Posted on 12/02/2008 1:09:43 PM PST by knighthawk
(ANSA) - Milan, December 2 - Two Moroccans arrested on Tuesday were planning terrorist attacks on targets in northern Italy after failing to make the ``necessary contacts`` to be sent abroad as jihad fighters, police said.
Rachid Ilhami, 31, and Gafir Abdelkader, 42, are alleged to have been planning attacks on an immigration office and a police barracks in Milan as well as police stations, a supermarket and a night club carpark in smaller towns in the Lombardy region.
Milan anti-terrorist unit chief Bruno Megale stressed that the pair were not ``an organic part of any organisation`` despite wiretapped conversations in which they talked about al Qaeda.
``A few months ago they decided to fight their battle here, where they are well integrated with stable jobs and children,`` he said.
The Moroccans were recorded saying that they needed ``to do something that will go down in history and that will earn the recognition and thanks of God``.
Investigators said they were appealing a judge`s decision to refuse arrest warrants for six other Moroccans under investigation for their part in the plot.
The men are believed to have watched instructional films on terrorist attacks and researched methods on the Internet.
Wiretaps revealed the group had initially planned to use a van packed with explosives in their attacks but later decided on oxygen cylinders.
Police also seized the Peace Cultural Centre in the Lombardy village of Macherio, where Ilhami worked as a preacher, during Tuesday`s operation.
According to investigators, small groups of fundamentalists met at the centre in the evenings after the day`s official sermons were finished.
Last year police chiefs warned of the risk of attacks in Italy by North African terror groups linked to al Qaeda after a number of arrests in Lombardy.
The arrests were largely connected with the recruitment of suicide bombers to be sent abroad to Afghanistan and Iraq or to providing financial and logistical support to terrorists operating in Tunisia and Algeria.
FEBRUARY 2001 : (MILAN CELL, ES SAYED aka ABU SALEH CONVERSATION ABOUT FAILURE TO GET TERRORISTS INTO US : BUT ITALIANS MUST CEASE TAPING ABU SALEH BY LAW) Abu Saleh had a conversation with a man who answered Abdulrahman's telephone in Yemen. "I have heard you are getting into America," Abu Saleh is heard to say.
"I'm sorry," replied the voice on the other end, "but we did not manage to get in ... ."
"How come, man?" Abu Saleh asked.
"This is our goal," the voice replied, "and we have no greater desire. ... We hope and wish to enter clandestinely by land. ... ."
Within days of that conversation, however, the electronic and physical surveillance of Abu Saleh was discontinued.
One investigator explained that, under the Italian laws, it was necessary to either stop the surveillance after one year or to notify Abu Saleh that he was the target of an anti-terrorism investigation. Fearing that any notification would imperil a concurrent investigation of one of Abu Saleh's alleged lieutenants, the police simply turned off the microphones in Abu Saleh's house and automobile.
After Sept. 11, 2001, the law was changed to extend the prenotification period to two years.
------ "Milan cell linked to al-Qaida operatives, " By John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune via Seattle Times June 30, 2002
MARCH 2001 : (MILAN CELL : BEN KHEMAIS ' PHONE CALLS ARE RECORDED , SEEM TO INDICATE A CYANIDE PLOT? - See "Tomato Cans" - Milan Cell is linked to Frankfurt Cell) MILAN, Italy -- The men spoke in code of a mysterious "drug" they wanted to try on people. One referred to the substance as "tomato cans" and said he wanted to see what effect it would have on someone breathing it in. The conversation between suspected members of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network was cryptic, but authorities in Italy think they know what the men were talking about: getting cyanide, a poison used to make deadly chemical weapons.
A tape of the conversation, recorded in March [2001], is part of evidence gathered in an investigation into an apparent plan for chemical attacks by groups linked to bin Laden, raising fears that they intended to use unconventional weapons to inflict casualties on a large scale....
Italian investigators said there also is evidence that the Milan cell was linked to chemical weapons. An Italian investigative report, part of which [Italian prosecutor Stefano] Dambruoso allowed the AP to review, contains excerpts from wiretapped conversations among members of the Milan cell, including Ben Khemais. In one phone call, excerpts of which were among the material reviewed by AP, Ben Khemais spoke of an unspecified "drug," also referring to it as "tomato cans," the report says.
"I'd like to learn how to use the drug and see the effect on someone breathing it," he said on the tape.
