Chinese Paid Laden

LONDON - China paid terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden several million dollars for access to unexploded US cruise missiles following an attack on his bases three years ago, according to a newspaper report here Saturday. The Guardian reported that an alleged senior agent of bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network in Europe told an associate, in a secretly taped conversation, that Chinese businessmen had paid $10m to study the missiles. Following the 1998 attack, carried out in reprisal for the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, reports suggesting China had acquired two unexploded Tomahawk missiles were attacked as “groundless” by Beijing, the broadsheet said. “With these weapons, bin Laden boosted his finances,” the paper said. Ends