| BRUSSELS - Nizar Trabelsi recalled jotting down the chemical formula for a bomb in a soccer magazine that featured his past as a pro player. At that point, Trabelsi testified Tuesday, he had committed himself to becoming a "martyr" for Osama bin Laden. Trabelsi, 32, said the al-Qaida terrorist network sent him to Belgium to drive a bomb into the canteen of an air base where about 100 U.S. military personnel work. Instead, he was arrested two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and investigators found the raw materials for a huge bomb. The former European pro soccer player is the lead defendant among 23 charged with links to al-Qaida in the first terror-related prosecution in Belgium since the terror attacks on the United States prompted a spate of arrests across Europe. |