Authorities say they believe the phrase "tomato cans" -- which was repeated many times throughout several conversations -- was code for cyanide, an easy poison to get that can be used as a chemical weapon. Dambruoso would not say what specific evidence authorities have that cyanide was the weapon being discussed.
"Do we have hard evidence they possess chemical weapons? No. Is it very possible they have them? Yes," Dambruoso said.
The conversations were recorded in March, a month before Italian police arrested Ben Khemais and four other suspected members of the group, all Tunisian. The five are expected to be brought to trial this month.
---------- "Tapes hint at cyanide plot by al-Qaida," ©Associated Press via St. Petersberg Times Online (FL), December 1, 2001
MARCH 2001 : (ITALY : MILAN CELL "TOMATO CAN PLOT" -- See BEN KHEMAIS, CYANIDE PLOTS) A transcript of one call showed that cell leader Essid Sami Ben Khemais spoke of an unspecified drug, also called “tomato cans,” which Italian officials said they took to mean cyanide. “I’d like to learn how to use the drug and see the effect on someone breathing it,” Ben Khemais was recorded as saying.
Authorities recorded the conversations in March and arrested Ben Khemais and four other suspects in April. -------- "Al-Qaeda: Italian Cell Sought Chemical Weapons," From Global Security newswire, Monday, December 03, 2001 issue, (Victor Simpson, Associated Press/Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 1)
MAY 2001 : (MILAN CELL, ABU SALEH INVOLVED IN PLOTS TARGETTING US CITIZENS OR DIPLOMATS IN FRANCE) Less than four months before Sept. 11, the Italian police, in what one report terms "a context of international collaboration," received information about Abu Saleh's involvement "in an unspecified 'criminal project' that had U.S. citizens or diplomats as its objectives." Abu Saleh's role in the project, which investigators think was unrelated to Sept. 11 but may have included an alleged plot to bomb targets in France, involved supplying false identity documents.
------- "Milan cell linked to al-Qaida operatives, " By John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune via Seattle Times June 30, 2002
JULY 2001 : (MILAN CELL'S ESSID BEN KHEMAIS TRAVELS TO SPAIN ) Italian anti-terrorist police have mentioned that Ben Khemais, from the terrorist cell in Milan, Italy, travels to Spain at about the same time ATTA was there. ATTA+taxi+Hamburg&hl=en”> Link
JULY 2001 : (ITALY : IRAQI INTELLIGENCE AGENT AL-MAMOURI DISAPPEARS FROM HIS JOB, SHORTLY AFTER HE MET 9/11 HIJACKER MOHAMMAD ATTA; BOTH HAD BEEN SEEN TOGETHER IN HAMBURG GERMANY & PRAGUE, CZECHOSLAVAKIA BEFORE) One of Saddam’s intelligence agents, Habib Faris Abdullah al-Mamouri, was sent to be the new headmaster of a school for Iraqi diplomats in Italy. The bogus headmaster has not been seen in Rome since July, shortly after he also met Atta. The pair are also said to have been together in Hamburg and Prague.
There is no proof the men were in direct contact, but as one intelligence source in Madrid said [later in the year] : “They chose a strange time and place to take a holiday.” The Rome daily Il Messaggero, quoting Western intelligence sources, said of Mr al-Mamouri that “he spent more time pursuing contacts helpful to the Iraqi regime among fundamentalist Islamic groups than he had on his supposed teaching duties”.
Italian officials say that Mr al-Mamouri held the rank of general in the Iraqi secret service, and from 1982 to 1990 worked in the Special Operations Branch forging Baghdad’s links with Islamic fundamentalist groups in Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Gulf and Sudan. He was transferred to his “teaching duties” in 1998, although all the Iraqi Embassy will say of his sudden departure is that “he had money problems”. - "Hijacker 'given anthrax flask by Iraqi agent'," by DANIEL MCGRORY, The London Times, SATURDAY OCTOBER 27 2001
Thanks for posting your research on this page, piasa.
I appreciate it.
