Posted on 01/28/2003 4:13:15 AM PST by JohnHuang2
At least 20 "terror commandos" have been unleashed by Osama bin Laden to attack Britain and other European countries in the run-up to war with Iraq, a leading German newspaper claims in a story that confirms earlier WorldNetDaily reports.
Germany's popular daily Bild Zeitung reported that the Federal Intelligence Agency has issued a warning that a group of Afghan extremists, traveling on false Pakistani passports, are on their way to Europe.
The newspaper cites intelligence sources as saying that at least 20 of al-Qaida's "terror commandos" had set out for the continent via Bahrain as part of an all-out effort to attack targets in the UK, Germany, Britain, France and the Czech Republic.
The terrorists are reportedly followers of Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
WorldNetDaily reported in December that U.S. military and intelligence sources expect Iran to launch major terrorist attacks against Western targets in anticipation of or in response to a U.S.-led attack on Iraq.
All Iranian-sponsored terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, which is increasingly seen as more potent and more dangerous than Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network by many U.S. analysts, will be unleashed simultaneously on U.S. and allied targets around the world, according to WorldNetDaily intelligence sources.
Complicating the detection and prevention of such attacks, those sources say, is a breakdown in the National Security Agency's ability to collect information on activities in Iran.
While some officials in Washington have downplayed Shiite Iran's interest in "defending" Sunni Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the motivation for Tehran goes beyond the theological or an interest in preserving the current Baghdad regime, say the intelligence sources. For more than a decade, Iran and Iraq have backed many of the same anti-U.S. terror groups, including al-Qaida, because of their mutual interest in keeping U.S. military forces out of the Persian Gulf. Tehran is also wary U.S. forces might seek to destabilize its government, which is increasingly losing popular support.
As WND reports today, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer has confirmed that terrorist detainees from Afghanistan have implicated Iraq in providing training and support to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
Meanwhile, the Scotsman reports steps to expose the network of terrorist cells that are believed to be spread throughout Europe have brought about dramatic and disturbing results lately.
Spanish anti-terror forces arrested 16 suspected extremists last week, claiming the men had links to al-Qaida and were allegedly preparing to launch chemical attacks.
Yesterday, a Spanish judge jailed the 16 suspects, arrested on Friday in Barcelona and other cities in northeast Spain, pending further investigation and a possible extradition request from French authorities. The 15 Algerians and a Moroccan deny any links to al-Qaida, and none of them has been formally charged. France has 40 days to request their extradition.
Italian police descended on the homes of three Muslims in the northern city of Rovigo, southwest of Venice, after discovering explosives and maps marking the route to a NATO installation and a detailed plan of central London in a separate raid earlier in the week.
Five Moroccans were detained after a kilogram of explosives was found in the building where the men were staying.
The heightened level of activity follows numerous raids in Britain after the discovery of the chemical ricin in a house in north London.
As WorldNetDaily has reported earlier, Saddam Hussein's defense against an imminent attack by the U.S. will be a strong offense – including terrorist operations coordinated with Yasser Arafat and Osama bin Laden. That's what top terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky, author of "The High Cost of Peace," says in his new book. He writes about joint preparations by Hussein, Arafat and al-Qaida for a new wave of anti-U.S. terror. The model for the terrorism campaign is Arafat's Black September Organization of the 1970s.
The initiative for the alliance came from Palestinian Islamists based in Lebanon and Syria, according to Bodansky, the U.S. Congress' top terrorism adviser. The response from al-Qaida came April 2, says Bodansky.
The anti-U.S. coalition also includes Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
A communique issued on April 2 from the Unified Leadership of the Intifadah – an umbrella organization representing Arafat's Fatah groups, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other members of the Palestine Liberation Organization – called for attacks on U.S. interests.
Unit 999 of Iraqi intelligence has helped train both Arafat's shock troops and bin Laden's Islamists for suicide operations utilizing weapons of mass destruction. According to Bodansky's book, some of these terrorists have already "succeeded in infiltrating several Arab countries. They are provided with instructions, secret codes and advanced weapons."
According to Israeli sources, the Iraqis permitted the terrorist trainees to test chemical weapons in southern Kurdistan.
France? Germany? If they get attacked, think we'll help them find the perps?
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