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| Great White North | |
| Suspect aided Moroccan al-Qaeda affiliate | |
| 2005-01-11 | |
| A former literature student and karate instructor aided and financed a deadly al-Qaeda splinter group, say newly released documents from Canada's spy agency. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service says jailed Moroccan national Adil Charkaoui is a member of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, which has been blamed for deadly attacks in Spain and Morocco. Mr. Charkaoui, a suspected sleeper agent for al-Qaeda, has been held in detention since May 2003 on a national security certificate. The spy agency's own information on Mr. Charkaoui's alleged links to the terrorist group were kept secret for reasons of national security. But the information in the Jan. 6 CSIS brief is based on media reports from Morocco and France.
The court document also cites a Moroccan newspaper as saying Mr. Charkaoui took military training in an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in 1998. CSIS, quoting from the same newspaper, said the 31-year-old father of two sent $2,000 to the Moroccan-based group and provided one of its members with a laptop computer. "The fact that Charkaoui offered financial assistance .-.-. introduces a new element as to the dangers posed by Charkaoui," said CSIS. "He made himself available to a terrorist group." The Moroccan newspaper article appeared in Aujourd'hui Le Maroc on April 16. Mr. Charkaoui was named by Nourdeine N'fia, an old emir with the group. The newspaper report has outraged Mr. Charkaoui's family, which claimed torture was used to elicit information from N'fia. The terrorist group has been linked to the March 11, 2004, train bombings in Madrid which killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800. It also has been connected with May 16, 2003, bombings in Casablanca, Morocco, which killed 33 bystanders and 12 suicide bombers. | |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |