KERRY O'BRIEN: The occupation of Iraq has turned out to be a bloody and thankless task for America and its allies. Now it's said that much of the suicide bombing offensive there post-war has been the work of an Al Qaeda-linked network in Europe. That network goes by the name of Ansar al-Islam, a radical Kurdish Islamic group that supported the former regime of Saddam Hussein. It was originally based in northern Iraq, but the head of the organisation now lives in Norway and America is putting pressure on the Scandinavian nation to take action.
| Of course it's purely American pressure. Norway has nothing to fear from men with turbans and automatic weapons who've declared war against Crusaders and Jews... |
This report from the BBC's Peter Marshall.
PETER MARSHALL, BBC REPORTER: Tranquil and splendid in its Scandinavian isolation, Norway has the freshest, clearest climes in Europe. Peace is in the very air. But Norway is now said to have spawned the latest wave of international terrorism. Here, both hunted and harboured by Western democracies, is the man allegedly behind suicide bombings in Iraq and beyond, a man accused of laying a path for Al Qaeda. His name is Mullah Krekar.
| Mullah Krekar is at least the titular head of Ansar al-Islam. He appears to be the guy in charge of the Kurdish hicks they use for muscle. Included within the structure of Ansar is also al-Tawhid, headed by Zarqawi, who is actually Helmut, Speaking for Boskone... Or maybe Ernst Stavro Blofeld. We're not sure yet... |
One of Oslo's poorest suburbs.
| "Poor" in Norway is a relative thing... |
Ever since Norway gave him asylum 13 years ago, it's been home to Mullah Krekar. As an Iraqi Kurd, he was opposed to Saddam's regime, but he was also the sworn enemy of other Kurdish groups and of the West, for Krekar wanted no less than an Islamic state.
| Which, of course, fits right in with the Norwegian ethos, because... ummm... Well, because it does. Somehow. |
He set up a small army to achieve it, its name 
Ansar al-Islam.
| I thought you already said that, Pete. That's why I explained it. |
GUIDO OLIMPIO, AUTHOR, NETWORK OF TERROR. It's very important in the radical arena. Everybody talk about in the mosques about it. Al-Ansar is a big movement and they are ready to fight and they are ready to die against the Americans, so it is very important.
| Everybody. In the mosques. In Norway. Sven, what's wrong with this picture? |
PETER MARSHALL: His refugee status in Norway secure, Mullah Krekar had secretly returned to the mountains of northern Iraq to lead radical Islamists. By December 2001, he formed Ansar al-Islam.
Its members, some 500 of the most militant guerrilla fighters, raged war on the PUK, the regional administration. They were denounced as terrorists by the US.
"Hmmm... Yasss... Turbans... Automatic weapons... Kill people... Marvin!"
"Yes, Mr. Secretary!"
"Denounce them as terrorists!" |
PETER MARSHALL: Is your brother a terrorist?
| Oh, Pete! That's such a hard question! |
KHALID AHMED, MULLAH KREKAR'S BROTHER: No, I don't know. I don't think so.
| "I mean, he ain't never exploded or nothin'!" |
PETER MARSHALL: But he is the leader of Ansar al-Islam.
| By now I'm getting the impression he's the leader of Ansar al-Islam or something... |
KHALID AHMED: You know, he was the leader of this group from December 2001 up to May 2002, and this time there was no fighting between PUK and Ansar al-Islam and there was talking.
| Well, who were those guys they were fighting, then? You know, the 'Boom! Boom! Allahu akbar!' episodes? The ones where the guys with the turbans and beards were cutting people's throats? |
PETER MARSHALL: It's a legalistic answer which some say barely disguises the truth. Mullah Krekar has been of concern to intelligence agencies around the world. They tracked his labyrinthine trail across Asia and Europe.
| They nabbed him in the Netherlands, on a tipoff from the Medes and the Persians, and the Dutchies didn't have the cojones to jug him. They sent him on to Norway, land of gorgeous blondes and the limpest court system outside of Belgium... |
The Dutch had found Krekar with what looked like an inventory of Ansar's fighting capabilities. They'd enough supplies for five or six months of warfare on the front or two years or more for fighting as guerillas. Back in Norway, Krekar was acquitted of a subsequent terrorism charge on the grounds that his group was waging war and thus couldn't be considered terrorist.
| No matter how many people's throats they cut... |
From Oslo, Khalid Ahmad runs an Islamist website. Norwegian prosecutors believe his brother, Mullah Krekar, has been doing the same, but he's been using the Internet to command Ansar terrorists. The Norwegians are currently holding Mullah Krekar in connection with two Ansar bombing attempts in northern Iraq. They say they've plenty of witnesses, most notably this young would-be suicide bomber who was thwarted before he could self-detonate. As well as demonstrating his failed technique, he's made a lengthy confession saying he was trained and inspired to kill by Mullah Krekar. In the land which has long been a haven of accord and conciliation, a venue for conferences on peace, the Krekar affair marks an important change 
innocence betrayed.
"Oh, Sven! I feel so betrayed!"
"Oh, hold me, Ole!" |
When Norwegian TV showed distraught relatives of suicide bombers damning Krekar, the country was shocked.
"Cheeze, Helga! I'm shocked!"
"Me, too, Sven. Is there any more fish?" |
CARL HAGEN, LEADER, NORWAY PROGRESS PARTY: For a long time, when Mullah Krekar has been on television, he's been the kind old grandfather who wouldn't kill a fly. But of course, in the last week or so when we had more videotapes from Iraq and his former position, I think the attitude among the Norwegian public is even more against Mullah Krekar than it was before, and I think they're furious with the Government for not getting the guy out of Norway.
| "Ya, sure! T'row the bum out!" |
PETER MARSHALL: Intelligence agencies looking into Krekar's activities over the last 15 years have found he was a man who liked to travel. With asylum in Norway, he moved around Europe, ostensibly preaching, staying at various times in Britain, Germany, Sweden and, on more than one occasion, in Italy 
in Milan. The Italians had independently turned up Krekar's name and phone numbers in their own inquiries into Islamist terror networks. They became convinced something new was happening. Italian intelligence believes that it was at this mosque, the Via Quaranta in the centre of Milan, that the link between the Krekar-founded Ansar al-Islam and Bin Laden's Al Qaeda was forged. The Italians became convinced of the al-Ansar/Al Qaeda alliance when they placed two suspects from Via Quaranta mosque in a bugged cell. One was a suspected al-Ansar operative. The other, who had flown in from London, was allegedly Al Qaeda. The Milan prosecutor, in a rare interview, told us Al Qaeda turned to Krekar's Ansar al-Islam because Ansar had a ready-made terrorist infrastructure.
| Comes as a surprise, doesn't it? Pete missed the best part, though. It had a ready-made terrorist infrastructure because al-Qaeda provided the funding and the cadres that set it up. Abu Zubayda was its controller when it was just getting off the ground as a "little Afghanistan." |
STEFANO DAMBRUOSO, ITALIAN PROSECUTOR: We found that principally Ansar served this kind of group in terms of logistical support and help for their activity, especially for training their people in the area where they had already organised some camps.
| Ummm... They're a wholly owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda... |
PETER MARSHALL: The Italians believe they've traced the bombers' route. They're recruited in European mosques, travelling from Milan down through Syria and then into Iraq. For 10 years, Guido Olimpio has been warning of the dangers of Al Qaeda and their alliances. This is exactly the sort of network he envisaged.
| It's actually not very original. Clandestine terror networks are kind of constrained to fit into an organizational mold, mainly because no other approach works. |
PETER MARSHALL: Was the fact that the Americans were interested in Iraq and perhaps going to invade Iraq was that an attraction or deterrent for Al Qaeda?
| They were active in Iraq as a thorn in the side of Kurdistan before the U.S.A. got interested in them. They first showed up shortly before 9-11-01. Very shortly before it, in fact. |
GUIDO OLIMPIO: It was an attraction, definitely. We observed very new phenomena. A lot of people, in the months before the war, started to say, "We are ready to fight. We would like to fight in Iraq against America."
| That's because the mosques were swarming with recruiters, many of them no doubt Sammy's agents, other al-Qaeda or Takfiri who were out to make points at the expense of the Great Satan. Not only did they get the lunks from Europe and the Middle East willing to strap on an explodo-vest, they also managed to get a bunch of human shields on board to make fools of themselves. |
PETER MARSHALL: The Italians and other Western agencies are now working on the theory that the Ansar al-Islam/Al Qaeda group is responsible for some of the most murderous attacks in Iraq since the war was declared over. From the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August to the attack on the Al-Rashid Hotel and the Red Cross Thingy in October, some 70 people have been killed and hundreds injured. There's also suspicion, because of the methods and level of planning, that the network may have been involved in November's bombings in Istanbul which left over 60 dead. But what of Mullah Krekar?
| I dunno. What of him? You're telling the story, Pete. |
Last month on Arab TV, he was introduced as the leader of Ansar al-Islam. He didn't demur. To Western intelligence and the Americans in particular, this confirms what they already believe. Norway's wariness of America's approach to the war on terror has led to questions about the evidence against Mullah Krekar.
| "Sven, I got some questions about the evidence against Mullah Krekar!" |
PROFESSOR STAALE ESKELAND, OSLO UNIVERSITY: The main evidence, as far as I can see, comes from witnesses in Iraq.
| Yep. That's where the corpses are. |
They are in the custody of PUK, which is under American control, and then the representatives of the Norwegians prosecutions go down there and make interviews with them, and I think they're completely unreliable.
| "I can tell these things without going myself. I'm a professor, y'know." |
You cannot know whether they tell the truth or not because they're under such a great pressure.
| "So obviously it's all lies and we should give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, he hasn't killed anybody I know!" |
ERLING GRIMSTAD, CENTRAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT, NORWAY: We have more than 1,200 pieces of evidence in this case and it's--
| "Hey! You cut me off, sucker!" |
PETER MARSHALL: So you're not just relying on confessions?
What the hell do you think? Have you ever investigated anything?
PETER MARSHALL: I'm a journalist! I investigate stuff all the time. Stuff like this. |
ERLING GRIMSTAD: No, this is all a puzzle 
all this puzzle has to fit into each other to make us believe in a certain fact of information.
| "Y'see, one piece confirms another or disproves another. You put them together and then look at more pieces and either prove or disprove them. It's kind of hard to explain to somebody who's a journalist, even if he investigates stuff. Like this." |
PETER MARSHALL: If the puzzle doesn't add up to a conviction, in the next week, Norway could release Mullah Krekar, the man who founded and inspires the group who've opened the doors of Iraq to Al Qaeda.
| That'd be Ansar al-Islam, I'll bet. Wouldn't it, Pete? (Toldja they had a limp court system.) |
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