French anti-terrorism authorities have arrested two men -- a Moroccan and a German believed to be a top al-Qaeda recruiter -- as part of investigations of the Sept. 11 attacks and a deadly bombing at a Tunisian synagogue, judicial officials said on Thursday.
The officials said they believe the suspects -- Moroccan national Karim Mehdi and Christian Ganczarski of Germany -- each had links to a cell of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network operating in Hamburg, Germany that helped carry out the Sept. 11 attacks.
Mehdi, 34, was taken into custody on Sunday at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, the officials said on condition of anonymity. He had arrived from Germany, and had planned to leave for the island of La Reunion off southeastern Africa.
Under questioning, Mehdi said he was headed to the island to look for tourist sites to attack, along the lines of the October bombing on the Indonesian island of Bali that killed more than 200 people -- mostly foreign tourists, the officials said.
The arrest was the first in France since French anti-terrorism judges opened an investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington just a few weeks after they took place.
Mehdi is also believed to have had direct contacts with Ziad Jarrah, the suspected pilot of the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, officials said.
Mehdi appeared before a judge Thursday and was placed under investigation -- one step short of being officially charged -- for alleged connection with a terrorist enterprise, officials said. He was being held in custody.
Three of the suicide hijackers who seized control of commercial airliners for the Sept. 11 attacks -- including the alleged ringleader, Mohammed Atta -- allegedly had ties to the Hamburg cell.
Ganczarski, 36, was apprehended on Monday, also at the Paris airport. He was to appear before an anti-terrorism judge in the coming days, the officials said.
Ganczarski allegedly had links to an April 2002 suicide bombing of a historic synagogue on Tunisia's tourist island of Djerba which killed 21 people, including 14 German tourists, the officials said.
German authorities allowed Ganczarski -- a suspected accomplice in the Djerba attack previously identified as Christian G. -- to leave the country in December because there was not sufficient evidence to arrest him, German officials said at the time.
French authorities said they believe he was a top recruiter for al-Qaeda in Germany.
Ganczarski was under investigation for suspected membership in a terrorist group after he was traced as the recipient of an intercepted phone call from Nizar Naouar, the leading suspect in the Djerba bombing who is believed to have died in the suicide mission.
Ganczarski was expected to be put under investigation -- one step short of being officially charged -- yesterday or today in connection with the French investigation into the Djerba attack, officials said.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
Forecasters in Europe yesterday warned of exceptional heat as record temperatures driven by a “heat dome” push temperatures well above seasonal norms across the continent. The surge follows a record-breaking Monday, with France logging its hottest day in the month of May on record, its weather agency said, and the UK also posting unprecedented highs. A so-called “heat dome” of warm air from northern Africa trapped under a high-pressure system over western Europe is behind the high temperatures not usually seen until high summer. Restrictions on outdoor work were imposed in parts of Italy, beaches in southwest France filled earlier than usual and
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
RSS