German federal prosecutors announced terror charges Friday against a Jordanian man accused of belonging to a radical Palestinian network that was allegedly preparing attacks in Germany. The suspect, identified as Shadi Moh'd Mustafa A., 26, was among nine alleged Islamic extremists detained after investigators searched 21 apartments throughout Germany in April 2002. They are accused of being members of a cell of the radical Palestinian network al-Tawhid and were believed to be plotting attacks on at least two German cities.
Four, including the alleged cell leader, are in custody while the investigation continues. Another four have been released, though they remain under investigation. The Jordanian suspect, of Palestinian origin, was charged Thursday in a Duesseldorf state court with belonging to a terrorist group and counterfeiting passports, federal prosecutors in Karlsruhe said in a statement. Prosecutors said the cell, acting under orders from al-Tawhid leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, was planning attacks, including a shooting attack in a central square and one a grenade attack against a Jewish or Israeli target. "The cell members developed a plan to attack people in a busy square of a German city using a pistol with a silencer, and to detonate a hand grenade in another German city in the immediate vicinity of an Israeli or Jewish installation with the goal of killing as many people as possible," prosecutors said. They refused to identify specific cities or targets.
| The Germans seem to be pretty good at chasing these goobers down. There seem to be a lot of operations like this planned, and not a lot of success in executing them... |
Closely linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, al-Tawhid supports the worldwide holy war against nonbelievers, especially targeting the United States and its closest allies, prosecutors said. Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian whose real name is Ahmed al-Khalayleh, has been identified as a suspect in a plot to carry out terror attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets in Jordan, culminating in last year's slaying of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley in Amman. Al-Zarqawi, who remains at large, previously was convicted of another terror plot and sentenced in 2002 to 15 years in jail. German prosecutors said the Jordanian suspect had al-Zarqawi's trust and was a close associate of the alleged leader of the German cell, identified only as Mohamed Abu D. The suspect was told to identify targets for terror attacks in German cities and to procure the necessary weapons, according to a prosecutors' statement. In March 2002, he ordered a pistol with a silencer and a crate of hand grenades from another cell member, Jamel M. of Duesseldorf, prosecutors said, but the men were arrested before the delivery could be made.
| "Jamel, we need two crates of tomatoes and one of hand grenades. Oh, and a pisol with a silencer, and some rhubarb..." |
Two other suspects in custody, identified as Ashraf Al D. and Ismail S., were to carry out the attacks, the statement said. |