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| Africa North |
| The Algerian plague |
| 2006-01-19 |
| THE REVELATION that Saddam Hussein's Iraq trained thousands of Islamic terrorists has important ramifications for European counterterrorism efforts. According to officials, one of the groups trained in Iraq prior to the war was al Qaeda's Algerian affiliate, the Algerian Salafist Group for Call and Combat ("GSPC"). The GSPC and its predecessor, the Armed Islamic Group ("GIA"), are well-known to European counterterrorism officials: Within the last several months, in fact, the GSPC has been at the center of several substantive terrorist plots. Just last week, Spain arrested 20 suspected terrorists who are alleged to have been recruiting and funding suicide bombers to send to Iraq. The New York Times covered the arrests, noting that according to a statement from the Spanish Interior Ministry the group included 15 Moroccans, 3 Spaniards, a Turk, and an Algerian. The suspects were "detained in Madrid and Barcelona, and in the Basque region, and had ties to two Islamic militant organizations . . . the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat [GSPC], based in Algeria, and the Moroccan Islamic Combat Group." The Interior Ministry did not indicate how many suicide bombers were ultimately recruited and sent to Iraq by the cell. But officials "determined that one of the recruits was responsible for a suicide attack in November 2003 in Nasiriya, Iraq, that killed 19 Italians and 9 Iraqis." The Times noted that at the time, "it was the most lethal attack by insurgents since the removal of Saddam Hussein from power in April 2003." The group's efforts were not limited to aiding al Qaeda's assault on Iraq, however. The Times reported that according to Spain's Interior Minister José Antonio Alonso, "one of the network's missions . . . was harboring veterans of the Iraqi conflict who had returned home to scout for possible terrorist targets in Europe and help identify promising recruits." THE RECENTLY-ARRESTED CELL in Madrid and Barcelona is just the latest incarnation of the GSPC to be detected on Spanish soil. Spanish authorities have arrested numerous GSPC suspects over the last several years. In December of last year, for example, a Spanish judge remanded three Algerians from another terror cell to prison. According to one Spanish daily, the judge's writ stated that the GSPC has "a vast financing activity based on a constant labor of common crime," which includes "drug retailing, offences against property" as well as "forgery of documents and credit or phone cards." The judge's writ also noted the close ties between the GSPC and bin Laden's al Qaeda. Italy--a crossroads for Islamists seeking access to Europe from the Middle East--has also been recently targeted by the GSPC. In November 2005, Italian authorities arrested three Algerians affiliated with the group. Authorities had been eavesdropping on the suspects for some time. Through intercepted phone conversations and bugging devices they learned of the Algerian's plans for a massive terror attack. According to published reports, the intercepts revealed that the Algerians were discussing plans to kill "at least 10,000 people" and the possibility of packing a Titanic-sized ship with explosives. The three were being recorded as they cheered on video footage of the July 7, 2005 bombings in London and openly discussed their desire to dwarf the carnage of September 11, 2001. Il Giornale, an Italian daily, published excerpts of these conversations. In one conversation a suspect claimed he had a map of Spain. Another awkwardly replied, "That is a problem, do you want to place a bomb on the subway?" In another, the Algerians discussed an attack on unnamed tourist village with an airplane. It is not clear how far along the Algerians' plots were. BUT WHILE the GSPC certainly poses a threat to Spain and Italy, France is the group's preferred target. "The only way to make France disciplined is jihad and Islamic martyrdom," a September 2005 statement from the GSPC's leadership reads, "France is our enemy number one, the enemy of our religion, the enemy of our community." (The group also accused the Algerian president of ruling in France's name.) In January 2005, French authorities arrested 11 suspected terrorists with ties to the GSPC. Like their brethren in the Spanish cell, the 11 were charged with recruiting suicide bombers to send to Iraq. In September 2005, the same month that the GSPC named France its "enemy number one," authorities rounded up several members of the group who were allegedly planning attacks on the Paris metro, Orly airport, and the French intelligence headquarters. Press reports indicate that they had also considered a chemical weapons attack using ricin, but decided against it because it would be too difficult to carry out. That French GSPC cell was led by a terrorist named Safe Bourada, who had served several years in prison for his involvement in a string of bomb attacks in France in 1995. At the time of the 1995 attacks, Bourada was a member of the GSPC's predecessor, the GIA. The GIA, which took part in a brutal civil war in Algeria, had a long history of attacking France and her interests. One such incident proved to be an eerie precursor to September 11, 2001. In December 1994, four GIA terrorists hijacked an Air France flight leaving Algiers. Their goal was to force the pilot to fly the plane into the Eiffel Tower. Their plan failed when the plane landed in Marseille and French Special Forces boarded it, killing the hijackers in the process. In addition to the 1994 Air France hijacking, investigations into a series of 1995 bombings on French soil led to the convictions of several GIA members, including Bourada. Another bombing in France in 1996 also turned up leads to the GIA. THE GIA'S HISTORY is especially notable because both bin Laden and Saddam took an early interest in the group. Bin Laden's "Arab Afghans" were among the first leaders of the GIA in the early 1990s. His patronage proved especially beneficial as hundreds of former veterans from the war in Afghanistan were redeployed to Algeria to swell the GIA's ranks. By some accounts, bin Laden is said to have personally arranged for the financing and necessary travel documents to be provided to upwards of 1,000 "Arab Afghans" who returned or relocated to Algerian soil. But bin Laden did not just finance the building of the GIA with money from his own pockets. He also received help from Saddam Hussein: At least one former CIA official has confirmed that some of the money bin Laden funneled to the GIA came from Saddam's Iraq. In a USA Today article from December 2001, Stanley Bedlington, a senior analyst in the CIA's counterterrorism center until he retired in 1994, explained, "We were convinced that money from Iraq was going to bin Laden, who was then sending it to places that Iraq wanted it to go." He added, "There certainly is no doubt that Saddam Hussein had pretty strong ties to bin Laden while he was in Sudan, whether it was directly or through (Sudanese) intermediaries. We traced considerable sums of money going from bin Laden to the GIA in Algeria. We believed some of the money came from Iraq." [emphasis added] Later, in an interview with THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Bedlington elaborated on the relationship. "Osama bin Laden had established contact with the GIA," Bedlington explained, "Saddam was using bin Laden to ship funds to his own contacts through the GIA." The GIA's leadership had a falling out with the core of al Qaeda in the mid-1990s. Out of that schism, the GSPC was born. Under the guidance of both bin Laden and Zawahiri, an emir named Hassan Hattab broke from the GIA and reconstituted al Qaeda's Algerian affiliate as the GSPC. TODAY, the world is infected with an Algerian plague. In Europe, counterterrorism officials scramble to stop GSPC members and their recruits from executing their lethal plans. In Iraq, GSPC members fight alongside Zarqawi, killing coalition troops and international aid workers. It is unknown how many of these fighters were first trained by Saddam. But the connection between the former dictator and this particularly deadly strain of international terrorism should be a cause of concern for us all. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 trailing wife. i agree.. Given that Bin Laden & Co accepted aid from the US in the 80's, there's no reason why they shouldn't have been dealing with Saddam.. Bin Laden is full of a rhetoric, but his actions often contradict this |
| Posted by: Whaling Hupens2670 2006-01-19 14:02 |
| #2 Just as there could not been any pact between communist Soviet Union and nazi Germany. |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-01-19 08:31 |
| #1 But there could be no connection between the secular Arabist fascist Saddam Hussein and the Islamist fascist terror groups. So that's ok. /idiots! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-01-19 07:03 |