Sat, Oct 13, 2001 page5

• European authorities target terror cells

  EXTREMIST ALLIANCES Investigators are tracking down militant cells throughout the continent and are finding patterns linking them to the Sept. 11 attacks on the US

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  One was a former soccer player from Tunisia arrested in Belgium, another an Algerian forger detained in Spain. A third was picked up in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, on his way from Afghanistan to France, reportedly to coordinate a suicide attack on the US Embassy in Paris. There have been about three dozen others.

  During the last four weeks, the authorities in eight European countries have fanned out through the slums of London; Madrid, Spain; Milan, Italy; and other cities to smoke out and smash what they say are militant cells with links to Osama bin Laden.

  As their work progresses, with more arrests announced almost daily, authorities say they are detecting patterns with important implications for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the US.

  First, it has become increasingly clear that there are a number of cells throughout Europe such as the one in Germany that investigators believe played a central role in planning the Sept. 11 attacks. And second, the members of these cells, who come from a wide variety of nationalities, often built alliances through shared combat in places like Bosnia and Chechnya, and hold zealous religious beliefs while often displaying secular, Western style.

  Islamic radicals

  The officials say that most of these men embrace a radical form of Islam that revolves around two groups -- the Egyptian movement known as Takfir wal Hijira (Anathema and Exile) and the Algerian movement known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat. Neither bears much resemblance to older, better-known Islamic terrorist movements, which often had nationalist aims. The newer groups believe that for the sake of jihad, or holy war, they can jettison the usual practices of devout Muslims. They call on adherents instead to burrow into the cultures they seek to eradicate.

  It is unclear whether any of the 19 hijackers were members of those groups. But there are growing suspicions among investigators here that some were. Mohamed Atta, suspected of being the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, is thought by Spanish police to have met with Algerian members of a cell associated with one of the groups in Spain last summer. And both Atta and the cell members seem to have taken orders directly from a top lieutenant of bin Laden.

  In addition, Zacarias Moussaoui, the French Moroccan arrested in Minnesota after seeking to learn to fly but not to take off or land -- thought by some investigators to be the missing 20th hijacker -- is believed to have been a member of Takfir wal Hijira in London.

  The recent arrests have hardened the beliefs of some European officials that these two organizations, closely linked with bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, are the vanguard of a new terrorism.

  "This is very different from the kind of terrorism Europe has endured until now; the way of working is very, very different," said a senior European intelligence official. "We don't think there is a structured network, perfectly organized into cells or groups."

  French authorities charged four alleged Islamic militants on Tuesday with "conspiring to carry out a terrorist act" at a soccer match last Saturday between Algeria and France that was cut short after Algerians stormed the field. One suspect, Nassredine Mamache, was already being tried, with 23 others, on charges of supplying arms to the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria.

  bin Laden's network

  Mamache, intelligence officials said, is a member of Takfir wal Hijira, as are many of the men European officials suspect of being leading players in bin Laden's network. They include a man suspected of being a bin Laden lieutenant, Djamel Beghal, 35, who was arrested with a false French passport in Dubai in July on his way back from an Afghan camp. The French authorities said they believed he was behind a plot to blow up the US Embassy in Paris, which came to light earlier this month.

  Kamel Daoudi and Taher Reteri, also implicated in the Paris plot, are members, as is Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian national who once played soccer for Germany and who had reportedly been recruited to blow himself up at the US Embassy. He was arrested in Belgium on Sept. 13.

  Six Algerians recently arrested in Spain, linked to Trabelsi and suspected of planning suicide attacks in Europe, have been charged with belonging to the Salafists.

  French and Spanish intelligence officials said the more modest operations were directed locally and financed through crime. Only the larger operations, like the attacks on the USS. Cole and the World Trade Center, were planned and financed from Afghanistan, these officials said. But the cost, even for the larger attacks, is minimal. French officials said the suicide bombings planned against the US Embassy and cultural center had a budget of less than US$50,000.

  Juan Cotino, director of Spain's national police, said the Islamic network was held together by a small coterie of trusted, well-paid messengers who link cells to each other and to bin Laden.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    Taiwan and the US preparing a ‘hellscape’ strategy

  • 2

    Two questioned over DPP legislator recall forgery

  • 3

    Taobao fined NT$1.2m for unauthorized advertising

  • 4

    Taobao fined over ads, risks losing license: ministry

  • 5

    Taiwan, Tuvalu sign agreements on labor cooperation