LONDON, Sept 7: The United States ignored a clear warning in July last year from the emissary of a Taliban leader that the Al Qaeda network was planning a major attack on US soil, the Independent newspaper said on Saturday.

It said an emissary acting for then-Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakkil warned both the United States consul general in Pakistan, David Katz, and the United Nations in Kabul of the impending attack, but was ignored.

A State Department official, asked about the newspaper story, reiterated previous government statements that the United States last summer was aware of reports that Al Qaeda might be preparing an attack.

“We took all warnings very seriously,” issuing public announcements, travel warnings and cautions during that period that attempted to alert the public to these threats, he said.

However, the official added: “We had no specific information” that three hijacked airliners would strike New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept 11.

The Independent cited unnamed US sources as confirming that a warning had been received from the emissary but was discounted because he did not say he was acting for Mutawakkil and was just one among many carrying messages of doom.

“We were hearing a lot of that kind of stuff,” the newspaper quoted one diplomatic source as saying. “When people keep saying the sky’s going to fall in and it doesn’t, a kind of warning fatigue sets in.”

The Independent said Mutawakkil, who feared Al Qaeda would bring destruction to Afghanistan and who distanced himself from the more extreme views of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, handed himself over to the new Afghan authorities in February.

It said he was now in US custody and unavailable for comment.

Just weeks after the alleged meeting between his emissary and Katz in a safe house in Peshawar, hijackers crashed civilian airliners into New York’s World Trade Center, a field in Pennsylvania and the Pentagon outside Washington.

The Independent reported US State Department and UN officials in New York said they knew nothing about a Taliban warning but would look into the matter.—Reuters