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Four accused of plotting against U.S. targets in Europe
Stolen passports and videotapes of Osama bin Laden are among prosecution evidence against four men summoned to appear in court Monday for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks against U.S. targets in France and Belgium. Two Algerians, a Frenchman and a Dutchman are accused of running a terrorist support network out of a Rotterdam apartment to assist in strikes against the American Embassy in Paris and a U.S. munitions depot in Belgium. The "Dutchman" isn't Hans Brinker. He has a turban... Algerian Mohammed Berkous and Frenchman Jerome Courtailler were detained with Saaid Ibrahim, a Dutchman of Ethiopian origin, two days after the Sept. 11 attacks in a European-wide sweep of groups suspected of links to al-Qaida. They have been in detention for nearly a year. That's okay by me. The people who worked in the World Trade Center have coincidentally been dead for nearly a year. A fourth man, Algerian Amine Mezbar, was extradited to the Netherlands on July 19 from Canada to face similar charges. Authorities have had trouble building their case against the men and were forced to release Ibrahim in February because of insufficient evidence. He is however still a suspect. Too bad about that... Prosecutors claim to have new evidence linking the men to terrorist activities, including their own dispositions in which they apparently revealed plans to strike at the military base in Belgium. The Dutch cell allegedly worked in concert with Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian soccer player believed to have been the designated suicide bomber for the Paris attack, who was arrested on the same day in Belgium. Prosecutors say that in addition to the Paris embassy, the group targeted the Kleine-Brogel base in northeast Belgium, where around 100 U.S. Air Force personnel are stationed. Environmental groups claim the munitions dump also stores 26 B61 free-fall nuclear bombs. Finally picked up on that, did they? In a raid of the Dutch house in the port city of Rotterdam, police found about 60 stolen documents, including 26 foreign passports, as well as video speeches by Osama bin Laden. Mezbar's fingerprints were found at four sites where passports were stolen in the Netherlands in 1997 and 1999. Wire taps cited in Mezbar's warrant linked Courtailler and Berkous to Trabelsi's plans to attack the U.S. Embassy in Paris this summer. All the usual elements seem to be there. They just can't seem to stop themselves from stealing passports, drivers' licenses, birth certificates, cents off coupons... Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2002-09-02 |
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