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| Terror Networks |
| Trail of anti-US fighters said to cross Europe into Iraq |
| 2003-12-08 |
| A string of recent arrests of terror suspects has shown that Al Qaeda and groups linked to it have established a network across Europe that is moving recruits into Iraq to join the insurgency against American and allied forces, European intelligence and law enforcement officials said this week. Over the past year, the officials estimate, the network of recruiters working in at least six European countries — Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Britain and Norway — has assisted hundreds of young men trying to get to Iraq. The network provided high quality fake documents, training, money, and infiltration routes into the country, the officials said. My guess is that this network is al-Tawhid, which in of itself is part of al-Qaeda the same way that JI is. And Norway is where Mullah Krekar hangs his hat ... They said the evidence indicated that the campaign to recruit young militant Muslims for Iraq had become better organized and coordinated in recent months. When Binny issued the call to arms ... According to an investigating judge in Italy, the new network is building on an underground that helped smuggle fighters out of Afghanistan and Pakistan in the fall of 2001, when Taliban and Qaeda forces were routed by American-led allied troops. But since the end of last year the flow of recruits, including young men from Europe and North Africa, has turned toward the new front in Iraq, the judge said. "In August and September people were approaching the borders of Iraq, in Turkey and Syria," he said. "These people got very close and it’s very easy for them to slip in." An Italian investigation of a terrorist group with links to Al Qaeda led to the arrest of three men in Italy and Germany last week. Two of the men who were arrested in Milan were accused of providing false passports and money to the network for Iraq. Six men arrested in northern Italy in April were also accused of aiding the recruiting operation. Officials in Italy said the conclusions emerging from their case were supported by investigations in other European countries. "We have seen an intensification of movement by people who are under investigation," said Armando Spataro, coordinator of terrorism investigations at Milan’s Justice Department. "They were going to Iraq or to training camps. We have seen that movement across Europe." Interesting ... where are the camps? The evidence gathered by Italian investigators indicates that fighters entering Iraq from Italy have been active in recent attacks on coalition forces there, Italian judicial and military officials said. One official said there was evidence that a recruit from Italy, Morchidi Kamal, was involved in the October rocket attack on the Rashid hotel in Baghdad, where the American assistant defense secretary, Paul D. Wolfowitz, was staying at the time. If that’s true, the Wolfowitz hit and the subsequent 4 booms were in all likelihood an al-Qaeda attack, with all the staples of the network. Fake Italian documents recovered in Iraq, including passport photos and identity cards, suggest that three recruits from Italy died there, the officials said. However, Mr. Spataro said he had not seen conclusive evidence that recruits from Italy had died in suicide bombings in Iraq. It is not clear how significant a role foreign terror recruits may have in the surge of violence in Iraq. President Bush and L. Paul Bremer III, the American administrator in Iraq, have said that "jihadists" and foreign terrorists have entered the country. But American military leaders there say they have not seen signs of a large influx of foreign fighters. They say that about 300 people of 5,000 prisoners in Iraq are holding non-Iraqi passports. "It is not correct to say that there are floods of foreign fighters coming in, or thousands," said Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of allied troops in the region. General Abizaid and other allied military leaders said the insurgency was led by Iraqis still loyal to Saddam Hussein’s toppled government. According to several European intelligence officials, the Italian investigation is one of several inquiries in Europe into recruitment of fighters for Iraq. German officials said Thursday that they had opened an investigation into recruiting activities after the arrest in a Munich train station on Tuesday of an Iraqi man, identified as Mohamed L., 29, suspected of aiding 12 people who traveled to Iraq. The arrest is not related to the Milan cell, Italian officials said today. "Almost all Western European countries have been touched by recruiting," Mr. Spataro said. "It also means that the investigators must travel around more, back and forth." Investigators in several European countries, including Italy, Germany and Britain, have focused on the participation in Iraq recruitment of a terrorist organization named Al Tawhid. The group is led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian who collaborated with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, and has been implicated by American and