Author: Antony Barnett, Jason Burke
and Zoe Smith
Publication: The Observer
Date: January 11, 2004
URL: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1120629,00.html
Introduction: Secret intelligence
papers from across the continent reveal a growing danger from a widening
network of fanatics - and this is a struggle the West cannot lose
They had been watching him for months,
aware that his pop star good looks concealed a secret life as one of Europe's
new terrorist kingpins. Finally, on a cold winter dawn, the police moved
in. Abderrazak Mahdjoub did not resist as armed German officers surrounded
his Hamburg home and led him away.
For at least a year, investigators
claim, the 30-year-old Algerian had been a key part of a network of Islamic
militants dedicated to recruiting and dispatching suicide bombers to the
Middle East. Several volunteers had got through, wreaking havoc in a series
of attacks in Iraq. Many more were on their way, along with bombers focused
on targets in Europe.
Even worse, his associates were
planning bombs in Western Europe. At least two European intelligence services
had made previous attempts to take Mahdjoub out. Now, finally, it was the
Germans' turn. This weekend, just over a month after his arrest, Mahdjoub
remains in prison at an undisclosed location. He is likely to remain incarcerated
for some time.
Mahdjoub's arrest was a minor victory
in a major war being fought, bitterly and secretly, in cities from London
to Warsaw, from Madrid to Oslo. It pits the best investigative officers
in Europe against a fanatical network of men dedicated to the prosecution
of jihad both in Europe and overseas. It is a war security officials know
they cannot afford to lose - and that they know they will be fighting for
the foreseeable future.
Previously seen as a relative backwater
in the war on terror, Europe is now in the frontline. 'It's trench warfare,'
said one security expert. 'We keep taking them out. They keep coming at
us. And every time they are coming at us harder.'
An investigation by The Observer
has revealed the extent of the new networks that Islamic militants have
been able to build in Europe since 11 September - despite the massive effort
against them. The militants' operations go far beyond the few individuals'
activities that sparked massive security alerts over Christmas and the
new year. Interviews with senior counter-intelligence officials, secret
recordings of conversations between militants and classified intelligence
briefings have shown that militants have been able to reconstitute, and
even enlarge, their operations in Europe in the past two years. The intelligence
seen by The Observer reveals that:
* Britain is still playing a central
logistical role for the militants, with extremists, including the alleged
mastermind of last year's bombings in Morocco, and a leader of an al-Qaeda
cell, regularly using the UK as a place to hide. Other radical activists
are using Britain for fundraising, massive credit card fraud, the manufacture
of false documents and planning. Recruitment is also continuing. In one
bugged conversation, a senior militant describes London as 'the nerve centre'
and says that his group has 'Albanians, Swiss [and] British' recruits.
He needs people who are 'intelligent and highly educated', he says and
implies that the UK can, and does, supply them.
* Islamic terror cells are spreading
eastwards into Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic for the
first time, prompting fears of a new battleground in countries with weak
authorities, powerful criminal gangs and endemic corruption in the years
to come.
* Austria has become a central communications
hub for Muslim extremists; France has become a key recruiting ground for
fighters in Chechnya; and German groups, who often have extensive international
links, are developing contacts with Balkan mafia gangs to acquire weapons.
The investigation has also revealed
that, despite moves by the government there to crack down, Saudi Arabia
remains the key source of funds for al-Qaeda and related militant groups.
Investigators stress that most of
the European cells are autonomous, coming together on an ad hoc basis to
complete specific tasks. To describe them as 'al-Qaeda' is simplistic.
Instead, sources say, the man most of these new Islamic terror networks
look to for direction is Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian Islamic militant
who some analysts believe was behind the recent Istanbul suicide bombings
against British targets and synagogues. Though he follows a similar agenda
to Osama bin Laden, the 37-year-old Zarqawi has always maintained his independence
from the Saudi-born fugitive. Last week, his developing stature in global
Islamic militancy was reinforced when he issued his first-ever public statement,
an audiotape calling on God to 'kill the Arab and the foreign tyrants,
one after another'.