2001 late : (IRAQI KURDS FORMERLY RECRUITED BY AL QAEDA TO TRAIN IN AFGHAN CAMPS RETURN HOME TO PUK TERRITORY IN NORTHERN IRAQ, WILL EVENTUALLY MERGE INTO ANSAR AL-ISLAM & SET UP ANTI-PUK ENCLAVES) On their return home to PUK territory, they merged a variety of radical organisations into the Ansar movement in 2001 and established their breakaway anti-PUK enclave. Following the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, scores of Arab al-Qaeda fighters have joined them after escaping through Iran - "Chemical war threat by Iraq's 'Taliban' ," By Damien McElroy in Nicosia, UK Telegraph , Filed: 12/01/2003 (jan 12, 2003)
SEPTEMBER 1, 2001 : (IRAQ : JUND AL ISLAM ESTABLISHED -- IT WOULD BECOME ANSAR AL ISLAM -- See AL QAEDA-IN-IRAQ) Jund al-Islam, was established on 1 September 2001, controlled a strip on the Iranian border, comprising several villages and two townships, Biyara and Tawela. The group immediately declared “holy war” on Iraqi Kurdish secular ruling parties. - "Ansar al-Islam’s leader arrested - Jordan asks his extradition," Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch, news, 15 September 2002
SEPTEMBER 4, 2001 : (MILAN, ITALY : WORLD TRADE CENTER PICS ARE SAVED ON A COMPUTER AT THE VIA QAURANTA MOSQUE : SEE FOREKNOWLEDGE, AL QAEDA & 9/11, MILAN CELL ) ...pictures of the World Trade Center were saved as temporary files on one of the computers at the Via Quaranta mosque in Milan. (The mosque was founded by Abdelkader Mahmoud Es Sayed aka Abu Saleh, an Egyptian.) - "Terrorists' Twin Tower Images, Secret Porn Messages ," ABC News , 5/8/03
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 : (AL QAEDA HIJACKING ATTACKS ON US WTC & PENTAGON)
SEPT 11, 2001 - JULY 18, 2002 : (ITALY : TERROR-RELATED ARRESTS / TUNISIANS CONVICTED FOR HELPING AQ RECRUITS IN THIS PERIOD -- See MILAN CELL) Between Sept. 11, 2001 and July 18, 2002, Italian authorities have made more than a dozen arrests of suspected Islamic militants and a Milan court convicted seven Tunisians for helping al-Qaida recruits. - "Italy: Judge Indicts Three North Africans (connected to al-Qaeda)," AP via Europe Daily , July 18 2002
SEPTEMBER 23, 2001 : (JUND AL ISLAM ATTACKS PUK FIGHTERS; PUK DISCOVERS THEY ARE AL QAEDA-BACKED AND THERE ARE "AFGHAN ARABS" IN JUND AL ISLAM'S RANKS) On 23 September 2001, they attacked and slaughtered more than 40 fighters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, PUK, which led to a wide range armed confrontation between the two sides. Jund al-Islam was reported, by PUK officials and London-based Arabic newspapers, to have Afghan Arabs in their ranks, as well as Kurds who served in Afghanistan and Chechnya. It was also reported that the group was financed by Al-Qaeda organization and its members were trained in Afghanistan. - "Ansar al-Islam’s leader arrested - Jordan asks his extradition," Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch, news, 15 September 2002
SEPTEMBER 2001 late : (FOUR JORDANIAN FIGHTERS FORMERLY IN AFGHANISTAN WERE KILLED IN IRAQI KURDISTAN : THEY BELONGED TO JUND AL-ISLAM -- See ANSAR AL ISLAM , AL QAEDA-IN-IRAQ) The Saudi newspaper, Al-Watan reported on 23 November 2001, involvement of Jordanian nationals in the Islamic radical group. The newspaper said four Arab afghans of Jordanian origin were killed late September 2001 in Iraqi Kurdistan. They were members of Jund al-Islam group, or Soldiers of Islam, which became Ansar al-Islam later in December of the same year.- "Ansar al-Islam’s leader arrested - Jordan asks his extradition," Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch, news, 15 September 2002
SEPTEMBER 24, 2001 : (WILLIAM SAFIRE REPORTS THAT THE LINK BETWEEN BIN LADEN & SADDAM MAY BE FOUND IN KURDISTAN -- See JUND AL ISLAM {LATER ANSAR AL ISLAM}) On Sept. 24, 2001 — not two weeks after 9/11 — Kurdish sources led me to report: "The clear link between the terrorist in hiding [Osama] and the terrorist in power [Saddam] can be found in Kurdistan. . . . The Iraqi dictator has armed and financed a fifth column of Al Qaeda mullahs and terrorists. . . . Some 400 `Arab Afghan' mercenaries . . . have already murdered a high Kurdish official as well as a Muslim scholar who dared to interpret the Koran humanely." The C.I.A. blew off that report. Our National Security Council did not learn of subsequent warfare against the Kurds by the Qaeda affiliate doing Saddam's bidding until its members read it in The Times. After Jeffrey Goldberg of the New Yorker and C. J. Chivers of The Times developed the story from inside northern Iraq, it dawned on some intelligence analysts that a "clear link" was probable. --------- "(Safire) Found: A Smoking Gun," by William Safire, The New York Times, 02/11/04 [Safire was one of the people Saddam HUssein railed against I think]
SEPTEMBER 2001 : (MILAN, ITALY : NASREDDIN'S HOTEL NASCO OPENS AT THE SAME ADDRESS AS HIS RESIDENCE & ALSO ARAB GULF CHAMBER, A PRECURSOR OF MIGA -- See YOUSSEF NADA {LINKED TO AL QAEDA}, LUGANO/MILAN CELL) And though MIGA's door in Lugano may be locked, and its president and some of his associates posted on the U.N. terror watchlist, none of these figures has been arrested.
