Chief prosecutor Stefano Dambruoso had one of the four Milan defendants removed from court for threatening him. Dambruoso says Ben Heni Lased "spit at me and said, `You'll see, you'll see.'"Posted on 12/03/2002 8:11:03 PM PST by Destro
Dec. 1, 2002. 11:46 PM
Catching terror on tape
Milan wiretaps offer sensational glimpse into alleged terrorists life
Chief prosecutor Stefano Dambruoso had one of the four Milan defendants removed from court for threatening him. Dambruoso says Ben Heni Lased "spit at me and said, `You'll see, you'll see.'"
SANDRO CONTENTA
MILAN—A heavily guarded courtroom in this northern Italian city is providing the first real glimpse into the lives of suspected Al Qaeda militants accused of running the terrorist group's main logistics base in Europe.
Transcripts of hundreds of hours of police surveillance tapes are being reviewed at the trial of five men, painting a detailed and sensational public record of the shadowy group's inner workings.
It's a gripping fly-on-the-wall portrait of a group accused of obtaining false passports and visas for the movement of militants to and from Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan.
The recordings, entered as evidence, include chilling allusions to "an attack that will never be forgotten," a full year before Al Qaeda hijackers flew planes into New York's World Trade Center.
United by hard-line religious fervour and a seething hatred of Western society, the group's members are obsessed with secrecy and wracked by suspicions that some of their own members are police informants.
"Are you a spy for the secret services?" asks an angry voice when a group member wants to know the full name of another militant.
"Don't try to know too much."
Police have identified the speaker as Chekkouri Yassine, one of four men now on trial.
At times, the conversations reveal men torn between their desire for "martyrdom" in battle and their impatience with being bureaucratic cogs in Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.
"Sheikh, if someone wants to go and fight, why don't you let him?" a 31-year-old Tunisian, Adel Ben Soltane, asks the alleged leader of the Milan cell, Abdelkader Mahmoud Es Sayed.
"The important thing is that you dream about it," Es Sayed replies. "When the moment comes ... you'll never know if you will be a martyr here, in Algeria, in Tunisia, in America or in Central Asia."
"I want to eliminate these pigs, these swine. I hate them," says Ben Soltane, referring to Westerners. "I ask for just one thing — to leave for Afghanistan."
Es Sayed, a 40-year-old Egyptian, is being tried in absentia and is presumed to have died fighting during the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
The four men in court sit in two groups and listen to the accusations from behind the steel bars of cells at opposite ends of the high-ceilinged courtroom.
Behind the judge is a gigantic mural depicting King Solomon's legendary decision about the fate of a disputed baby. Underneath is the inscription: "The law is the same for everyone."
Thirty police officers with guns in hip holsters line the courtroom walls. Also armed are three plainclothes officers — the state-appointed bodyguards of Stefano Dambruoso, the chief prosecutor who conducts all of Milan's terrorism-related cases.
Moments before the start of one session last week, while reporters and spectators were still outside, a commotion was heard in the courtroom. Police rushed out of the room escorting one of the accused, Ben Heni Lased.
"He threatened me," Dambruoso said, after emerging from the courtroom. "He yelled, `You're killing us, you're killing us.' Then he spit at me and said, `You'll see, you'll see.'"
This is the second group of suspected Al Qaeda members Dambruoso has brought to trial.
Last February, four men from the same Milan cell were sentenced to a maximum five years in prison for associating with a criminal group and dealing in false passports.
They were the first post-Sept. 11 sentences handed down against suspected Al Qaeda members in Europe.
Investigators have yet to find a direct link between the Milan cell and the 9/11 attacks, but they describe the cell's work in forging passports as vital to Al Qaeda's overall operations.
"When you talk about logistics, you're not talking about a lesser part of the terrorist network," Dambruoso says in an interview. "It's an activity central to the life of the terrorist organization. Without logistics, nothing gets done."
Defence lawyer Gianni Levoni dismisses the proceedings as trial by innuendo.
He calls the web of Al Qaeda connections spun by European and U.S. police forces "a conspiracy of Western intelligence services against Islam."
"The Islamic world is detested by the West," he says during a break in the trial.
"So far, they have no evidence. Where are the fake passports? You can tape me talking about fake passports, but if you don't find any, where's the proof?
"Besides, a trial about fake passports is one thing, but to accuse them of terrorist activities is quite another."
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, more than 200 people have been arrested or questioned throughout Europe for suspected links to Al Qaeda.
The network has been seriously disrupted, but fear of an imminent attack has swept across Europe in the past two weeks.
