Ayman Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian surgeon and Osama bin Laden's deputy, in 1998 made an agreement with leaders of extremist Islamic groups in five countries, including Uganda, to fundraise for international terrorist operations, according to a report of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

Bin Laden is the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in which about 6,000 people died.

According to the CSIS report obtained by The Monitor, the Ugandan, Yemeni and Egyptian Islamic leaders also made plans to facilitate extremists' international movements by securing them Sudanese diplomatic passports.

As The Monitor previously reported, Bin Laden's advisory council linking a network of armed Islamist groups included a representative of the Islamic forces of Sheikh Abdullah in Uganda, according to a defecting Sudanese military officer who was quoted in a Human Rights Watch report of Aug. 20, 1998. It is not clear if this network comprised the same group that allegedly met with Al-Zawahri.

The CSIS report was an intelligence brief about Mohamed Zeki Mahjoub filed in the Federal Court of Canada. In the brief, the CSIS attempted to show that Mahjoub was a high-ranking member of the Vanguards of Conquest (VOC), an Egyptian Islamic terrorist association and a radical wing of the Egyptian group Al Jihad. In 1997, the US State Department named Dr. Al-Zawahri as leader of the VOC. Bin Laden has funded Al Jihad since 1996.

The brief contains only one mention of Uganda. A CSIS spokesman declined to comment.

The Ottawa Citizen first reported on the revelations of the CSIS intelligence brief last Friday.