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Road to terrorism started in despair

A Jordanian accused of helping plot terror attacks in Germany testified at the start of his trial Tuesday that he became immersed in Islam while living aimlessly on welfare, starting a journey that allegedly led him to become a trusted aide of a suspected al-Qaeda associate.

Shadi Abdellah, 26, could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of membership in a terrorist organization and forging passports. Questioned by judges at a Duesseldorf state court, he portrayed himself as a drifter who "never thought about the future."

Abdellah, who has said that he briefly served as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, was among nine people detained by German authorities in April last year on suspicion of plotting imminent attacks for Al Tawhid, a radical Palestinian movement.

The group is accused of planning to shoot people in a square in one German city and detonate a hand grenade near a Jewish or Israeli target in another. Prosecutors have not identified the targets.

Prosecutor Dirk Fernholz said Abdellah took orders from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al Tawhid's operational leader -- a Jordanian militant whom US Secretary of State Colin Powell has described as an "associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda lieutenants."

Abdellah allegedly was in Afghanistan from December 1999 until May 2001. He met al-Zarqawi in May 2000 in Kabul and the two "developed a close, trusting relationship," Fernholz said.

Al-Zarqawi told Abdellah in May 2001 to return to Germany and help Mohammed Abu Dhess, a Jordanian who headed the Al Tawhid cell, Fernholz said. During a September 2001 meeting in Tehran, Al-Zarqawi allegedly instructed Abu Dhess to carry out attacks on Jewish or Israeli institutions in Germany.

Abdellah has provided "comprehensive information" on Al Tawhid and its links to al-Qaeda, Fernholz told reporters outside the courtroom. He offered no details, and Abdellah's testimony did not address the issue Tuesday.

A tall man with glasses and unkempt hair, Abdellah appeared nervous on his first appearance in the courtroom, fiddling with his beard and glancing around as he testified in Arabic through interpreters.

After dropping out of training as a hairdresser and an automobile technician, he said he came to Europe in 1995 along with Abu Dhess, an acquaintance from his home city of Irbid.

Abdellah said he applied for asylum under a false identity, claiming to be an Iraqi, in Belgium and Germany.

Both applications failed, but German authorities let him stay on humanitarian grounds.

He drifted from job to job and by early 1999 was living on welfare in the town of Krefeld.

"I wasn't even trying to find a job," said Abdellah, adding that he spent his welfare payments smoking hashish with people who attended a local mosque. "I had no money left to eat, so I went to the mosque."

In July 1999, Abdellah traveled to an Islamic convention in Frankfurt with friends from the mosque.

"Afterward, I had the feeling that I wanted to know a bit more about this religion," he said.

By mid-December, Abdellah and four friends were on their way to Mecca on a trip that also would take him to Afghanistan.

"The idea was to go to Pakistan and learn about religion there," he told the court. "I had already heard from the other young men that they wanted to go to Afghanistan. So the idea was in the air."

Abdellah's arrest last year came after he allegedly ordered a pistol with a silencer and a crate of hand grenades from another cell member.

Al-Zarqawi also asked Abdellah to procure blank French, Spanish and Portuguese passports for Al Tawhid members.
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