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Brigitte: the link to al-Qaeda
Deported French terrorist suspect Willie Brigitte has been linked to the most senior echelons of al-Qaeda - one of his associates counted Osama bin Laden and September 11 attack mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed as confidants. News that Brigitte, 35, was in contact with top European al-Qaeda operatives underscores the gravity of the nationâs biggest terrorist scare. A former terrorism adviser to the French Government, Pierre Conesa, said yesterday that Brigitte had been targeted after his name featured on a list of people contacted by two men accused of plotting a fatal synagogue bombing in April 2002 in Tunisia.
| One ping is no big deal. Two marks you for a bit more interest... |
The men, Christian Ganczarski and Karim Mehdi, were arrested in Paris in June - a month after Brigitte arrived in Australia. Searches of the pairâs phone records, and subsequent interrogations by Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, the same man leading the Brigitte investigation, renewed interest in him.
"Brigitte... Brigitte... Now, where have I heard that name before? LeGume!"
"Yes, Inspector Camembert!"
"Bring me my saxophone!" |
Brigitte is believed to have first featured in French intelligence reports in 1999, after he embraced radical Islamic beliefs. "Perhaps he could be very important, or perhaps he is the second-hand logistics guy who was just offering a home for the bigger player," said Mr Conesa. "The terrorist network drags as many as possible into it, so no one knows at the beginning who is in charge of what attack."
| But just plotting the contacts on paper can tell you that... |
The 2002 bombing of the El Ghriba synagogue in Djerba, killed 21 people. The explosion was triggered by a suicide bomber, Nizar Nawar, who was driving a truck laden with cooking gas canisters. Because French nationals were among the victims, and Nawar had grown up in France, Judge Bruguiere was assigned to the case. Investigators soon established that in the moments before the bombing Nawar phoned two contacts: Ganczarski, 36, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who officials say was the mastermind of the synagogue explosion. During the call to Ganczarski, reportedly intercepted by German intelligence, Nawar was asked by Ganczarski if he needed anything. He replied: "I only need the command!"
| I wonder which of them issued the command... |
The discovery that Brigitte was part of this network was made when Ganczarskiâs colleague, Karim Mehdi, 34, of Morocco, was arrested on June 1 at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. He confessed to authorities that he was on his way to the French territory of Reunion in the Indian Ocean - on a "reconnaissance mission" with the aim of staging a Bali-style nightclub attack using a booby-trapped vehicle. He named Ganczarski as the organiser of the planned attack.
So much for the canard, that the US and its allies only have themselves to blame for the terrorist attacks. Why would they want to attack Reunion, which is under the control of the appeasing French, then?
Two days later, Ganczarski, a Polish convert to Islam from Germany, was arrested, also at Charles de Gaulle airport. He is a computer and telecommunications specialist. After the arrests, the French Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, said Ganczarski was "a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda, in contact with bin Laden himself". Intelligence networks have linked Ganczarski to the Hamburg chapter of al-Qaeda, which spawned Mohamed Atta, a leader of the September 11 hijackings. Mr Conesa said Ganczarskiâs network was investigated and "Brigitte was found to be part of that network". French officials alerted ASIO on September 22 that Brigitte was probably in Australia. At that stage Brigitte was treated as a routine inquiry. Then, on October 7, ASIO took further reports from France, stating Brigitte intended imminent harm and should be apprehended urgently. He was caught on October 9 and interrogated twice by ASIO, then deported on October 17. In the days after news broke of Brigitteâs deportation, and subsequent raids on seven properties and vehicles, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty agreed that Brigitte represented the most serious al-Qaeda link in Australia. "Well, from what we know so far that is true," Mr Keelty said. For the past week, a federal police team has been in Paris, making formal requests to interview Brigitte.
Posted by: tipper. 2003-11-17 |
