Posted on 03/05/2005 11:57:09 PM PST by FairOpinion
BERLIN - Islamic terror groups are becoming increasingly active in Germany and coordinating with militants across Europe to recruit fighters to join the insurgency in Iraq (news - web sites), equipping them with fake passports, money and medical supplies, security officials say.
One of the best examples of the cross-continent cooperation involves an Algerian man arrested in Germany and now on trial in Italy for allegedly helping Muslims from Somalia, Egypt, Iraq and Morocco recruit some 200 militants from around Europe to fight in Iraq.
Many in Germany's Islamic communities have shown sympathy for Muslims fighting jihad, or holy war, in places like Chechnya (news - web sites) or Bosnia, but authorities say a growing number of sympathizers are taking an active role themselves since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
"The war in Iraq has somehow mobilized this scene so that people who before just had some sort of contact or sympathies with extremist groups now think they have to do something," Manfred Murck, deputy head of the Hamburg government agency that tracks extremists, told The Associated Press.
"It's a main topic that brings people to action that they otherwise might not have taken. In past years they were talking about jihad, but not doing anything."
Ansar al-Islam, a group with links to al-Qaida and Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is leading attacks on U.S. and Iraqi security forces in Iraq, has been under scrutiny for its efforts to channel money and fighters to Iraq from Germany and other European countries.
Though most German attention immediately following al-Qaida's Sept. 11 attacks was on Hamburg — where three of the four suicide hijackers had lived and studied — recent efforts have broadened across the country and continent.
In December, three suspected members of Ansar al-Islam were arrested in Berlin on charges of plotting to assassinate interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi during a visit to Berlin in what authorities believe was a spontaneous plan based on opportunity.
Lokman Armin Mohammed, an Iraqi, was indicted last year in Munich on charges he provided logistical, financial and recruiting support for Ansar al-Islam, allegedly organizing medical equipment for insurgents and the passage of men to join the fight. Still awaiting trial after his 2003 arrest, Mohammed also is accused of being responsible for secretly bringing seriously injured insurgents back through Italy and across France for treatment in Britain.
"The Islamist scene in Germany is very well-connected, and not only in Germany," a senior German intelligence official told AP on condition of anonymity. "Muslim activities are more globalist — more pan-European — than Europeans are."
Murck, the Hamburg official, cited the example of Algerian Abderrazak Mahdjoub as an indication of cross-border connections at work within Ansar al-Islam. He was arrested in Hamburg in November 2003 on an Italian warrant and extradited to Milan in March 2004.
Mahdjoub went on trial in Milan in February on charges he collaborated with Somali Ciise Maxamed Cabdullaah, Egyptian El Ayashi Radi, Moroccan Housni Jamal and Iraqi Amin Mostafa Mohamed to recruit some 200 militants from around Europe to fight in Iraq for Ansar al-Islam.
Mahdjoub was arrested in Syria days before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and deported back to Germany, where he was investigated. However, charges were never brought for lack of evidence.
"He tried to go to Iraq and we assumed he was intending to fight there, but then other investigations, especially in Italy, found out he was part of a structure recruiting for Iraq," Murck said.
Murck said he had no solid numbers for how many people might have gone from Germany to fight in Iraq, but added that it did not appear to be many.
"If you look at Hamburg, you can count them on two hands — those who have gone or who tried to go," he said.
European anti-terrorist officials have estimated that perhaps a few hundred militants have gone to Iraq as a result of recruiting efforts on the continent, mostly Muslims whose families immigrated from the Middle East or North Africa.
In another major German case, 15 suspects — some connected with Ansar al-Islam and Al-Tawhid, another terror group linked to al-Zarqawi — were picked up in nationwide raids in mid-January centering on the southern twin cities of Ulm and Neu-Ulm. The suspects included nationals of Germany, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Bulgaria.
Authorities alleged the network raised an unspecified amount of money, produced fake passports and recruited people for jihad.
At the end of January, two other suspected al-Qaida members were arrested in Mainz and Bonn on allegations they were plotting an attack in Iraq. The pair were identified only as Ibrahim Mohamed K., a 29-year-old Iraqi, and Yasser Abu S., a 31-year-old Palestinian.
The Iraqi allegedly trained at Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s camps in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and fought American forces there. He is accused of recruiting suicide attackers in Germany — including the Palestinian — and providing logistical help to al-Qaida.