Zarqawi is believed to be in Iran
or Iraq. However European investigators have discovered that one of his
key lieutenants is an Iraqi Kurd known only as Fouad, a cleric based in
Syria, who handles the volunteer suicide bombers sent from Europe to launch
attacks in Iraq.
Italian investigators made the first
breakthrough in the hunt for Zarqawi's operatives. Just after 10pm on the
evening of 15 June, 2002, an unidentified Arab visitor from Germany - believed
to be a senior figure in the militants' network - arrived at a mosque in
the Via Quaranta, Milan. He began by warning the mosque's Egyptian imam,
Abu Omar, about increased surveillance. He was unaware that Italian police
were listening to his every word.
Transcripts obtained by The Observer
reveal that the visitor spoke of a project needing 'intelligent and highly
educated people'. Already, the visitor said, that 'where the jihad part
is concerned there was a battalion of 25 to 26 units'. It is these 'units',
believed by investigators to mean potential suicide bombers, that the authorities
knew they had to find.
The visitor then began a review
of recent developments. He stressed that 'the thread begins in Saudi Arabia',
where the bulk of funds apparently still comes from. 'Don't ever worry
about money, because Saudi Arabia's money is your money,' the visitor says.
He then refers to recent 'confidential' meetings in Eastern Europe with
Islamic militant leaders.
'Now Europe is controlled via air
and land, but in Poland and Bulgaria and countries that aren't part of
the European Community everything is easy,' he says. 'First of all they
are corrupt, you can buy them with dollars...[Secondly] they are less-controlled
countries, there aren't too many eyes.'
The man named Austria as a launch
pad for attacks. 'The country from which everything takes off is Austria.
There I met all of the sheikhs and all our brothers are there ... it has
become the country of international communications. It has become the country
of contacts.'
Poland is a particularly important
location too, the man says and names a 'Sheikh Abd al-Aziz', before boasting:
'His organisation is stunning.'
After translating the conversation,
held in Arabic, Italian investigators immediately relayed the information
to counterparts elsewhere in Europe. The British security services swung
into action. The transcripts also reveal the continuing importance of London.
'The nerve centre is still London,'
the man says and hints that there are many recruits from the UK: 'We have
Albanians, Swiss [and] British.'
The role of the UK was reinforced
when, last April, 29-year-old Somali-born Cabdullah Ciise was arrested
in Milan days after arriving from London, where he had fled to escape Italian
investigators months earlier. The Italians suspect him of financing a terror
cell involved in the car bomb attack on Israeli tourists in Mombasa, Kenya
in November 2002. According to Italian court documents, Ciise transferred
money from Great Britain to Somalia through Dubai.
He is also accused of being an important
member of Zarqawi's international terrorist organisation. A year earlier,
in May 2002, Faraj Farj Hassan, the suspected leader of an Islamic terrorist
cell in Milan, was arrested in Harrow, west London, where he had taken
refuge with a relative who had political asylum. Hassan, 23, was arrested
for immigration offences and is believed to still be held in Belmarsh high
security prison awaiting extradition to Italy.
And last November, an Algerian-born
British national from west London was arrested after travelling to Poland.
He was the subject of an Algerian arrest warrant alleging his involvement
in a terrorist group.
When the Italians arrested Ciise
they put him in the same cell as another Islamic radical known as 'Mera'i'.
Again, the conversation was bugged; it gives a chilling insight into the
mind of a hardened militant.
Mera'i tells Ciise that he hates
their jailers: 'They like life, I want to be a martyr, I live for jihad.
In this life there is nothing, life is afterward, the indescribable sensation
of dying a martyr.'
Then the pair talk about the Syrian-based
cleric Fouad, whom they describe as the 'gatekeeper' to Iraq. Other transcripts
reveal conversations between Fouad and Mera'i about how they had organised
the flow of 'brothers' to Iraq via the Syrian cities of Damascus and Aleppo.
