Author: Hugh Williamson
Publication: The Financial Times
Date: November 15, 2001
URL: http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=011115001252&query=camps+in+pakistan
At least 70,000 Islamic militants
have been trained in camps associated with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan,
Pakistan and other countries in recent years, according to the head of
Germany's federal criminal agency.
Ulrich Kersten, the head of the
BKA agency, said these trainees came from "50 different states" and posed
a significant terrorist threat.
In warnings that a new phase of
international terrorism was imminent, voiced at a rare public meeting of
senior US and German security and intelligence specialists in Germany yesterday,
Michael Rolince, the head of the FBI's anti-terrorism section, confirmed
that "thousands of people" had passed through the camps.
"These people do not retire; we
will find them, or we will hear from them again," he said.
The terrorist network established
by Osama bin Laden is regrouping in order to strike again, despite the
recent setbacks for the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to Dieter Kaundinya,
the head of the counter-terrorism section of the BND, the German international
intelligence agency.
He said both the Taliban and al-Qaeda
"have prepared themselves for this turn of events and are preparing for
a guerrilla war in Afghanistan and elsewhere. I would warn against sentiments
that we have won rapid successes in recent days," he said.
Mr Kaundinya said that al-Qaeda
might resort to new terrorist strategies, including a "cyber-war". He said
they might "interfere with international information systems" in the future,
although he did not elaborate. Mr Rolince said the FBI believed it was
"fair to assume" that Islamic terrorists "are trying to acquire chemical
and biological weapons". He said there was no clear evidence that al-Qaeda
was behind the recent anthrax attacks in the US, adding that the evidence
"tends to indicate" that a lone, US-based criminal was behind the attacks.
Germany has been a key centre of
the international investigation of those behind the September 11 attacks.
Three of the hijackers had lived in Hamburg.
Speakers at yesterday's conference,
held at the BKA's headquarters in Wiesbaden near Frankfurt, confirmed that
those three Arab men were probably among the main organisers of the attacks.
The terrorist act was "at least two years in preparation", Mr Kersten said.
Speakers said the attacks cost between Dollars 250,000 and Dollars 500,000
to organise.
The bulk of this money did not originate
from Germany, although the hijackers and several of their associates received
payments from overseas linked to their terrorist plans.
In the past German security authorities
have acknowledged that the country was a "safe haven" for Islamic terrorists,
Mr Kersten said. But since September 11 they have recognised that terrorists
may also be actively organising in Germany. Otto Schily, the interior minister,
expressed the same concern at the conference on Tuesday.
For this reason, embassies and other
institutions belonging to the UK, US and Israeli governments in Germany
are "potential targets" for terrorist attack, he said.
Mr bin Laden retains "strong support"
in other Middle Eastern countries, and "certain groups in these countries
will be willing to help him" if he were to leave Afghanistan, Mr Kaundinya
said.
Horst Stachelscheid, a director
of Germany's office for the protection of the constitution - the domestic
intelligence agency - and other speakers said al-Qaeda plays the leading
role in a loosely defined structure of Islamic terrorism.
Al-Qaeda was responsible for "strategic
attacks" on US and other targets, while associated groups of non-aligned
mujahideen carried out lower-level "tactical attacks". Other Middle Eastern
groups were involved in nationally based terrorist campaigns.