Nasreddin, long a resident in Lugano and neighboring Milan, Italy, is believed by Italian investigators to have moved about two years ago [2002] to Morocco. From there, says an Italian state investigator, Nasreddin maintains a global business network that includes some 2,000 links so far identified to businesses and individuals worldwide, some tied to terror, and some not.
It is precisely that mix of legitimate and sinister business that makes it so difficult to prosecute Nasreddin, or shut down his businesses, says this Italian investigator. Among Nasreddin's holdings, for instance, is a four-star hotel in Milan, Hotel NASCO, which opened — ironically enough — in September 2001, at the same address as Nasreddin's longtime residence. That is also the same address used by a precursor of MIGA, an outfit called the Arab Gulf Chamber. Hotel NASCO remains open for business, serving tea and crescent-moon shaped sugar cookies at its non-alcoholic lobby bar. MIGA remains active in the Lugano business registry, and listed in the Lugano phone book. A recent phone call to MIGA's shuttered office in Lugano, Switzerland, was answered by someone who picked up the phone in Milan, Italy — in the Hotel NASCO. MIGA's network, it seems, migrates as needed.
Nasreddin's longtime partner, Al Qaeda-linked Youssef Nada, still lives in his plush hillside villa in a small Italian enclave on Lake Lugano, just a short drive from MIGA's office. Right next door to MIGA's Lugano office, on the same floor of the same building, is the Lugano Islamic Community Center, founded by Nasreddin in 1992 — and operated initially out of his former Lugano residence a few blocks away. The community center later moved next door to MIGA.
----- "Possible Saddam-Al Qaeda Link Seen in U.N. Oil-for-Food Program," Friday, September 17, 2004 By Claudia Rosett and George Russell http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,132682,00.html
1984 : (LUGANO, SWITZERLAND : CHIEFLY FOUNDED BY THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD'S AHMED IDRIS NASRUDDIN, MALAYSIAN SWISS GULF AND AFRICAN CHAMBER aka MIGA IS REGISTERED -- SEE AL QAEDA, UN / IRAQ OIL FOR FOOD PROGRAM) ...the Sept. 11 Commission has shown a tracery of contacts between Saddam and Al Qaeda (search) that continued after billions of oil-for-food dollars began pouring into Saddam's coffers and Usama bin Laden (search) declared his famous war on the U.S.Now, buried in some of the United Nation's own confidential documents, clues can be seen that underscore the possibility of just such a Saddam-Al Qaeda link — clues leading to a locked door in this Swiss lakeside resort. Next to that door, a festive sign spells out in gold letters under a green flag that this is the office of MIGA, the Malaysian Swiss Gulf and African Chamber (search). Registered here 20 years ago [1984?] as a society to promote business between the Gulf States and Asia, Europe and Africa, MIGA is a company that the United Nations and the U.S. government says has served as a hub of Al Qaeda finance: A terrorist chamber of commerce. ...AL TAQWA IS PART OF THE FALLS CHURCH VIRGINIA INVESTIGATION.
...As is typical of terrorist financial webs, the details surrounding MIGA quickly become bewildering — part of the point being to camouflage the illicit flow of funds with legitimate business. Part of the problem in finding the truth is that cross-border transactions out of such financial havens as Switzerland are smothered in banking secrecy.