European intelligence agencies in recent terror attacks in Jordan. Funny just how often Zarq’s name seems to come up these days, ain’t it? American officials, including Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, have also linked Mr. Zarqawi and his organization with Ansar al-Islam, a militant Islamic group based in Kurdish northern Iraq that is affiliated with Al Qaeda. Italian investigators say documents and address books captured from a leader of Ansar showed that the group was in communication with Mr. Zarqawi and also with several of the suspects who are in jail in Milan. The investigators also believe that a satellite telephone used to call recruits in Milan from northern Iraq had been used by Mr. Zarqawi. Last Friday, on the same day the two suspects were arrested in Milan, the German police in Hamburg, acting on an Italian warrant, arrested a third man, Abderazek Mahdjoub, 30. Italian officials have charged that Mr. Mahdjoub is a top figure in the Tawhid network, in charge of coordinating the movement of fighters from Europe to Iraq. Also named in the most recent warrant is an Iraqi Kurd identified as Muhammad Majid, also known as Mullah Fuad, who is 32. A former resident of Italy who Italian authorities believe is a high-ranking militant in Ansar, he remains at large and is believed to be in Syria. Somebody’s got some explaining to do ... Transcripts of wiretaps printed in the warrant include calls Mr. Majid made to Italy in March asking that Tawhid members there send volunteers for suicide missions. In a conversation with one of the men arrested in April, Mr. Majid asked him to recruit terminally ill men who would be willing to carry out suicide attacks. The man replied, "I have one of them. He is sick. He is already sick and tired. There are also other people who are ready." According to German and Italian officials, Mr. Mahdjoub, the Tawhid leader, traveled to Syria in March for a meeting with Mr. Majid. The purpose of Mr. Mahdjoub’s trip was to check up on progress on moving recruits from Syria into Iraq, the officials said. "Mahdjoub not only sent people, he went himself like a boss who goes to check up and make sure everything is working correctly before coming back," said the Italian judicial investigator. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #7 Hmm ... didn't some jihadi say that Europeans (I know it was at least Brits) cost 20 times the import cost of a local? |
| Posted by: Lu Baihu 2003-12-8 6:14:02 PM |
| #6 Krekar hasn't annoyed the Norweigans quite enough yet for THEM to ensure he has an 'accident', but he's working on it. All the Norweigans have to do is to chain Krekar's ankle to the remains of a 1955 Volvo, and drop it into one of their deep fjiords before the big freeze. Pick a nice, deep one - 500-1000 feet deep. Let him complain until the water closes over his head. I'm sure the Norweigans have a group specifically trained to carry out such activities. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-12-8 12:36:17 PM |
| #5 Krekar can't have an accident in Norway; Norway is an ally and wouldn't look too kindly on sponsored accidents. Perhaps Krekar could win the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, but he has to come to |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-12-8 11:49:50 AM |
| #4 So...why are these known mutts like Krekar not having sudden, unfortunate accidents? |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-12-8 11:30:27 AM |
| #3 It looks like Pres. Bush's instinctive taunt "Bring 'em on!" was a strategic masterstroke. Not only did it attract the prey to a well-armed & protected trap, it gave Western intelligence agencies a much better opportunity to infiltrate and track the network of Islamic radicals in Europe and elsewhere. |
| Posted by: snellenr 2003-12-8 9:10:13 AM |
| #2 Yeap,they keep sending the rats in and the Coallition keeps kicking them into a big black hole,never to be seen agin. Pulling funds and bodies from the Afgan front would seem to indicate a serious strain on AL-q's resources. That carrier should be escorting an MEU maybe 2. Wouldn't even have to be a full blown invasion force.Stageing raids into Syria(blowing power stations,railroads,bridges and devestating raids on Syrian military would do the trick. |
| Posted by: Raptor 2003-12-8 7:08:58 AM |
| #1 People forget - Iraq has one of the longest traditions of a secular civil society in that region, as well as submission to (military) authority. And they are also a bit more insular - so sending in the Jihadi's from the -stan's and such isnt a very smart move - they are much more likely to be ratted out by the locals. Much easier to deal with them when they pull themselves into the open, and are foreigners in the population, instead of us digging them out of their home country. They keep bringing them, we keep killing them. Its almost as unsporting as spotlighting deer... The big problem left now is Syria. And we ought to be cruising a carrirer up and down the cost near Damascus, and wake Assad up. Run a couple high speed sonic booms over Damascus at 3 AM as a reminder. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2003-12-8 4:08:34 AM |