Bin Laden 'personally approved' the foiled attacks on Britain

Intelligence experts launched investigations into reports on Friday that Osama bin Laden personally approved Mumbai-style attacks on Britain, France and Germany. Western intelligence agencies believe that a plot of the size proposed, originating in Pakistan, would have to have the go-ahead from the al-Qaida chief. Agents have made the assumption that bin Laden used couriers to send a message to al-Qaida followers telling them he would like to see a Mumbai-style attack on the three European targets. A U.S. official told The Daily Telegraph: "Senior al-Qaida terrorists have been involved in many recent attack-planning efforts. It wouldn't be surprising in the least if bin Laden were involved in some of that." If true, it would mean the al-Qaida chief was once again taking an operational role despite the risks to his life. The reports emerged as an 11-minute audio tape from bin Laden emerged on the Internet on Friday called "Reflections on the Method of Relief Work". The ambush plots were disrupted by drone attacks in Pakistan in recent days, according to security sources, killing a number of Britons. A second U.S. counter-terrorism source said the threat was "credible, but not specific". Western intelligence agencies have failed to get a fix on bin Laden since he walked into Pakistan as the U.S. attacked his hideout in the mountains of Tora Bora, Afghanistan, in December 2001. Leon Panetta, the head of the CIA, said in June that it was "the early 2000s" when they had "the last precise information about where he might be located". President Barack Obama said last month that pressure on the al-Qaida leadership meant that "they have been holed up in ways that have made it harder for them to operate". Bin Laden's message concentrated on global warming and the floods in Pakistan and focused away from terrorist attacks. "The number of victims caused by climate change is very big . . . bigger than the victims of wars," he said in his first public comments since a message emerged on March 25. "If governments spent only one per cent of what is spent on armies, they would change the face of the world for poor people." Over recent years, bin Laden has issued audio tapes but no videos, after it emerged that the CIA was trying to identify where he was hiding by looking at the vegetation in videos he had released. In more than 30 audio and video tapes, he has warned European countries and the U.S. about attacks and praised previous ones, although he has never talked of a preferred method. In his latest tape, bin Laden called for "serious and prompt action to provide relief" in Pakistan including tents, food and medicine but added that "disasters are much bigger than what is being offered". He also talked of creating development projects in impoverished regions and working on farming projects to guarantee food security. The audio tape was posted on Islamic militant websites where it played over a photograph of a smiling bin Laden superimposed over a picture of a man distributing aid.