But even with that secrecy — and shortly after the Sept.11, 2001, attacks on the United States — both MIGA and its chief founder and longtime president, Ahmed Idris Nasreddin, landed on the U.N. watchlist of entities and individuals belonging to, or affiliated with Al Qaeda. Nasreddin is a member of the terror-linked Muslim Brotherhood.
------- "Possible Saddam-Al Qaeda Link Seen in U.N. Oil-for-Food Program," Friday, September 17, 2004 By Claudia Rosett and George Russell http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,132682,00.html
**********
MIGA had other founders as well. One of them, who does not appear on the U.N. terror list, is an Arab businessman now in his early 60s, Abdul Rahman Hayel Saeed. Described by an acquaintance as urbane, polite and fluent in English, Hayel Saeed was born into one of Yemen's most prominent business clans, owners of a family-held global conglomerate based in the Yemeni capital of Taiz and named for its founding patriarch: the Hayel Saeed Anam Group of Companies, or HSA.
From Yemen, the HSA Group (search) boasts a far-flung business empire, including a Yemen-based Islamic bank, and a host of business subsidiaries, affiliates and regional trading offices in places ranging from the United Kingdom to Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia and China. Abdul Rahman Hayel Saeed sits on the HSA board of directors, and ranks high in the management — he is currently running HSA's regional office in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In MIGA, Hayel Saeed holds a prominent spot, as one of four co-founders who back in 1984 delegated power of attorney to the terrorist-linked Nasreddin, giving him authority to run the company. Swiss registry documents show that Hayel Saeed has never resigned from MIGA, nor revoked that power of attorney. Queried about this link to MIGA, neither Hayel Saeed nor the HSA Group's chairman of the board, Ali Mohammed Saeed, has made any response.
------- "Possible Saddam-Al Qaeda Link Seen in U.N. Oil-for-Food Program," Friday, September 17, 2004 By Claudia Rosett and George Russell http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,132682,00.html1996 TO 2003 : (MIGA COFOUNDER ABDUL RAHMAN HAYEL SAEED'S YEMEN-BASED HSA GROUP SELLS AT LEAST $400 MILLION IN GOODS TO SADDAM HUSSEIN VIA THE UN OIIL FOR FOOD PROGRAM IN THIS PERIOD-- See ALI MOHAMMED SAEED, HAYEL SAEED ANAM GROUP, OIL FOR FOOD SCANDAL, A I NASREDDIN) Hayel Saeed was born into one of Yemen's most prominent business clans, owners of a family-held global conglomerate based in the Yemeni capital of Taiz and named for its founding patriarch: the Hayel Saeed Anam Group of Companies, or HSA. From Yemen, the HSA Group boasts a far-flung business empire, including a Yemen-based Islamic bank, and a host of business subsidiaries, affiliates and regional trading offices in places ranging from the United Kingdom to Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia and China. Abdul Rahman Hayel Saeed sits on the HSA board of directors, and ranks high in the management — he is currently running HSA's regional office in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In MIGA, Hayel Saeed holds a prominent spot, as one of four [MIGA] co-founders who back in 1984 delegated power of attorney to the terrorist-linked Nasreddin, giving him authority to run the company. Swiss registry documents show that Hayel Saeed has never resigned from MIGA, nor revoked that power of attorney. ...
....HSA is unquestionably a company involved in legitimate business. But given the involvement of Abdul Rahman Hayel Saeed, it is striking that between 1996 and 2003, while the United Nations ran its oil-for-food relief program in Iraq, the HSA Group — via U.N.-approved oil-for-food contracts — sold at least $400 million worth of goods to Saddam.
