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| Europe |
| Ansar-al -islam, brits and castor beans |
| 2003-01-18 |
| [...]US intelligence has connected the ricin suspects with senior Al Qaeda leader Abu Mussab al Zarqawi, officials tell CNN. Mr. Zarqawi has been accused of underwriting and ordering the assassination of American diplomat Lawrence Foley in Amman, Jordan last October. Further, reports CNN, there is evidence Zarqawi may have traveled to a part of northern Iraq under the control of a Taliban-style group called Ansar al-Islam. (Jordan's prime minister said in December that Zarqawi was believed to be hiding in Ansar's camps.) However, officials told CNN this "very indirect" connection is the only evidence to date of a link between the Algerian ricin cell and Ansar. That said, US officials are digging for more links, according to the Associated Press. Specifically, they are investigating whether a substance useful in making chemical or biological weapons was transferred from Ansar al-Islam, through the country of Georgia, to the Algerians in England. AP sources would not identify the substance, but they did say it was not ricin or VX. Why would such a trade go through Georgia? There is growing evidence of links between Ansar al-Islam and militants in the Caucasus affiliated with Al Qaeda, reports the Financial Times. The paper cites Western intelligence sources who say that Islamic militants developed chemical weapons in training camps in the Caucasus and are now bringing their brew through Turkey and into western Europe. [...] Ansar al-Islam means "Supporters of Islam" in Arabic. The movement was formed from a merger of various radical organizations in the northern, mountainous Iraq-Iran border. The Telegraph reports that Iraqi Kurds from this region were recruited to Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan in the late 1990s. Those who returned formed Ansar, and have since been bolstered by scores of Arab Al Qaeda who fled the US attack on Afghanistan. [...] The primary concern in Britain, however, isn't Kurdish extremists but possible Algerian militants in their midst. The Times of London reports that the British government ordered immigration and domestic security agencies to check all Algerian immigrants in the wake of the ricin discovery. However, immigration officials have lost track of hundreds of Algerian asylum-seekers according to the paper. Britain has become a popular destination for Algerians fleeing their country's unrest since the UK refused to deport any Algerian, including those booted from France. The Times says French investigators have been warning Britain for years about Algerian militants. The author of "Inside Al-Qaeda – Global Network of Terror" believes that most Algerian militants in Britain hail from a group spawned from Algeria's civil war, the Salafist Group of Combat and Preaching. Radical Islamists have clashed with Algeria's secular, military government for over a decade, creating a bumper-crop of recruits for Osama bin Laden. According to Jane's Defense Weekly, as many as 2,800 Algerians have gone through Al Qaeda boot camp in Afghanistan. That gives Algeria the dubious distinction of being the 3rd biggest contributor to Al Qaeda after Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Many of these Algerians found there way to one of Al Qaeda's old strongholds – the Pankisi Gorge. |
| Posted by:Anonymous |