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| Europe |
| Azizi and Nasar loom large in Spanish anti-terrorism fight |
| 2005-07-05 |
| One is a self-proclaimed al Qaeda trainer who openly advocates attacking the United States with weapons of mass destruction. The other remains in the shadows, charged in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and -- if a Spanish prosecutor's suspicions are well grounded -- quietly planning the next major strike on the West. Mustafa Setmariam and Amer Azizi have both played a starring role in the trial of 24 suspected al Qaeda members that began in April and is expected to conclude this month. Neither is present in court at Europe's biggest trial of suspected Islamists, but they are the men prosecutors keep asking witnesses about. Spain has arrested some 200 Islamist militant suspects in recent years as part of nine separate investigations. Setmariam and Azizi, however, have escaped the dragnet and remain two of the country's most wanted fugitives. They are intelligent, trained in Afghan militant camps, and carry Western passports, both having obtained dual nationality by marrying Spanish women. The Syrian Setmariam, 46, has been portrayed by investigators as an extroverted and aggressive recruiter of holy warriors. The Moroccan Azizi, 37, is more reserved and said to be a diligent student of Islam. He is also suspected of involvement in al Qaeda's deadliest attacks of recent years. "Apart from Setmariam, Azizi is the most dangerous one out there. He is out there planning an attack. I don't know in what country, but it will be something big," says Pedro Rubira, the chief prosecutor in the al Qaeda trial. "They both have been totally involved ever since they were little. Why would they stop now?" Rubira said. Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon has charged Azizi with mass murder for the Sept. 11 attacks, saying he helped arrange planning meetings in Spain in 2001 that were attended by lead hijacker Mohamed Atta. He is also under investigation in connection with the May 16, 2003, attacks in Casablanca, Morocco, in which 45 people died including 12 suicide bombers. His stature among violent militants in Madrid was so high that a leader of the 2004 Madrid train bombings asked for his blessing before carrying out the attack, Rubira said. As for Setmariam, one U.S. counterterrorism official said, "He's certainly an al Qaeda member and a former trainer who was involved in the Derunta and al-Ghuraba terrorist camps in Afghanistan. He trained in poisons and chemicals. ... And there is indeed a reward on his head." The United States is offering $5 million for information about Setmariam. The U.S. official would not comment on the possible whereabouts of either man nor gauge the level of threat they might pose. Rubira, when asked the same questions, shrugged his shoulders. Setmariam said in a posting on a militant Islamist Web site dated December 2004 that he has decided to "isolate himself". There is no trace of him in Spain since 1995. Private French investigator Jean-Charles Brisard says Azizi fled Spain for Iran where he joined up with a group loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian who claims to have carried out many of the deadliest attacks in Iraq. Suspects and defence lawyers say Spanish investigators routinely exaggerate the threat of suspected militants because the have a poor grasp of Arabic and confuse Muslim customs with suspicious activity. Defence lawyers in the al Qaeda trial under way confidently predict their clients will be cleared, and even the U.S. official said some of the Spanish accusations against Azizi's involvement in planning the Sept. 11 attacks "may be exaggerated." Setmariam, in his Web posting, called for defeating the United States through three options. One was through natural disaster sent by God and another was through "resistance and long-term guerrilla warfare" as seen in Fallujah or the Palestinian territories. "The last option is to destroy America with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction," Setmariam wrote. "The mujahideen should try to obtain or purchase them with the help of those who possess such weapons, or to build crude or dirty bombs." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |