Pakistani forces pushing toward a lair of hardcore Taliban fighters found documents this week linked to a member of the Hamburg cell of al-Qaeda that is believed to have planned the September 11 terrorist attacks.

In a small village in South Waziristan, soldiers found a German passport belonging to Said Bahaji, a German citizen and associate of Mohammed Atta, the leader of the 9/11 hijackers. The passport was issued in Hamburg in August 2, 2001 and was accompanied by a Pakistani visa dated August 3, 2001. The documents indicated that Bahaji landed in Karachi from Istanbul on September 4, 2001.

The apparent presence of Bahaji in the tribal areas of Pakistan is a clear indication that members of the Qaeda network — including participants in the 9/11 plot — have taken refuge here, as US officials have charged.

There was no indication that Bahaji had left Pakistan, authorities said.

Although Bahaji was not a central plotter in the September 11 attacks, he lived for eight months in Hamburg with Atta and Ramzi bin al Shibh, according to the 9/11 Commission Report. He was described in the report as “an insecure follower with no personality and with limited knowledge of Islam”.

“Atta and Binalshibh used Bahaji’s computer for Internet research, as evidenced by documents and diskettes seized by German authorities after 9/11.”

A US counter-terrorism official said the documents “appear to be this guy”, and they believe “he’s in Pakistan and is a senior al-Qaeda propagandist”.