Three men allegedly planning a chemical attack in London's subway were arrested, and a tape recording attributed to bin Laden names European countries and Canada as targets for future strikes.
"They renew themselves with an impressive velocity," says Bruno Megale, head of the anti-terrorism police unit in Milan, referring to Al Qaeda-linked groups. "It's a problem we're going to be dealing with for the next 20 years."
The groundwork for Al Qaeda's European network was laid by Islamic militant groups from North Africa in the early 1990s.
Italian investigators believe the Milan cell played a key role in bringing the groups under Al Qaeda's umbrella by facilitating travel to Afghan camps, where bin Laden gave them a common agenda.
As early as 1995, Milan police found a false Danish passport for Said Atmani at a mosque that later became the suspected Al Qaeda base in the city.
Atmani was a member of the Montreal-based, Al Qaeda-linked group that included Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian convicted 18 months ago of conspiring to bomb the Los Angeles airport and other American sites during millennium celebrations.
Atmani disappeared after Ressam's arrest and Italian police believe he's hiding in Bosnia.
Police in Milan also found a fake Pakistani visa like the ones Al Qaeda suicide assassins used to enter Afghanistan and blow up anti-Taliban guerrilla leader Ahmed Shah Massood two days before the Sept. 11 attacks.
In December, 1999, Milan police began using wiretaps and hidden microphones to monitor the conversations of about a dozen immigrants of Tunisian, Algerian, Moroccan and Egyptian origin.
Activities revolved around a back-alley mosque in Milan, a building with a front entrance accessible only through the driveway of a mechanic's garage.
The conversations reveal a loosely organized group with links across Europe, North America, North Africa, the Balkans, the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan.
Many of the transcripts filed with the court focus on suspected cell leader Es Sayed. Also known as Abu Saleh, he was convicted of terrorist activity in Egypt and belonged to a radical group headed by Ayman Al Zawahiri, reputedly bin Laden's top deputy.
He arrived in Italy in 1998 and received refugee status a year later. In the transcripts, he describes how he fooled Italian authorities.
"I told them I had been wrongly persecuted," he says, "that my wife had died in a road accident ... orchestrated by the Egyptian intelligence. It all sounds good ... the whole thing corresponded to their idea of persecution and, consequently, I was granted asylum."
Es Sayed left Italy before police could arrest him. The London-based, Arab-language newspaper, Al Hayat, says he was killed during the Afghan war.
The article describes him as "a leader of Al Qaeda" in charge of the network's operations involving false documents.
The most revealing conversations were captured in Es Sayed's Citroen ZX, which Italian police had bugged.
An August, 2000, recording has Es Sayed talking with Abdulsalam Ali Ali Abdulrahman, who police say travelled to Italy on a diplomatic passport.
Italian investigators suspect he may have been a member of a Yemeni intelligence agency.
The men talk of training camps in Yemen before launching into a cryptic discussion of a plan that, in hindsight, sounds like an allusion to the attack on the United States a year later by Al Qaeda hijackers based in Hamburg, Germany.
Abdulrahman talks of going to Germany and tells Es Sayed that newscasts in the future will be filled with "one of those attacks that will never be forgotten." The plan, he adds, was hatched by someone who is both "a madman and a genius."
"It will wreak such havoc that they won't know how to set things right," Abdulrahman says.
He talks about the use of airplanes, "the danger in the airports" and "the fire that is already lit in that state."
"I know brothers that have entered in America with the mail-order-bride magazine trick," Abdulrahman adds, saying they "claimed to be Egyptians but kept their true identity concealed."
"You're making me dream," says Es Sayed, adding: "God is great and Muhammad is his Prophet; they're all sons of dogs."
"They'll all go to hell," Abdulrahman responds.
In February, 2001, Es Sayed is taped while making a telephone call to someone in Yemen. He asks for the telephone number of "that man in Germany" and is told, "there are 10 men (there) and no one can get in contact with them."
In an earlier conversation, Es Sayed is again taped in his car, discussing the need for well-made fake passports with Adel Ben Soltane, a 31-year-old Tunisian sentenced last February to up to five years in jail.
"These documents are for our brothers who are going to America?" Ben Soltane asks.
"Don't ever repeat those words again, even for fun," an agitated Es Sayed says. "If you have to talk to me of these things, no matter where we are, you must get close to me and whisper it in my ear."
In another conversation between the two men, Es Sayed emphasizes that the best fake passports are used, not new, and filled with entry and exit stamps.
The names on the passport must never be tampered with — only the photographs should be changed. Any nationality will do, except Iranian.
Once available, the fake passports will first be tested on a country that isn't the true destination, Es Sayed says.
