NEW YORK, Aug 31: A top aide to Osama bin Laden told CIA agents in a drug-induced confession about secret connections between the Al Qaeda leader and top officials in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, according to excerpts of a new book in Time magazine on Sunday.

But a US intelligence official dismissed these revelations as “absurd.”

“These allegations are utter nonsense,” said the official, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.

According to the book, Abu Zubaydah, captured last year in Pakistan, told US interrogators that longtime Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal bin Abdul Aziz had secretly agreed to pay Osama bin Laden as long as Al Qaeda refrained from promoting its political aims in the kingdom.

He also said that high-ranking Pakistani air force officer Mushaf Ali Mir had agreed to provide Al Qaeda with protection, arms and supplies, Gerald Posner wrote in his new book “Why America Slept.”

The book alleges US agents used drugs and threats to scare Zubaydah into confession, citing a “very senior executive branch” official and another source from the Central Intelligence Agency. —AFP