------- "Possible Saddam-Al Qaeda Link Seen in U.N. Oil-for-Food Program," Friday, September 17, 2004 By Claudia Rosett and George Russell http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,132682,00.htmlDECEMBER 1997 : (AL TAQWA CHAIRMAN YOUSEF NADA SAYS AL TAQWA [ aka NADA MANAGEMENT] TRANSACTIONS ARE UNDER THE CONTROL OF SHEIKH YUSSEF AL QARDAWI --SEE AL QARDAWI [ISB {BOSTON CELL}], AHMED HUBER, MILAN/LUGANO CELL {See A I NASREDDIN}) Youssef M. Nada, chairman of al-Taqwa, told the Arab daily newspaper al-Hayat in December 1997 that since its inception, al-Taqwa has ``placed all its transactions under the control of Sheik Yussef al-Qardawi.'' -----------Radical Islam: Outspoken cleric, jailed activist tied to new Hub mosque [Boston] Boston Herald ^ | October 28, 2003 | Jonathan Wells, Jack Meyers, Maggie Mulvihill and Kevin Wisniewski
2001 fall : (ANSAR AL ISLAM PERSONNEL SMUGGLED VX NERVE GAS THROUGH TURKEY IN 2001, WASHINGTON POST SAYS -- See JUND AL ISLAM, AL QAEDA-IN-IRAQ) The Washington Post reported that the group smuggled VX nerve gas through Turkey in fall 2001. - "Ansar Al-Islam: Iraq's Al-Qaeda Connection, " By Jonathan Schanzer, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, via FrontPageMagazine.com , Friday, January 17, 2003
SEPTEMBER 15, 2001 : (SWITZERLAND : THE SWISS BEGIN THEIR INVESTIGATION OF AL QAEDA'S 9/11 ATTACKS -- SEE 9/11 HIJACKER ATTA, AL TAQWA MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION) [Swiss] Federal Prosecutor Valentin Roschacher said authorities plan to begin court proceedings in the coming weeks in three terror cases, capping investigations started four days after the 2001 suicide hijackings in New York and Washington.
A special task force initially was charged with investigating Mohammed Atta, the alleged leader of the hijackers. Atta reportedly spent several hours in Zurich in July 2001 en route from Miami to Madrid, Spain.
But the scope of the investigation widened.
The task force also focused on officials of the now-defunct Al-Taqwa Management Organization, a Swiss-based firm that went into liquidation in December 2001. ........
------- "Authorities Conclude Switzerland Likely Used as Base for Financing, Logistical Support for 9/11 Attacks by Al-Qaida," By Daniela Sigrist , Associated Press Writer Published: Jun 24, 2004 in TBO.com June 25, 2004
* AL TAQWA , IRAQ & UN OIL FOR FOOD : ......It is in al-Taqwa and Nada Management that the government investigator says he found the links to Saddam and Iraq. "Al-Taqwa was the recipient of illicit funds from Iraq's 'Oil for Food' program," the official tells Insight, and from there the financial resources went "through al-Taqwa to al-Qaeda." But in the Chronicle story Huber is quoted as denying that Nada Management (al-Taqwa) underwrites al-Qaeda. ...
...Records show that Youssef M. Nada is, with Huber, a board member of Nada Management. An Egyptian expatriate, Nada is said by the government investigator to be central to the Iraq/al-Qaeda connection and "a known associate of Saddam Hussein and Ayman al-Zawahiri," al-Qaeda's second in command. The government investigator tells Insight that Nada met with Saddam and had a "business" relationship with the former Iraqi dictator. Nada's relationship with al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's deputy, is reportedly through the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist organization founded by al-Zawahiri, according to the government investigator. ...------- "The Link Between Iraq and Al-Qaeda," Insight Magazine ^ | June 18, 2004 | Scott L. Wheeler Originally posted Sept. 29, 2003; reposted June 18, 2004
NOVEMBER 2001 : (US DESIGNATES YOUSSEF NADA AS A TERRORIST FINANCIER -- SEE SWITZERLAND, ITALY, LUGANO CELL / MILAN CELL, AL TAQWA, AL QAEDA) Youssef Nada, an elderly Egyptian financier who founded and ran the Al-Taqwa ("Fear of God" in Arabic) network from bases in southern Switzerland and northern Italy, was designated a terrorist financier by the Bush administration in November 2001. A U.S. Treasury official testified to Congress that Nada had provided financial assistance to Al Qaeda both before and after the 9/11 attacks.
