VANCOUVER, JANUARY 28: A man cited as a possible link between Algerians charged with plotting an attack in the United States and Osama Bin Laden, the exiled Saudi accused of bombing US embassies in Africa, left Canada because he knew he was being watched, authorities saidAuthorities refused to say when Mohambedou Ould Slahi fled Canada because of the secrecy surrounding the investigation of the Algerians including Ahmed Ressam, who was arrested on December 14 on charges of smuggling alleged bomb-making materials into the United States from Canada.Slahi is being held in Senegal at the request of US law enforcement authorities, and is the brother-in-law of one of Bin Laden's key lieutenants, the New York Times and Washington Post reported yesterday.In its today's edition, the Post said FBI agents were preparing to question Slahi, and could possibly seek his extradition to the United States.Slahi was the ``subject of an investigation'' in Canada and that was the reason he decided to leave, said a spokesman for Canada's spy agency, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service.``We knew the reason he decided to travel, it was due to the heat being placed upon him by authorities in Canada,'' Dan Lambert said.``At that stage of the game, at that point in time, there was no basis to arrest him, either by Canadian or American authorities,'' Lambert said.Slahi, a native of Mauritania, had yet to be charged with a crime in either Senegal or the United States, but federal prosecutors in Manhattan are preparing formal charges against him, the Times said, citing unnamed sources.Bin Laden's name has been raised repeatedly in media reports in connection with the Algerian group, but authorities have produced no direct evidence linking him to Ressam and four other people arrested or being sought in connection with the alleged bombing plot.The Royal Canadian Mounted Police refused to confirm or deny reports that Slahi had connections with members of the alleged plot in Montreal, where several of the suspects lived.
