Latest Bomb Suspect Points to New Clues : Probe: Information provided by Mahmud Abouhalima could link the attack to ‘a Middle Eastern country,’ sources in Egypt say.

CAIRO —  A suspect in the bombing of New York’s World Trade Center has provided interrogators with valuable information that could help lead to the identification of those who masterminded the attack, sources here said Thursday.

Mahmud Abouhalima, captured last week in Egypt and handed over Wednesday to FBI agents in Cairo, talked freely with his Egyptian captors and provided information that could link the bombing to “a Middle Eastern country,” according to one source.

Abouhalima, 33, provided evidence that he received money from a doctor in Germany, a potential clue in unraveling the puzzle of who financed the operation in New York, said the source, who has access to senior levels of the Egyptian government.

Abouhalima also provided information that might link Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, a blind Egyptian cleric who is the spiritual leader of the underground organization Gamaa al Islamiya, to the murder of an Egyptian national in the United States in 1991, the source said.

“This man opened a Pandora’s box. He talked a lot, and he gave them leads they never suspected before,” the source said. “The investigators were puzzled by his naivete--by the degrees of naivete.”

In New York City, Abouhalima’s lawyer told reporters that the former cab driver had been tortured and kept blindfolded by Egyptian security forces during his 10-day incarceration there before being turned over to the FBI to face federal charges.

The lawyer said his client was beaten and burned with cigarettes after Egyptian police accused him of “complicity in the trade center bombing.”

U.S. officials said Thursday that Abouhalima is being given a thorough medical examination to determine whether there is any truth to the torture claims.

Asked whether Abouhalima had provided crucial information to Egyptian authorities, a U.S. official close to the investigation said: “I don’t have a sense of that. Maybe it hasn’t been digested yet (in New York.)”

The source in Egypt maintained that while there is still no concrete evidence linking any government to the bombing, statements from Abouhalima have indicated that he and others under arrest in New York were acting on behalf of other agents.

Many Egyptian officials familiar with the case said there is growing belief that “a Middle Eastern country,” most likely Iran or Iraq, helped underwrite the operation. “These men (in New York) were easily recruited,” the source said.

Al-Ahram, Cairo’s semi-official daily newspaper, did not disclose details of Abouhalima’s questioning in Egypt but said it had received “information” that Iraq was financing many terrorist operations “under the cover of religion.”

“Information has been received by Egyptian authorities that Iraq is financing a lot of the terrorist operations that occur under the name of religion,” the paper reported. “The investigations occurring now in Washington and some other capitals will reveal extremely serious facts regarding terrorist operations.”

Though the source familiar with Abouhalima’s questioning could provide no details, he said authorities questioned the suspect about the 1991 slaying of Mustafa Shilabi, a rival of Abdul Rahman for control of a group that raised funds for anti-Soviet rebels in Afghanistan. Reports in the Egyptian press said Abouhalima briefly joined the Afghan moujahedeen about five years ago.

Egyptian officials announced Thursday that Abouhalima had been voluntarily handed over to the United States, bypassing normal extradition proceedings because he holds U.S. and German citizenship and requested transfer to the United States.

Abouhalima, who was born in Egypt, reportedly arrived in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, Egypt, earlier this month from Saudi Arabia holding a German passport and a U.S. green card but not carrying either an Egyptian passport or visa.

A statement by the Egyptian Interior Ministry said Abouhalima, when confronted with accusations about the trade center bombing, denied any role in the attack and “insisted on facing the investigators” in the case.

“In response to his insistence on acquitting himself before the U.S. investigators who had gathered this evidence, and since he is a U.S. citizen, the relevant security authorities had no objection to him leaving the country voluntarily and this took place yesterday morning,” the statement said.

However, the source in Egypt familiar with the investigation said the decision to arrest Abouhalima and transfer him to the United States was made from the beginning after consultation with U.S. officials.

The chances of Egyptian officials developing a case against him and successfully prosecuting him in Egypt were “meager,” he said, and authorities were prepared to smooth over “the legal aspects.”

“The Americans were in all the way,” he added. “This was not an Egyptian put-up job.”

The Gamaa al Islamiya expressed opposition to Abouhalima’s transfer to New York. In a statement to the Associated Press, Hosni Nagdi, a member of the outlawed group reported to be in hiding, said: “The Egyptian government is totally submissive to the United States. It surrendered him immediately without even caring about how the Egyptian people feel about it.”

Times staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this story.