Ressam pleads not guilty on bomb smuggling charges

He had previously pleaded not guilty to charges of smuggling bomb-making chemicals, transporting explosives, gun possession, making false statements and carrying explosives during the commission of a crime.

Meanwhile, Investigators believe they have found links between accused terrorist Osama bin Laden and the Algerians charged with allegedly plotting an attack in the United States, CNN has learned.

Acting on a request from Washington, authorities in Senegal detained Mohambedou Ould Slahi, a man believed to have directed the Algerians' effort to carry out the bomb plot from Canada late last year, sources said.

Slahi was under investigation in Canada before he fled the country, a Canadian intelligence spokesman told The Associated Press Thursday.

Spokesman Dan Lambert of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service confirmed that Slahi was a subject of an investigation by Canadian authorities in cooperation with the FBI.

To date, at least four Algerian nationals and one woman married to an Algerian face charges in connection with the alleged terrorist plot.

But no specific evidence shows that bin Laden was behind the alleged plot and authorities have not suggested possible targets.

U.S. requested arrest

The sources said Slahi, the man being held in the West African nation of Senegal, is a citizen of neighboring Mauritania. They identified him as a brother-in-law of one of bin Laden's key aides.

Slahi has not been charged with any crime, but the United States requested his arrest and federal prosecutors in New York are preparing formal charges which could be used as the basis for his extradition, the sources said.

It was unclear what those charges would be.

Federal agents were traveling to Senegal to question Slahi, The New York Times reported.

U.S. officials also told the newspaper that the Senegalese government appeared unwilling to hold Slahi without specific charges and was preparing to expel him, possibly to his homeland.

A senior government official in Senegal and an officer at the central police station in Dakar told The Associated Press Thursday they knew nothing of Slahi's detention.

An official at the U.S. Embassy in Dakar said he was unaware of Slahi's case or any American investigators in the country.

Suspect traveled to Canada, then fled

Investigators told the Times that Slahi was in constant contact with a construction company in Sudan that was owned by bin Laden and was a front for his international organization, al Qaeda.

Last fall, Slahi traveled to Montreal, where he worked closely with Mokhtar Haouri, one of the Algerians charged with helping Ressam.

But following Ressam's arrest, Slahi fled to a Montreal mosque and then left the country, the Times reported.

American officials said there are other emerging links between the bomb plot and bin Laden.

One involves Hamid Aich, an Algerian who lived for three years in a Vancouver suburb where he shared an apartment with Abdelmajid Dahoumane, the Times said.

Dahoumane remains at large, accused of being Ressam's accomplice.

After leaving Canada last year and moving to Ireland, Aich became associated with Mercy International Relief Agency, an Islamic charity. The charity's director received calls from bin Laden's satellite phone, the Times said.

A search of the charity's files after the embassy bombings uncovered a document that referred to plans to obtain weapons from Somalia, the newspaper said.

Irish police said they arrested Aich on December 21 and seized personal papers and computer records.

They released him the following day, and gave the seized material to the FBI for analysis, Superintendent John Farrelly said.

Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas contributed to this report

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