Ben Soltane then gets a call on his mobile phone informing him that two of the passports are ready. Es Sayed is livid: "Don't ever speak that way on the telephone.... It's all recorded."
In another conversation in his car, a paternal Es Sayed tells Ben Soltane to stop giggling and get serious.
"This is a war and we have to be smarter than the enemy. You hit them when they least expect it. This is just the beginning. The donkeys ... the enemies must never understand what you're up to. You send him always in the opposite direction and never let him grasp your real strategy....
"You must always be armed with two passports — in case of flight, you always have a passport ready. You must always have an escape route ready, understand?
"Always remember that you are serving God, and with his strength and his help you can have faith and walk with your head held high because these people are animals."
Later, Es Sayed repeatedly reminds Ben Soltane to rein in his desire for battle. No matter how small the task may seem, it's central to the success of the group, he stresses.
He tells Ben Soltane the story of a man who washed his feet every night while he was at a military training camp. That man, says Es Sayed, became a martyr the day he died because he performed his duty and had jihad in his heart.
"Listen to me," Es Sayed says. "Jihad is a whole destiny. If you say you want to be a martyr, even if you die this instant, you're a martyr."
A few days later, Ben Soltane seems more tormented than ever.
"I hate everything about this life," he says, insisting he wants to leave Milan for Afghanistan.
Es Sayed tells him to be patient.
"You must not think that jihad is somewhere else. Everything is just one organization.... If you want to work with me, this is the job.... If the brothers want to hide, we hide them.
"If the brothers want documents, we take care of their documents. If the brothers want to move, we move them.... If they need a gun, you give them a gun.
"God willing, I am the first to wish you a martyr's death ... but know that you are in the preparatory stage."
And in a final pep talk, he says: "What can they do against the power of God? Nothing! God is great! Only hell awaits them.... They can't fight against someone who is fighting in the name of God.
"Know only this, that you are always at war."
REPEAT
Atmani disappeared after Ressam's arrest and Italian police believe he's hiding in Bosnia.
Who is hiding him? The Serbs? I don't think so.
RELIGION OF PEACE
"The important thing is that you dream about it," Es Sayed replies. "When the moment comes ... you'll never know if you will be a martyr here, in Algeria, in Tunisia, in America or in Central Asia."
RELIGION OF PEACE
"I want to eliminate these pigs, these swine. I hate them," says Ben Soltane, referring to Westerners.
RELIGION OF PEACE
Abdulrahman talks of going to Germany and tells Es Sayed that newscasts in the future will be filled with "one of those attacks that will never be forgotten." The plan, he adds, was hatched by someone who is both "a madman and a genius."
RELIGION OF PEACE
"It will wreak such havoc that they won't know how to set things right," Abdulrahman says.
RELIGION OF PEACE
He talks about the use of airplanes, "the danger in the airports" and "the fire that is already lit in that state."
RELIGION OF PEACE
"I know brothers that have entered in America with the mail-order-bride magazine trick," Abdulrahman adds, saying they "claimed to be Egyptians but kept their true identity concealed."
RELIGION OF PEACE
"You're making me dream," says Es Sayed, adding: "God is great and Muhammad is his Prophet; they're all sons of dogs."
RELIGION OF PEACE
"They'll all go to hell," Abdulrahman responds.
RELIGION OF PEACE
"This is a war and we have to be smarter than the enemy. You hit them when they least expect it. This is just the beginning. The donkeys ... the enemies must never understand what you're up to. You send him always in the opposite direction and never let him grasp your real strategy....
RELIGION OF PEACE
"Always remember that you are serving God, and with his strength and his help you can have faith and walk with your head held high because these people are animals."
RELIGION OF PEACE
"Listen to me," Es Sayed says. "Jihad is a whole destiny. If you say you want to be a martyr, even if you die this instant, you're a martyr."
RELIGION OF PEACE
"God willing, I am the first to wish you a martyr's death ... but know that you are in the preparatory stage."
RELIGION OF PEACE
"What can they do against the power of God? Nothing! God is great! Only hell awaits them.... They can't fight against someone who is fighting in the name of God.
RELIGION OF PEACE
"Know only this, that you are always at war."
If we just keep saying it, maybe it'll come true...
Saint Michael, Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And you, Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into Hell Satan and the other evil spirits who prowl the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.
Here's a good discussion of the Balkan problem from a year ago.
["I want to eliminate these pigs, these swine. I hate them," says Ben Soltane, referring to Westerners. ]
Islam -- a cult of hate. Spread the word.
"They'll all go to hell," Abdulrahman responds.
Sure it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, but where's the duck sh!t? Hmmmm?
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