Uganda was listed in a U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS) report as one of 34 countries with identified or suspected al-Qaeda cells strictly based on the arrest of suspected Osama bin Laden associates in connection with a plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Kampala in 1998, the author of the report told The Monitor.

Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East senior analyst with CRS, has written the annual report "Terrorism: Near Eastern Groups and State Sponsors" for years. This year’s report, coincidentally released the day before the terrorist attacks of September 11, has received particular notice because on page 17 it included a list of countries or territories with identified or suspected cells of bin Laden’s terrorist network al-Qaeda. Bin Laden is the chief suspect in the attacks.

Katzman explained that he included a country on the list of 34 if it met one of three criteria: (1) if an arrest of bin Ladenites had been made there; (2) if there was some indication that plotters had been there at some point; or (3) if bin Laden’s forces committed an attack there.

Uganda meets the first two criteria and possibly the third. In September 1998, the government and the FBI teamed up to arrest 18 suspects in a plan to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Kampala. If such an attack was being planned, plotters must have been present in Uganda. And a coordinated bombing of three buses in Kampala that killed 29 in August 1998 may have been carried out by bin Ladenites in retaliation for Uganda’s support of the U.S. cruise-missile attacks on sites in Afghanistan and Sudan.

Katzman said he has received hundreds of calls in recent days about his report, many from representatives of foreign governments. "Various governments have complained because they somehow think I’m accusing them of harboring cells," Katzman said. "I’m not accusing anybody of harboring anybody."

Senior presidential adviser on Media and Public Relations John Nagenda told The Monitor Thursday that "Uganda doesn’t knowingly shelter any associates of Bin laden, and will never do so." He added: "The president has condemned and made it abundantly clear that terrorists attack innocent people."
Katzman said inclusion on the list is not a negative thing. "It should in some cases be interpreted as a positive thing," he said. "It means information came out because the government in question may have arrested somebody."

He added that all information for the report came from open-source material. "It’s not based on any inside information or anything else," Katzman said.