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| Britain |
| Algerian al-Qaeda man had multiple identities |
| 2005-04-14 |
| Kamel Bourgass was "an incredibly dangerous" al-Qaeda sleeper agent, according to anti-terrorism officers. But such was the web of lies he told about his background - claiming variously to have been born between 1973 and 1975 in Tunisia, Morocco or Algeria - that police are still unsure about his true identity. It is now thought that his real name was actually Nadir Habra - a name previously assumed to be an alias - and that he was born in Souk Ahras, Algeria, in 1973. Police are convinced his arrest was a major catch in the war against terrorism. One senior detective said: "He was an incredibly dangerous individual, committed to his cause, who showed no compunction in killing." Bourgass told the court that he left school in Algeria at the age of 17 and had worked as a police officer for a year. The first time he is known to have been in Britain was in January 2000 when he claimed asylum while living in Croydon. According to his story, he had travelled to France where an Arab people smuggler arranged for him to travel from Calais to Dover in the back of a lorry. His application was eventually rejected and he went underground, living in London and Manchester, taking jobs in a pizzeria and as a dustman. Sidali Feddag, the young Algerian who lived in the ricin-factory flat with him in Wood Green, north London, and who was cleared of terrorist offences, described Bourgass as a secretive individual, with no family or friends in the UK, and a devout Muslim. He said he knew Bourgass as "Nadir" and had invited him to stay at the flat after meeting him through worship. Mr Feddag said Bourgass had asked him to help collect apple seeds and cherry stones - the raw ingredients for cyanide - and told him it was for use in making herbal medicine. He also said he had got his father to bring castor beans - the raw ingredient for ricin - into the country because Bourgass wanted them for making "medicine". His co-accused Mohamed Meguerba claimed - while under interrogation and possibly torture in Algeria - that Bourgass was an al-Qaeda agent. The judge in his case ruled this evidence as inadmissible, but Meguerba said he and Bourgass had been trained in Afghanistan, where they learned about chemistry. After arriving in Britain, they came up with a plan to make toxic poisons and smear them on car door handles and houses in north London. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 Unless he's a dead leftist. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-04-14 1:22:45 PM |
| #2 "A dead man is just a corpse, nobody cares who he was." -- The Steel Helmet |
| Posted by: mojo 2005-04-14 11:51:53 AM |
| #1 Send this Bourgass guy to Gitmo. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-04-14 10:15:13 AM |