October 15, 2001	Monday	Rajab 27, 1422

NEW YORK, Oct. 14: The FBI blocked plans to deploy some of its agents to a US warship to be ready to arrest Osama bin Laden, the Time magazine reported on Sunday.

The plans to deploy FBI agents to a warship in the region were drawn up by the Pentagon and the State Department, and aimed at arresting Osama and any other Al Qaeda operative found alive, the weekly said in its edition to be published on Monday.

But the FBI blocked the plan, claiming it didn’t have agents to spare for arrests that might never happen, the weekly claimed.

It said the plans, and others that would involve sending in special forces, assume that the leadership of the Al Qaeda remain in Afghanistan. But some officials, Time said, worry that leaders of Al Qaeda and the Taliban may have slipped out of the country.

Their favored destinations are thought to be Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.—AFP