| Submit your comments on this article |
| Terror Networks & Islam |
| Mustafa Setmariam Nasar may have masterminded London bombings |
| 2005-07-09 |
| HE'S a murderous chameleon. Fake IDs, forged documents, a man of many faces. But with one agenda. To kill the innocent. Mustafa Setmarian Nasar has been called the mastermind behind last year's Madrid bombings when 10 bombs exploded on four commuter trains killing almost 200 people. He is still at large and was widely believed to have been planning an attack on Britain, reported the Daily Mirror. But did he really carry out his plan in London on Thursday? He is a man who sets up sleeper cells then leaves his recruits to do their worst. He also teaches them forgery techniques so they can fake identity papers. The paper reported two of his key players, both North African, had UK passports in the names of Frost and Burgess to make travel easier. Mustafa, who has a pale complexion, red hair and green eyes, often uses a fake British ID. He lived in North London in the mid-1990s and has been in close contact with two suspects in Belmarsh prison in South East London. Mustafa, who has a US$5million ($8.5m) US Government bounty on his head, ordered the Madrid bombers to blow themselves up after they were cornered by police. MSNBC reported that Mustafa is wanted because of his contacts and influence, not because he directs terrorist operations. A native Syrian with a Spanish passport, he was quietly placed on the State Department's 'Rewards for Justice' list last month. 'He is a pen jihadist, a propagandist,' said one US official. 'He is all pen, no action, but the man has amazing access to a lot of other key players.' Among those he has had contact with is Osama Bin Laden, who met him in Sudan during the early 1990's. Mustafa taught at and ran training camps in Afghanistan and had contact with Osama and other top Al-Qaeda leaders there as well. Mustafa married a Spanish woman, Elena Moreno, with whom he has two children. He himself looks very little like the typical Arab. In September 2003, he was among 35 people named in an indictment handed down by Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzon for terrorist activities. The magistrate said Mustafa gave terrorism training, particularly in the development and use of poisons, to individuals from Spain, Italy and France, then sent them home as 'sleepers' awaiting orders. His whereabouts are unknown, but some in the US intelligence community believe he is in Iraq. One of his closest aides, Amer Azizi, met Mohammad Atta, leader of the 9/11 hijackers, and his friend, Ramzi Bin Al Shibh, the organiser of the 9-11 hijack teams, in Tarragona, Spain two months before the attacks. Azizi is also believed to have activated the cell that planted bombs on Spanish trains and at train stations. Mustafa's role remains murky, say officials. Much of what is known about him comes from interrogations of Al-Qaeda militants in US custody, in particular Bin Al Shibh. Mustafa is famous among radicals for his book, The Syrian Experiment, a call to action against the repressive Arab nationalist regime of the Asad family. As a journalist, he has often written under the pseudonym, Abu Musab Suri. 'He is a lover of books more than bombs and his organisational skills leave a lot to be desired,' said one official, who dismissed reports that Mustafa is the ideological and religious advisor to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant whose organisation has taken responsibility for many of the terrorist attacks in Iraq. 'He doesn't get along with Zarqawi,' said the official, declining to provide more details. 'He is not a spiritual leader for Zarqawi.' The Times Online had reported in March that Mustafa might have been planning an attack in Britain during the general election. Documents found in a Madrid flat used by some of the bombers show how Mustafa ordered them to strike in the final days of the Spanish election campaign last March. The coded command was sent three months earlier; Mustafa left it to his lieutenants in Spain to decide what the target should be. The documents showed that the bombing on the eve of the election was to be followed by suicide attacks. But the militant gang who were to stage these blew themselves up when cornered by police. The CIA has had reported sightings of Mustafa in a dozen countries, including Britain, but the recent discovery of his Spanish wife and their children in Kuwait City led US agents to believe that he may be hiding in Iraq. Investigators in Madrid are convinced that what they have uncovered in recent weeks shows how a British cell is likely to operate after Mustafa's tuition. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Syrian again! |
| Posted by: Rory B. Bellows 2005-07-09 14:12 |