Recent developments in the war on terror demonstrate that Europe is very vulnerable to an attack. This is not to say that America is not; surely (911) dispels that nonsense.
The following quote is from the body of the below article: "During questioning in Dubai, Beghal said he had been ordered to organise an attack against the US embassy in Paris.... Once extradited to France, Beghal retracted most of the statements he made in Dubai, saying he had confessed after being tortured. He now claims to be innocent."
While the terroist has changed his tune now that he is in Europe, the French are reputed for their many interesting interrogation techniques. They also do not have the death penalty. It does seem ironic, then, that many suspects under the custodial control of French law enforcement commit suicide by jumping out of windows. I will say this about the French, though: they are a proud lot of hypocrites indeed.
The following article appered in The Scotsman:
Tue 4 Jan 2005
Trial aims to expose Euro terror network
SUSAN BELL
IN PARIS
SIX men suspected of plotting to blow up the United States embassy in Paris appeared in court yesterday, on the first day of a trial expected to expose a massive network of al-Qaeda-linked terrorists operating across Europe.
The six-week trial is set to show how the suspected terrorists used contacts, some of them based in the UK, to plan one or more attacks in the wake of the 11 September strikes on the US.
At the centre of the trial is Djamel Beghal, 39, a strident advocate of holy war suspected of links with Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader.
Also on trial are Kamel Daoudi, 30, a computer scientist who once worked in a Parisian internet cafe, and Nizar ben Abdelaziz Trabelsi, a Tunisian former professional footballer.
They and the three others face prison sentences of up to ten years if found guilty. Two other men are charged with residing illegally in France.
Beghal, who holds dual French and Algerian citizenship, is believed to have headed the radical Islamic cell which planned the foiled suicide attack on the US embassy, just off the Champs-Elysées in central Paris, in 2001.
Already known to French anti-terrorist forces, Beghal travelled to Afghanistan in November 2000 to train with al-Qaeda. There, say the prosecutors, he learned about handling explosives and weapons and followed religious instruction. He is also said to have met several senior al-Qaeda leaders close to Osama bin Laden, including Abu Zubaydah, who was arrested in Pakistan in March 2002 on suspicion of organising major terrorist attacks.
Zubaydah was responsible for co-ordinating the arrival of foreign volunteers at the al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, and the terrorist attacks they would subsequently try to carry out. Prosecutors believe he ordered Beghal to bomb the US embassy in Paris.
Beghal was arrested upon his return from Afghanistan in September 2001, as he was about to board a flight to Paris at Dubai airport in the United Arab Emirates.
During questioning in Dubai, Beghal said he had been ordered to organise an attack against the US embassy in Paris. He told local investigators he had been ordered to create a company as a smokescreen to cover the true activities of the terrorist cell. He intended to open a web cafe which would have allowed cell members to communicate with al-Qaeda chiefs based in Afghanistan.
He also said it was to have been his responsibility to buy the car which was to have been filled with explosives in order to carry out the suicide attack.
Beghal supplied investigators with the names of two accomplices: Daoudi and Trabelsi. The three, who already knew each other in Europe, are all accused of attending al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan.
Beghal told investigators that his mission was confirmed to him by Zubaydah during a meeting in March 2001, held at bin Laden’s home in Kandahar in Afghanistan.
At a second meeting, at which Trabelsi and several important al-Qaeda figures were present, Beghal said Zubaydah presented him with a special toothpick, a rosary, a flask and a stick of incense, which he was told were gifts from bin Laden.
Once extradited to France, Beghal retracted most of the statements he made in Dubai, saying he had confessed after being tortured. He now claims to be innocent.
A French lawyer acting for him denied his client had admitted taking orders from bin Laden, saying he had been questioned under "indeterminate circumstances" in Dubai.
Described by prosecutors as "one of [Beghal’s] principal lieutenants", Daoudi escaped the initial wave of arrests following Beghal’s statements in Dubai but was eventually picked up at the end of September 2001, by British police in Leicester, where he had been welcomed by several high-ranking members of the Islamic community.
In September 2002, he wrote from his prison cell to a French television channel to justify the 11 September attacks. However, he denied that he had been personally involved in any planned attack.
Prosecutors believe Trabelsi was to have played the role of martyr by driving the booby-trapped car up to the US embassy. The former footballer was arrested in Belgium on 13 September, 2001, and, in 2003, was sentenced by a Brussels court to ten years in prison for plotting to blow up a NATO military base in Belgium on behalf of al-Qaeda. Trabelsi had publicly confessed to his aim in that case, but not to the Paris plot.
The investigation led by the DST, the French secret service, into the activities of the cell and its members found evidence of a widespread network of contacts in many European countries, including Britain, where it said the group had been particularly influenced by radical preachers, including the London-based Syrian cleric Abu Qatada.
The trial is expected to continue until 16 February.
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