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| Europe |
| More on the German claims |
| 2006-05-19 |
| Al-Qaeda's hierarchy in western Europe has vanished and the terrorist network's leadership has largely ceased direct management of attacks, a senior German police intelligence officer told a trial court this week. She said the al-Qaeda leadership now mainly relied on video and internet proclamations to inspire Islamists in the western world to act on their own. Germany's BKA federal crime agency had no evidence of Islamists swearing an oath of loyalty to Osama bin Laden since 2001 to become al-Qaeda members. The only terrorist to have done so since that date was Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian who mounts attacks in Iraq. She said a hierarchically organized al-Qaeda network in western Europe no longer existed. The police officer, who investigates Islamist threats, was testifying at the trial in Dusseldorf of three Arab men accused of terrorism on behalf of al-Qaeda and an insurance scam aimed at raising funds for suicide attacks in Iraq. Prosecutors say they also tried to obtain nuclear material for a "dirty bomb". The three were arrested before they could act. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #5 she doesnt say AQ is gone, but that the hierarchy is gone, and that they cant directly manage attacks. That doesnt seem all that far out, from what weve heard. If its true, its not just due to Euro LE (though thats been pretty active) but to US LE, intell (which by its nature has LE AND warlike aspects), and of course to the military campaign in Afghanistan, which has pushed AQ from control of a state, to control of, at most, parts of Waziristan, and isolation for all the key figures. And yes, intell extracted by the US at Gitmo and elsewhere may well have played a role as well. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2006-05-19 09:43 |
| #4 There's a serious logical flaw here. She says there's no evidence of al-qaeda in europe. All that means is that they haven't found any, not that it doesn't exist. IMHO, it means they've stopped looking. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2006-05-19 08:53 |
| #3 Their point, I am sure is, "law enforcement" has taken care of the AQ problem. A War on Terror isn't neccessary. How European and leftist of them and also how wrong. |
| Posted by: SPoD 2006-05-19 07:03 |
| #2 Saying this a few weeks before the World Cup is pretty freakin stoopid. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2006-05-19 06:41 |
| #1 There's a serious logical flaw here. She says there's no evidence of al-qaeda in europe. All that means is that they haven't found any, not that it doesn't exist. |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2006-05-19 06:25 |