------- "Dubious Link Between Atta and Saddam A document tying the Iraqi leader with the 9/11 terrorist is probably fake. PLUS, how terror financiers manage to stay in business," by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, WEB EXCLUSIVE Newsweek Updated: 11:31 a.m. ET Dec.19, 2003
NOVEMBER 2001 : (ITALY : BENATTIA, CHEKKOURI, REMADNA ARRESTED IN MILAN -- See MILAN CELL ) Nabil Benattia of Tunisia, Yassine Chekkouri of Morocco and Abdelhalim Hafed Remadna of Algeria, were arrested in Milan in November in connection with an investigation of the city's mosque and Islamic cultural center. U.S. authorities have described the center as the main al-Qaida station house in Europe. - "Italy: Judge Indicts Three North Africans (connected to al-Qaeda)," AP via Europe Daily , July 18 2002
DECEMBER 2001 : (KREKAR LEAVES IMK & JOINS NEWLY ESTABLISHED JUND AL-ISLAM : THE TWO GROUPS WOULD FORM ANSAR AL ISLAM UNDER LEADERSHIP OF KREKAR) Following splits in the Islamic Movement in Kurdistan (IMK) movement last year [2001], Mala Krekar and his followers left IMK in December 2001 and joined the newly established Kurdish Islamic radical group, Jund al-Islam. The two groups formed Ansar al-Islam, with Mala Krekar as the group’s leader. - "Ansar al-Islam’s leader arrested - Jordan asks his extradition," Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch, news, 15 September 2002
DECEMBER 2001 : (WAR ON TERROR : BATTLE OF AFGHANISTAN : ABU SALEH KILLED IN US BOMBING? --- See MILAN CELL, ITALY) The Arab-language newspaper Al Hayat, published in London, reports that Abu Saleh had been killed "during the recent bombing of Najran in Afghanistan" by American forces. As far as is known, however, his body has never been recovered, and one Western diplomat half-joked that he might have joined "the al-Qaida equivalent of the witness-protection program." - "Milan cell linked to al-Qaida operatives, " By John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune via Seattle Times June 30, 2002
2001 late : (BATTLE OF AFGHANISTAN : TALIBAN DEFEATED BY US : ZARQAWI FOLLOWERS FLEE AFGHANISTAN FOR CHECHNYA & VILLAGE OF SAGAT IN NORTHEASTERN IRAQ, IN SAGAT THEY EXPERIMENT WITH CHEMICALS SUCH AS RICIN & PLOTTED ATTACKS IN EUROPE) Investigators say the case offers a picture of how Al Qaeda sought to transform Ansar's Iraqi stronghold into a substitute, on a smaller scale, for the Afghan camps to which the terrorist network had sent aspiring holy warriors before the U.S. defeated the Taliban in late 2001.
After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, members of a network commanded by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a top Al Qaeda figure, fled to the Russian republic of Chechnya and northeastern Iraq. U.S. and European investigators say Zarqawi's specialists used a camp in the village of Sargat, near Kurmal, to experiment with cyanide poisons, toxic gas and ricin, a castor bean extract that can be used as a biological weapon.
The network allegedly plotted attacks in Europe that were assigned to different ethnic cells — Algerians in Britain and France, Jordanians and Palestinians in Germany — but were ultimately dismantled by police. - "Ansar al Islam's European connection : A Road to Ansar Began in Italy," By Sebastian Rotella, Times Staff Writer, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES , Second of two parts April 27, 2003, Times staff writer Jeffrey Fleishman, in northern Iraq, contributed to this report.
2001 LATE : (ITALY : US SAYS MAIN EUROPEAN AL QAEDA BASE IS IN A MILAN MOSQUE COMPLEX) Late last year [2001], U.S. officials said an Islamic cultural center and adjacent mosque in Milan were part of al Qaida's main base in Europe, something leaders of the mosque have denied. --- "Italy nabs eight new al Qaida suspects," Eric J. Lyman, UPI, 7/13/02
NOVEMBER 2001 : (BUSH CITES AL TAQWA AS PART OF AL QAEDA'S MONEY LAUNDERING ACTIVITIES -- See SADDAM HUSSEIN, IRAQ, LUGANO/MILAN CELL) According to the senior government official, Nada Management is part of the al-Taqwa group. In November 2001, President George W. Bush officially cited al-Taqwa as part of al-Qaeda's money-laundering activities. The citation included the following: "Al-Taqwa is an association of offshore banks and financial-management firms that have helped al-Qaeda shift money around the world." It is in al-Taqwa and Nada Management that the government investigator says he found the links to Saddam and Iraq. "Al-Taqwa was the recipient of illicit funds from Iraq's 'Oil for Food' program," the official tells Insight, and from there the financial resources went "through al-Taqwa to al-Qaeda." But in the Chronicle story [Ahmed] Huber is quoted as denying that Nada Management (al-Taqwa) underwrites al-Qaeda. ------ "The Link between Iraq and Al Qaida," by Scott Wheeler, Insight Magazine , Sept 2003, Posted on 09/19/2004 10:14:43 PM PDT by Big Jake
