President Clinton today accused the terror network allegedly operated by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden of plotting to harm Americans gathered for millennium celebrations.

``Last December, working with Jordan, we shut down a plan to place large bombs at locations where Americans might gather for Year's Eve,'' Clinton said in commencement remarks to 184 cadets at the Coast Guard Academy. ``We learned the plot was linked to terrorist camps in Afghanistan and the organization created by Osama bin Laden, the man responsible for the 1998 bombings at our embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, which cost the lives of Americans and hundreds of Africans,'' Clinton said. Shortly after the plan was uncovered, a Customs agent in Seattle discovered bombmaking materials being smuggled into the United States, Clinton said, ``the same material used by bin Laden in other places.'' It was the president's most extensive discussion of bin Laden's activities. Bin Laden, a Saudi exile believed to be in Afghanistan, is among people charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy to kill Americans in the embassy bombing cases. Six are in custody in the United States and three overseas. Clinton was making the point that the new Coast Guard graduates will face a range of threats to America's security, from terrorism to smuggling to the spread of disease. Clinton cited the ``Love Bug'' computer virus as powerful proof of the new kinds of threats to American security in an increasingly smaller,faster and more computerized world, the White House says. Clinton noted that the virus, which spread by electronic mail, disabled computers worldwide earlier this month and did millions of dollars in damage.