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| Europe | |
| European jihadi network shut down | |
| 2003-12-19 | |
| Authorities in Europe have shut down a network that recruited at least 200 Islamic militants to carry out attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq. The volunteers were drawn from Muslim youths living on the fringes of society in Western Europe, with loose connections to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida and Ansar al-Islam, a militant group in northern Iraq. That’d be al-Tawhid, which has the same loose ties to al-Qaeda that I have to my mom ... One recruit from Italy may have been involved in a rocket attack on the Al-Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad in October, when the U.S. assistant defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, was staying there, officials told AP. There are also suspicions that some of the Muslim militants have been involved in suicide attacks in Iraq, although there was no hard evidence, one senior Italian official involved in the investigation told AP. An intelligence report, for example, said recruits from Europe may have been involved in the August bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad that killed 22 people, including the top U.N. envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, officials said. Italian investigators said they believe they shut down the recruiting network in Western Europe with a dozen recent arrests of the ringleader, his aides and others in Italy and Germany who played peripheral roles. Western European officials can’t rule out that the operation moved east, however, sending volunteers to the Middle East from Poland, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, the senior Italian official told AP. The intercepts from the Bad Guys indicate that they have ... Authorities identified the key suspect as Abderrazak Mahdjoub, a 30-year-old Algerian. He was arrested Nov. 28 in Hamburg, Germany — the same day the Italians arrested two North Africans in Milan. Italian authorities on Wednesday formally asked for Mahdjoub’s extradition. Two suspects remain at large: a Tunisian woman, Betinwaa Farida Ben Bechir, and an Iraqi man, Muhamad Majid, also known as Mullah Fouad, Milan anti-terror police said. The woman is believed to have returned to Tunisia and the Iraqi man is believed to have fled to Syria. All the suspects were charged with "association with the aim of international terrorism" — a charge introduced in Italy after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They are believed to have provided false passports and money for recruits. Italian investigators said the volunteers were mainly recruited in Italy, Germany and Britain, and they were mainly Tunisians and Algerians. Investigators told AP they believe Syria is one of the points of entry into Iraq. The cell furnished false travel documents, enabling the volunteers to move across Europe. "We are talking about no fewer than 200 people, 70 of them from Italy," the top Italian official said. August Hanning, head of Germany’s foreign spy agency, has cited evidence that Islamic extremists have left Britain, Bosnia and Germany to fight in Iraq. "We know of holy warriors who have gone to Iraq to fight the ’infidels,’" Hanning told reporters last month. He refused to give details, but said the number was "relatively small." Mahdjoub, the Algerian held in Germany, apparently tried to get into Iraq in March along with four others from Germany but was detained in Syria. They returned to Germany, according to German investigators who have been tracking his movements since the start of the year. "If he said, `I’m going to Iraq to kill nonbelievers,’ we would have arrested him, but if he says he’s going to support his brothers, we can do nothing," said Heino Vahldieck, head of the Hamburg office in charge of tracking extremists. Another German official, Manfred Murck, told AP there are those "who are willing to take an active role in the Iraq conflict, whatever that means."
Now there’s gratitude for you ... In October, Polish authorities arrested an Algerian terrorist suspect who was carrying a British passport when he was stopped at Krakow’s airport. Authorities were looking for possible contacts in Poland while seeking details from foreign intelligence services. | |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Good news, but this is more of a single cell rather than a 'network'. The transcripts posted here last week of the phone taps on these guys show that there are plenty of more people to round up across Europe |
| Posted by: Paul Moloney 2003-12-19 4:35:06 AM |