One of the presumed suicide pilots in the September 11 attacks, Mohammed Atta, had been under surveillance in Germany by US secret services for some time before, according to the German news weekly Focus.
It said in its issue to be published Monday US agents observed that between January and May 2000, Atta purchased large quantities of chemicals from pharmacies and drugstores in the Frankfurt region which could be used to make explosives.
Giving no source for its report, Focus said in an advance extract that the US agents did not pass this information on to the German authorities.
Atta, 33, is believed to have piloted the first of two hijacked airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center. He and at least four men who studied and resided in Hamburg are believed to have been part of a terrorist network involved in the attacks -- BERLIN (AFP)
