Free Republic

By John Crewdson, Tribune senior correspondent. Reporting and research assistance was provided by Drew Crosby in Madrid MADRID -- The most sweeping criminal indictment to arise thus far from the Sept. 11 attacks reflects a quiet but dramatic change in understanding by investigators here and across Europe of the terrorist organization known as Al Qaeda, and the international Islamic radical-terrorist network of which, they now agree, it is merely a part. As laid out in the indictment, the defendants' alleged activities--from arranging travel and providing introductions to procuring false documents and, especially, moving money--provide the first detailed look at one...

Police in Hamburg shut down the notorious al-Quds mosque, renamed the Taiba mosque in 2008, led by German-Syrian national and voluntary imam Mamoun Darkazanli. Darkazanli (a.k.a. Abu Ilyas al-Suri) has been a suspected al-Qaeda operative, primarily as a financier and logistician, in the European Union for close to two decades. Long active in al-Qaeda circles, Darkazanli first surfaced on the radar of Western intelligence agencies when he purportedly helped procure a cargo ship named “Jennifer” for Osama bin Laden as early as 1993 (Hamburger Abendblatt, October 16, 2004). Germany’s Bundeskriminalamt (BKA- Federal Criminal Police Office) admitted that it had been...

Germany's highest court has ordered the release of a German-Syrian businessman suspected of funding al-Qaeda, who was fighting extradition to Spain. The federal constitutional court ruled that the new European arrest warrant was invalid in the case of Mamoun Darkazanli, 46. He was detained in Hamburg in October on the warrant issued by Spain. He appears in a 1999 wedding video with two of the three 11 September suicide hijackers who had lived in Hamburg. …… Mr Darkazanli has not been charged in Germany, whose constitution prohibits the extradition of its own citizens. German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said the...

WASHINGTON -- Mamoun Darkazanli, one of the most elusive and mysterious figures associated with Al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 hijackers, was arrested Friday in the German port city of Hamburg. He faces extradition to Spain to stand trial in a Sept. 11-related prosecution expected to begin early next year in Madrid.

This is a continuation of a previous article which exposed the fact that the security for the Logan International Airport was contracted out to two foreign-owned security companies: Securitas in Sweden, and ICTS in the Netherlands. See Two Foreign-Owned Companies Have Airport Security in WTC Attack for details. The following is further evidence which connects the terrorists to European backers, and especially to the Netherlands. One arm of the web of corruption eventually goes back to the Clintons. Some of the following comes from an article by Daniel Hopsicker at http://www.madcowprod.com. The convoluted trail of companies is difficult to follow, ...

Attorney denies Muslim charity's European director aided Osama bin Laden's terror network Mon May 6,10:20 PM ET By MIKE ROBINSON, Associated Press Writer CHICAGO - (AP) <An attorney for a Muslim charity acknowledged that its head of European operations knew one of the men convicted in the deadly 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. But the lawyer denied the official supported terrorism. Nabil Sayadi, head of Global Relief Foundation's operations in Europe, was one of several men Spanish authorities allege received money for Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al-Qaida organization. Spanish authorities said Sayadi had close...

BERLIN- A Syrian-born businessman who knew Sept. 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta and has been accused of operating an al-Qaida front lashed out at President Bush on Thursday and denied any connection to terrorism. Mamoun Darkazanli, described by the FBI as a well-connected agent of Osama bin Laden, was questioned by German police shortly after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But he was freed for lack of evidence and continues to live in Hamburg, Germany, where Atta and two other hijackers had lived. Speaking to The Associated Press in a telephone interview, Darkazanli bristled when...