Groups Scour Europe for Iraq Fighters BERLIN
MOE
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."
muslims in berlin full blown ?
2005-03-01 - Ninja has been banned from the tracker and the forum now he is trying, as "the_angel", to discredit the zappateers with his lies on zappa.com, what a shame for the whole zappa community.
everyone who did download from our tracker knows we never would tolerate any post containing an official release. anyone can revise this in downloading the posts.
we call up the whole zappa community to ignore him, his lies and his seeds in the future.
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THEY ARE ALREADY FULL OF SHIT !