Al-Midhar, in particular, has links to another man at the same meeting who was later named as a suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole, for which Mr bin Laden has taken responsibility.* The Algerian Connection. A French-Algerian man, Zacarias Moussaoui, was arrested in Minnesota in August on an immigration violation after he raised suspicions at a local flying school. It is also known that he lived in Brixton, south London, before moving to the US. On the morning of the attacks, he cheered in his jail cell and he has since been transferred to New York for questioning. According to the Paris newspaper Liberation, the French intelligence service believes Mr Moussaoui has spent time at bin Laden training camps in Afghanistan and has links to a suspected bin Laden guerrilla operation in Chechnya.Although Mr Moussaoui's relationship to last Tuesday's attacks, if any, has yet to be established, his arrest appears to deepen the investigators' understanding of the Algerian wing of Mr bin Laden's operation. Earlier this year, a number of expatriate Algerians were put on trial for attempting to bomb Los Angeles international airport.

Based primarily in Montreal ­ which was possibly also used as a base for the attacks on 11 September ­ they described specific links to Mr bin Laden in their testimony.* The Hamburg Connection. At least three of the hijackers ­ Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah ­ were enrolled at Hamburg's Technical University. Jarrah, in turn, spent 18 months in Afghanistan, according to relatives in Lebanon who spoke to The Independent. It seems likely, but has yet to be proved, that Jarrah knew the other two hijackers when they were in Hamburg together. Last night, it was reported that Mr Atta met a mid-ranking Iraqi intelligence officer in Europe last year.Beyond these connections, it is likely that investigators have other leads they are keeping quiet about. On the day of the attacks, for example, the Los Angeles Times was told by "well-placed US sources" that a communications intercept had revealed a conversation between "bin Laden allies" discussing the success of the operation. The intercept appeared to have been made in the US, the paper added..

They came to find their loved ones, or at least to see where they had died, and before their plane had even touched down they saw for themselves the obscene mangle where the missing were buried, a pulverised concrete tomb that may never give up their remains.From the air on a clear day such as yesterday, lower Manhattan resembles a cauldron, a bowl of smoke and dust peopled by frantic ants digging with their hands. For the first of 600 grieving relatives to arrive here, by courtesy of the British Government, it must have been a horrible sight. It was called a mercy flight but there will be at least three. On board, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and spouses sat patiently, enduring a journey they thought they would never have to make. It is unlikely any will ever see whole the person they came to find, but they had to come anyway, for catharsis, for closure.The flight was scheduled, so the bereaved were mixed with ordinary travellers who looked slightly bewildered to find cameras and reporters to greet them at arrivals. From the off, the grieving passengers were treated with kid gloves and reporters were kept away as they arrived. Staff from the British consulate-general were there to meet them and whisk them off to what has come to be known as the British Family Centre, a hotel on First Avenue normally reserved for UN diplomats.Flights carrying the relatives landed at JFK airport's terminal four, the Virgin Atlantic building that sparkles with glass and chrome, the dim and dusty terminal seven owned and run by British Airways and the city's other international airport, Newark.

The visitors were met by British consular officials in the early evening sunshine. Some of those who will walk this route may have thought they were too old ever to contemplate the frenzy of the Big Apple. Now they will see it by default.After an hour's journey, the group, numbering five "family units", as consular officials called them, arrived at the Millennium Plaza hotel, a monolithic glass and concrete building formerly known as the UN Plaza because of its proximity to the United Nations itself. Inside, the hotel is a confusing riot of mirrors and garish carpet, its bar a place where diplomats gather and whisper.With views over the East river and Central Park, it provides the kind of luxury few of those who came would normally enjoy It was being paid for by the Foreign Office. Two members of each family of the missing are being provided with free flights and three nights' accommodation But this will be no holiday.

After checking in to the 100 rooms reserved for them at the hotel, the bereaved were introduced to teams of specially trained police family liaison officers and grief counsellors. The teams were assembled last week by Scotland Yard and the Foreign Office, 20 police officers from Kent, Sussex, Essex, Surrey, North Wales, Dorset and Hampshire, and 10 counsellors plucked from the ranks of delegates attending a conference on grief management in London last Saturday. According to Deputy Chief Superintendent John Godsave, who is co-ordinating the help for the families, they have all had experience of trauma and disaster, including the Omagh bombing and the Aberfan disaster.A quiet and deferential man, Supt Godsave appeared to have been moved by what he has seen so far "My team and I have been humbled by this," he said. "While we're here, we will strive to support these people and give them any help and comfort they require."We will work in threes, two police officers and a counsellor, to make sure that the relatives are never left on their own without support if they want it."One hotel worker preparing to receive the relatives said: "This is breaking my heart.We knew we had thousands of our own dead but we had no idea there were as many as 300 Brits in there too. It's funny, but you almost feel like apologising to them for what happened because this is your city."For many, today is expected to be the hardest day. One of the reasons for the visit is to register their loved ones missing at a US family centre situated on Pier 94, a vast former warehouse next to the Hudson river in Hell's Kitchen on the west side of town.