Mahathir Disavows Knowledge of Videotape

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said he was unaware of a videotape purportedly made in Malaysia showing one of the Sept. 11 hijacking suspects meeting an Osama bin Laden operative.

The videotape, reportedly made in January 2000, is said to show a meeting between a suspect in the attack on the U.S. warship Cole last year in Yemen and Khalid Almihdhar, one of the suspected hijackers who flew a plane into the Pentagon.

Mahathir made his comments at a summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei’s capital.

U.S. officials said the information prompted the CIA in August to place Almihdhar and a second eventual hijacking suspect, Nawaf Alhazmi, on a terrorist watch list.