Iraqi Arrested After Letters In Belgium (Arsenic Derivatives)

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Belgian authorities arrested an Iraqi man Thursday after 10 letters laced with toxic powders were sent to the Belgian prime minister, the American, Saudi and British embassies and other offices.

The 45-year-old Iraqi was charged with premeditated assault and battery. Five police officials were treated for skin and eye irritation and breathing problems after examining bags of documents seized at the man's home in Deinze, some 30 miles west of Brussels, said judge Lieve Pellens.

Fifteen other people who handled the letters during the past days developed identical symptoms.

Pellens refused to release any other information about the suspect and declined to say whether police were looking for other people possibly linked to the case. The suspect has denied the allegations.

The toxic letters were discovered Tuesday and Wednesday and apparently were all sent by the same person or group.

Belgian media reported the envelopes included a card signed in English by the ``International Islamic Society.''

Government toxicologists have said the toxic powder contained hydrazine, used as a garden pesticide, and phenarsazine, an arsenic derivative used in rat poison.

The letters were sent to the three embassies, the office of Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, the justice and foreign affairs ministry offices in Brussels and the director of the airport in Ostend.

Several of the envelopes were opened at mail depots in the cities of Antwerp, Brussels, Deinze and Ghent.

The five policemen increased to 20 the total of people needing treatment after coming into contact with suspicious toxins over the past days. None remained hospitalized.

Letters containing a yellow powder were sent two years ago to the prime minister's office, the U.S. and Israeli embassies and the NATO headquarters but none contained hazardous substances.

Police searched the home of the Iraqi late Wednesday and took him to the local police office for questioning.

If convicted of the charges, the suspect could face up to three years in prison.

05 Jun 2003 13:12:16 GMT

Belgian court hears two recruited for holy war

BRUSSELS, June 5 (Reuters) - A Belgian federal prosecutor on Thursday accused two alleged supporters of al Qaeda of having been recruiters for an Islamic holy war.

Bernard Michel said Tarek ben Habib Maaroufi and Amor ben Mohamed Sliti had headed the Belgian chapter of a clandestine network stretching from Britain to Italy, he said.

"They were the spine of radical Islam in Belgium," he told a Brussels court.

Michel said the network had ties to al Qaeda, the militant group led by Osama bin Laden whom the United States blames for the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

He accused Maaroufi, a 37-year-old Tunisian, and Sliti, an Algerian aged 43, of recruiting volunteers for combat training in Afghanistan where the fundamentalist Taliban ruled before being routed by the United States in 2001.

"The Afganistan volunteers knew they were on a Jihad," he said. Maaroufi and Sliti say their travels to Afghanistan were for religious, not violent reasons.

Michel said the two men also trafficked in stolen Belgian passports, two of which were found on the bodies of the killers of Ahmad Shah Masood, who led the Northern Alliance's fight against the Taliban.

The killers had posed as journalists and blown themselves up while conducting a mock interview with Masood, two days before the September 11 attacks.

The trial, Belgium's biggest involving suspected al Qaeda collaborators, has been held under tight security. Each of the 23 suspects is handcuffed to a guard in a bulletproof booth.

Among the suspects is a former professional football player accuse of planning an attack on a Belgian air force base where U.S. nuclear weapons are said to be housed.

If found guilty, the suspects could face up to 10 years in prison on charges ranging from fraud to possession of firearms to recruiting for a foreign armed force.

Earlier this week, the court, along with government offices and embassies, was sent letters containing an ingredient of nerve gas. Some had a note reading "International Islamic Society" and "Bastards".

Police said they believed the sender acted alone and not on behalf of an organisation.

Michel said Maaroufi and Sliti joined forces in 1996 to recruit fighters for an Islamic state in Tunisia.

Maaroufi had already spent time in a Belgian prison for trafficking arms to the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which is fighting for a similar state in Algeria, he said.

He is wanted in Italy for allegedly helping plan an attack on the U.S. embassy in Rome, he added.

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Government toxicologists have said the toxic powder contained hydrazine, used as a garden pesticide, and phenarsazine, an arsenic derivative used in rat poison.

The letters were sent to the three embassies, the office of Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, the justice and foreign affairs ministry offices in Brussels and the director of the airport in Ostend.

Several of the envelopes were opened at mail depots in the cities of Antwerp, Brussels, Deinze and Ghent.

The five policemen increased to 20 the total of people needing treatment after coming into contact with suspicious toxins over the past days. None remained hospitalized.

Letters containing a yellow powder were sent two years ago to the prime minister's office, the U.S. and Israeli embassies and the NATO headquarters but none contained hazardous substances."

You know, Piasa, this "yellow powder" article reminds me of this article...

FOX NEWS.com (AP): "PEOPLE SICKENED BY YELLOW POWDER ON DOG" (August 28, 2002) (Note: url expired)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,61591,00.html

Second url to same story also expired:

People Sickened by Yellow Powder on Dog
Veterinary clinic decontaminated, dog euthanized
-Associated Press, Aug 28
http://www.awakenow.net/story/0,2933,61591,00.html

"Michel said the two men also trafficked in stolen Belgian passports, two of which were found on the bodies of the killers of Ahmad Shah Masood, who led the Northern Alliance's fight against the Taliban."

Just to be clear, this is a link between Iraq and 9/11 itself.

Massood was killed as a prelude to Bin Laden's 9/11 attack, as Massood was at the time the only physical threat opposing Bin Laden and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda was betting that the U.S. would simply arm the Northern Alliance under Massood as our response to their 9/11 attacks on us...so they hit Massood prior to 9/11 to pre-empt such a strategy.

Now fast forward to this story, which links poison attacks in the mail (mysterious "yellow powder", rat poison, etc.) by an Iraqi to the trials of the two men who supplied the fake passports to Massood's assassins...

5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires

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