall for that part of the world."

Yeah... so "aim high".

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001

'aim high?'

what if he's SHTing bricks? he might be doubled over in that case.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001