17 Dec 2001
By Brian McWilliams, Newsbytes

A suspected member of the Al Qaeda terrorist network claimed that Islamic militants infiltrated Microsoft and sabotaged the company's Windows XP operating system, according to a source close to Indian police.

Mohammad Afroze Abdul Razzak, arrested by Mumbai (Bombay) police Oct. 2, has admitted to helping plot terrorist attacks in India, Britain and Australia, India's Hindustan Times newspaper reported Saturday.

During interrogation, Afroze, 25, also claimed that a member or members of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, posing as computer programmers, were able to gain employment at Microsoft and attempted to plant "trojans, trapdoors, and bugs in Windows XP," according to Ravi Visvesvaraya Prasad, a New Delhi information systems and telecommunication consultant.

Prasad, moderator of an Internet mailing list on south Asia security and information warfare, told Newsbytes that Afroze made the claims in a police confession.

Officials in the Mumbai police commissioner's office were not immediately available for comment.

Afroze has told Indian authorities that he was part of a team of Al Qaeda terrorists that planned to hijack an aircraft in London on Sept. 11 and crash it into the British House of Commons or into London's Tower Bridge, according to the Hindustan Times, which obtained parts of Afroze's confession.

British intelligence officials have dismissed the claims, according to a report last week in the Guardian, a British newspaper.

A defense attorney hired by Afroze's father, a tailor by profession, reportedly asked the court to allow Afroze to receive a psychiatric examination but was rejected.

Afroze, who is scheduled to provide a formal confession before a Mumbai court on Tuesday, told the magistrate Friday that he does not wish legal representation and is mentally sound, according to the Times of India.

Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said Afroze's claims about the company were "bizarre and unsubstantiated and should be treated skeptically."

According to Desler, Microsoft has rigorous processes in place during the development of Windows to ensure the security and integrity of source code.

Microsoft launched Windows XP in late October. While the company has already issued security patches for the software, no evidence of malicious code in the operating system has been reported.

Under interrogation, Afroze also warned Mumbai police that Al Qaeda was planning an attack on India's parliament complex in New Delhi, the Hindustan Times reported.

On Thursday, terrorists stormed the Indian Parliament with grenades and guns, killing seven people and injuring at least 20. The five attackers were killed in the ensuing battle with security forces, according to The Washington Post.

Afroze also told investigators that the team planned a similar attack on Rialto Towers, the tallest building in Australia, according to Australia's Herald Sun newspaper.

Afroze, who hails from a poor section of Mumbai, reportedly received training as a pilot in Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. No information on his technical education was immediately available.

The Times of India reported last week that "official sources" believe Afroze is "very close" to Al Qaeda but that authorities find some of his claims inconsistent and "too theatrical to believe."

The Mumbai Police Cyber Crime Investigation Cell is at http://www.ccicmumbai.com .

Prasad's South Asia Security and Info War list is archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/c4i .