NOVEMBER 7, 2001 : (PORTLAND, MAINE? RAID ON FINANCIAL NETWORKS "AL BARAKAT" AND "AL TAQWA"--- see ALTAQWA, MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, AHMED HUBER, YOUSSEF M NADA {see LUGANO/MILAN CELL}, ALI HIMAT, MOHAMMED MANSOUR, IRAQ, SOMALIA) On Nov. 7, Portland was in the news once more. In a crackdown on financial networks suspected of funneling money to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, federal agents raided the offices of two companies with offices in the United States - Al Barakaat, a money-wiring company based in Somalia, and Al Taqwa, a money-management company with offices in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the Bahamas and Italy. The government targeted offices in Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle and Columbus, Ohio. The government froze the assets of 11 people and groups alleged to have ties to the two companies and arrested a principal of Al Barakaat, Mohamed M. Hussein, who runs the company with his brother, Liban. --------(Newsday, 11/18/01)
NOVEMBER 7, 2001 : (PORTLAND, MAINE : RAIDS ON THE OFFICES OF AL TAQWA & AL BARAKAT--- see LIBAN & MOHAMED HUSSEIN, AHMED HUBER, ITALY, SWITZERLAND, THE BAHAMAS, LICHTENSTEIN, BOSTON CELL, TWIN CITIES CELL, SEATTLE CELL, BUCKEYE JIHAD/COLUMBUS CELL) On Nov. 7, Portland was in the news once more. In a crackdown on financial networks suspected of funneling money to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, federal agents raided the offices of two companies with offices in the United States - Al Barakaat, a money-wiring company based in Somalia, and Al Taqwa, a money-management company with offices in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the Bahamas and Italy. The government targeted offices in Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle and Columbus, Ohio. The government froze the assets of 11 people and groups alleged to have ties to the two companies and arrested a principal of Al Barakaat, Mohamed M. Hussein, who runs the company with his brother, Liban.
Court papers say that in March 2000 Liban Hussein opened an account for Al Barakaat at Key Bank in Portland and applied for approval to wire up to $50,000 from Key Bank to the company's account at Emirates Bank International Ltd. in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. According to the court papers, $974,000 was transferred to the bank in UAE between March 17, 2000 and Aug. 1 of this year.
The tradition of sending money to family members in Africa and the Middle East is common practice among immigrants. Al Barakaat's executives vehemently have denied that the company has ties to terrorists.
--------(Newsday, 11/18/01)
NOVEMBER 7, 2001 : (SWITZERLAND : AUTHORITIES FREEZE ACCOUNTS OF NADA MANAGEMENT, ORDER A RAID ON ITS OFFICES -- SEE LUGANO / MILAN CELL) On November 7, 2001, on the request of the US government, the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office froze the bank accounts of Nada Management, a Lugano-based financial services and consulting firm, and ordered a search and seizure raid on the firm's offices. Police pulled in several of the company's principals for questioning. Nada Management, part of the international al-Taqwa (fear of God) group, is accused by US Treasury Department investigators of having acted for years as advisers and a funding conduit for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.
Among those interrogated by police was a certain Albert Friedrich Armand (aka Ahmed) Huber, 74, a Swiss convert to Islam and retired journalist who sits on the Nada board of directors. Nothing too unusual perhaps, except for the fact that Huber is also a high-profile neo-Nazi who tirelessly travels the far-right circuit in Europe and the United States. He sees himself as a mediator between radical Islam and what he calls the New Right. Since September 11, a picture of Osama bin Laden hangs next to one of Adolf Hitler on the wall of his study in Muri just outside the Swiss capital of Bern. September 11, says Huber, brought the radical Islam-New Right alliance together.
On that, as his own career amply demonstrates, he is largely wrong. Last year's [Sept 11, 2001's] horrific terrorist acts were gleefully celebrated by Islamists and neo-Nazis alike (Huber boozed it up with young followers in a Bern bar) and may have produced closer links. But Islamism and fascism have a long, over 80-year history of collaboration based on shared ideas, practices and perceived common enemies. They abhor Western decadence (political liberalism, capitalism), fight holy wars—if needs be suicidal ones—by indiscriminate means, and are bent on the destruction of the Jews and of America and its allies. -------Islamism, fascism and terrorism (Part 1)By Marc Erikson, Asia Times, 5 November 2002
Thank you so very much Piasa.
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