British suicide bombers who died in Israel last year travelled through
both cities. One of the network's recruits is believed to have been involved
in the rocket attack in October against the Baghdad hotel where Paul Wolfowitz,
the American deputy Secretary of Defence, was staying. One phone call between
the two reveals Mera'i telling Fouad that: 'This week more guests will
be arriving ... they are good people.' Fouad replies: 'I want those that
are awake and prepared ... I want those who will strike the earth and make
iron rise out of it ... I'm looking for those that were in Japan [ie, kamikaze
or suicide bombers].'
The Italian investigation yielded
important intelligence and the focus shifted to Germany. After 11 September,
authorities there had concentrated on rounding up all those connected with
the 'Hamburg cell' who had led the attacks on New York and Washington.
Soon, however, they came across a group known as 'al-Tauhid' (the unitarians)
which posed as grave a threat. Al- Tauhid were loyal to Zarqawi; indeed,
many of their key personnel had trained in his camp in Afghanistan in the
late 1990s.
According to an intelligence dossier
compiled last year by German criminal intelligence, the link between the
Italian network and the German cells was a 30-year-old Palestinian called
Mansour Thaer. Another connection was a Turk called Mevluet Tar, a 23-year-old
who spoke fluent German. Both were quickly picked up.
The dossier lists a dozen senior
al-Tauhid operatives in Germany. Most were involved in the provision of
false passports or spent their time raising and transferring funds to fighters
in the Middle East. But others, many still at large, were involved in plotting
bomb attacks against Jewish targets in Western Europe. At least one militant
liaised with Albanian mafia gangs in a bid to obtain weapons, the dossier
reveals. Only a handful of the individuals named in the document have been
arrested.
Last week there were more arrests.
In Paris a group alleged to be recruiting fighters for the war in Chechnya
was picked up. In Switzerland a series of raids broke up an alleged support
and fundraising network which had connections to the men who set off bombs
in Riyadh last May. In Spain, a favoured entry point into Europe for North
African militants, investigators continue to chase down terrorists linked
to cells rounded up earlier.
A Moroccan cleric called Mohammed
al-Garbuzi, whom local authorities claim was a key figure in the Casablanca
bombings last May, is believed to be at large in the UK. Scotland Yard
last week warned leaders of the Jewish community that the threat 'remained
high'. Senior British police officers said they are aware that millions
of pounds are being raised in the UK by credit card fraud for Islamic militant
groups.
'We act when we can,' said one police
source. 'But we are stretched enough going after the clear and immediate
threats, let alone their back-up.'
Security experts stress that the
campaign to prevent another major bomb attack in Western Europe has got
no easier since major round-ups after 11 September. 'We are dealing with
something that is organic, not mechanical,' one told The Observer . 'You
can't remove a part and watch it all break down. It's more like fungus.
Burn some away and it just keeps growing somewhere else.'
The targets, the death toll and
the suspects
Istanbul November 2003, 62 dead
Target: British consulate and bank,
synagogues
Suspect: Local Islamic group thought
to be linked to al-Qaeda or Abu Musab Zarqawi
Baghdad August-October 2003, 50
dead
Target: Al-Rasheed hotel, UN and
Red Cross headquarters.
Suspect: European suicide bombers
believed to have been recruited by Mullah Fouad in Syria.
Casablanca May 2003, 41 dead
Target: Jewish community centre
and Spanish social club
Suspect: Local Islamic group. The
authorities want to interview a Moroccan cleric, Mohammed al-Garbuzi, who
is believed to be in Britain.
Riyadh May 2003, 34 dead
Target: Luxury compounds in Saudi
capital
Suspect: Swiss arrest an eight-strong
'logistics cell'.
Mombasa November 2002, 16 dead
Target: Israeli tourists at Paradise
hotel
Suspect: Kenyan Islamic cell. Some
funds allegedly provided by a Somali-born militant living in London, arrested
in Milan and 'a part of Zarqawi's cell'.