"Germany is not the main target of militant Islamist operations — today's line goes from Germany or other European countries to Iraq," said Rolf Tophoven, an expert at the Essen-based Institute for Terrorism Research and Security Issues.
"They try to recruit and bring potential suiciders — potential terrorists — together and they will send them from Germany to Iraq to fight against the allied forces under the leadership of the United States."
There's only sketchy evidence that any of the recruited radicals have returned to Europe from fighting in Iraq, but that remains a top fear, Tophoven said.
"The big threat is that they will eventually come back to European countries and they will come back with an image, with a reputation as heroes who fought the unbelievers, as it was in the war against the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan," he said.
"If they do, they come back from Iraq trained, they know how to fight, they know how to do an ambush, how to make a bomb, and so on, and intelligence is afraid of these developments."
"They never really were much of a threat"
That one may not work for them. They could raise the ire of brave families who have had the tragedy of the official military delegation arriving at their doors with sad news.
They could anger those who have survived IEDs, mortars and rockets going off a little too close. (I've personally experienced this one.)
They might want to reconsider if they decide to spin it that way.
But you're right; I wouldn't put it past the scumbags to try that.
Most anti-terrorism work in the EU,and around the globe for that matter is low key work. The EU approach is misguided in its belief that allowing know hot-heads (in the States we just call'em ragheads) to leave their countries to fight elsewhere. Elsewhere is the place the EU wants them rear their ugly heads and do their horrible work, not in the EU proper. The fatal flaw is that by allowing them, under the guise of low key and they will do it elsewhere, the Sales Pitch is given to many more than would be the case if they just stopped those who did the recruiting.
Bring it on baby. You f$$$ with the best, you die like the rest. The religion of peace is getting desperate. Ooorahhhh, get some!
When you really get down to it, journalism is just cheap talk. They don't have to be consistent, but they do have to (and want to attract attention.
They underestimated truth, George W. Bush, and the American people, and, worst of all for them, they worshipped Satan.
They may be running out of willing suicide bombers. In fact some have been chained to their cars which sugests taking a person's family hostage might be a motivation. But is there any real evidence that the insurgents are losing support in the sunni neighborhoods?
They didn't participate in the vote and there are no real indications that I've seen that they've turned on the insurgents. If you see it please let me know as I would like to agree with you but the number of attacks seems to remain relatively constant if shifting more toward ING targets that are less well protected.
I think it as likely that Iraq will devolve into ethnic civil war.
It must be awfully hot in their paradise.
I guess I get to gloat just a little now. :-)
===
Feel free to gloat. You deserve it and it's good for the soul. :)
But just think how the DemRATS are feeling -- being proven wrong at every turn after their shrill crys of "the sky is falling", "we can't win" (and of course they tried to make sure we won't)
"How can you keep 'em down on the farm, once they have seen Paree"
More and more Iraqis are indeed getting sick and tired of the terrorists.
Angry Iraqis denounce insurgent attacks (Lebanon paper)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1356982/posts
As more people lose loved ones to relentless violence, Iraqis have become increasingly vocal in their criticism of the insurgency, even staging a rare public demonstration condemning militants as terrorists after a deadly car bombing. While it may be too early to say public opinion has shifted, one thing is clear: Many Iraqis have grown tired of two years of constant insecurity, and some are directing their anger at insurgents for the first time.
"I demand that they be put in the zoo along with the other scavengers, because that is where they belong," says one Mosul resident whose brother was killed in a recent attack.
You could argue instead that Iraq is in a civil war, but that it's a low intensity one, that the rebel/minority side is losing, and that it's already been as bad as it's going to get. You could also argue that, relative to other possibilities, it's just as well to get it over with now.
Can't find any right now, but I recall several articles with at least anecdotal evidence, including one where an insurgent himself was interviewed who bemoaned that fact that he had been able to operate openly and be readily sheltered in his Baghdad (IIRC) neighborhood, but now he'd had to move because the locals would turn him in, as they had half his cell.
Good way for Europe's cleanup.......
Thanks. Fair opinion does indeed cite an article indicating a loss of insurgent support in some areas. This is encouraging. Also there is pretty much an indication of a simmering civil war at least as the sunni's are concerned. On the other hand, one has to wonder if the whole things is getting tiresome to the sunni population in general and with that there may yet be hope for some peaceful resolution of this situation. Thanks again
Gloat if you like, but people have been saying that for a whole lot longer. :-)
Oh, so have I.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.