Free Republic

After having released Mounir El Motassadeq, the German Court in Hamburg has dropped the terrorism charges against him (3066 counts of accesory). One Charge remains - membership in a terrorist organisation. Until June he remains free, but must remain in Hamburg (at least initially) and must report to the police twice a week. If convicted of the remaining charge, he could face from 1 to 10 years. [my opinion - he will walk on this charge as well.] The entire case has been essentially thrown out based on statements made by others whose connection to the attacks on 9/11 is...

IT makes a chilling picture. The mastermind behind the September 11 attacks has told interrogators that he and his terrorist nephew leafed through almanacs of US skyscrapers when planning the operation. Sears Tower in Chicago and Library Tower in Los Angeles – which was "blown up" in the film Independence Day – were both potential targets, according to transcripts of interrogations of al-Qa'ida operations chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. "We were looking for symbols of economic might," he told his captors. He recounted sitting looking at the books with Ramzi Yusuf, his nephew by marriage, who was the man behind the...

    March 25, 2004 TERRORIST ATTACKS IN MADRID Suspect from Hesse Arrested In the investigation into the terrorist attacks in Madrid, authorities have hit upon their first clues leading to Germany. At least one of the three suspects Spanish police arrested on Wednesday shall have lived for years in Hesse. Chief Federal Prosecutor Nehm has taken up the case. AP Arrests in Madrid: Clues leading to Germany? Hamburg - The Spanish police have come a step further in the search for the ringleaders of the attacks on three commuter trains in Madrid. As the Spanish Department of the...

London al Qaeda link By Patrick Sawer and Hugh Dougherty, Evening Standard 15 March 2004 A London man is to be questioned over suspicions that he played a key role in the Madrid bombings. Abu Qatada is described as Osama bin Laden's "ambassador" in Europe and is regarded as one of the most dangerous Islamic terrorist leaders being held in Britain. He is said to be connected to one of the men held over the Spanish train bombings which left 200 dead. Anti-terror police will quiz the cleric, who is being held at Belmarsh prison, about his links with that...

<p>WASHINGTON — More than two years before the Sept. 11, 2001 (search) attacks on American, U.S. intelligence officials reportedly had the first name and phone number of one of the hijackers who succeeded in destroying the World Trade Center.</p> <p>CIA Director George Tenet (search) and FBI Director Robert Mueller (search) are likely to be asked about the information when they testify Tuesday morning before the Senate Intelligence Committee.</p>

Hamburg, Germany - A Moroccan man accused of helping set up the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, was acquitted yesterday by a Hamburg court whose chief judge said the trial had been seriously complicated by lack of access to intelligence agency files and al-Qaida members in U.S. custody. Defendant Abdelghani Mzoudi was found not guilty "even though intelligence services may have information against him," chief judge Klaus Ruehle said. "One of the main problems in this trial was that it was not possible to get files from intelligence services." snip Mzoudi is only the second person anywhere to be tried...

SEPT 11 SUSPECT ACQUITTED A Moroccan man accused of helping the September 11 suicide hijackers has been acquitted by a German court. Abdelghani Mzoudi, 31, had been charged in Germany's second major 9/11 trial with aiding and abetting the murder of several thousand people and being a member of a terrorist organisation, the Hamburg cell of al Qaeda. The court pronounced its verdict despite a last-minute bid by lawyers for victims' families to delay it, claiming alleged new evidence linked to the case of accused September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui in the United States. They are appealing against the verdict....

German Trial Hears How Iranian Agent  Warned U.S. of Impending al-Qaida Attack  By Ben Aris  The Guardian  Saturday 24 January 2004  The United States was warned of impending September 11 terrorist attacks by an Iranian spy, but ignored him, German secret service agents testified yesterday in the trial of an alleged al-Qaida terrorist.  The spy, identified as Hamid Reza Zakeri, tried to warn the CIA after leaving Iran in 2001, but was not believed, two German officers who interviewed him told the Hamburg court.  Zakeri worked in the department of the Iranian secret services responsible for "carrying out terrorist attacks globally", one of the officers said. Prosecutors...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court postponed on Wednesday the verdict on a Moroccan accused of aiding the Sept. 11 attackers after prosecutors said they had found a new witness, casting doubt on his expected acquittal. The Hamburg court where Abdelghani Mzoudi is on trial said that the verdict would not now be issued Thursday as expected after a request from prosecutors to hear evidence from two police officials about a new witness. "Federal prosecutors sent to the court today a substantial transcript dated January 19 regarding the questioning of a witness whose reliability is guaranteed and who would incriminate...

Hamburg - Prosecutors in the trial of a Moroccan accused of helping the September 11 suicide hijackers said on Thursday they still believe he is guilty despite a statement presented in court last month that would exclude him from the plot if true. Prosecutors cast doubt on the value of the statement as they began closing arguments in the trial of Abdelghani Mzoudi, charged with 3.066 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organisation. "I and my colleagues are still convinced that the defendant is guilty," chief prosecutor Walter Hemberger told the Hamburg state court. He was...

Dispute over terror alert State, federal governments argue over decision to blockade Hamburg army hospital By Aaron Kirchfeld Germany's interior minister has accused his Hamburg counterpart of damaging a potentially valuable lead by surrounding a German military hospital with police officers and armored vehicles after receiving a CIA warning of a possible terrorist attack. The blockade was quickly thrown up after German officials received a warning from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday that suspected Islamic terrorists were planning one or more car bomb attacks in the coming days at either the Bundeswehr hospital or the...

Officials have confirmed that a German-flagged ship was carrying parts to build a nuclear bomb from a Persian Gulf country to Libya in October. Investigators seized the shipment before it reached its destination. Just a few months before Libya declared it would cease its efforts to create weapons of mass destruction, American and British agents seized a German freighter ship loaded with centrifuges and other parts that are used to create enriched uranium, the material needed to build nuclear bombs. The seizure is believed to have influenced Tripoli’s decision to suspend its weapons program last month. On Wednesday, U.S. State...

HAMBURG, Germany - Police closed streets around a military hospital Tuesday after U.S. authorities warned that Islamic militants planned suicide car bomb attacks against the facility. The intelligence warning from the United States named two alleged suicide attackers from Ansar al-Islam, a group linked to al-Qaida that planned to carry out the attack on the Bundeswehr hospital, said state Interior Minister Dirk Nockemann. The alleged suicide attackers traveled to Hamburg in early December, said Heino Vahldiek, head of the Hamburg branch of federal security agency. Police closed streets about 2:30 p.m. around the hospital in the suburb of Wandsbek. U.S....

Hamburg (dpa) - Police cordoned off a German military hospital Tuesday after intelligence that radical Islamists plotted to set off a car bomb outside the clinic, where U.S. wounded are being treated.Item ends.

HAMBURG, Germany - A Moroccan charged with aiding a Hamburg al-Qaida cell that included three of the Sept. 11 hijackers can remain free while his trial continues, a court announced Tuesday, rejecting a request by prosecutors to return him to custody. The Hamburg state court freed Abdelghani Mzoudi on Dec. 11 after German federal investigators presented a statement quoting an unidentified informant as saying that only four people in Hamburg knew of the Sept. 11 plot — not including Mzoudi. Prosecutors lost a federal appeal against the decision Friday. On Tuesday, the Hamburg court said it had denied their second...

HAMBURG, Germany, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Relatives of September 11 victims demanded on Thursday the maximum 15-year jail sentence for a Moroccan on trial in a German court for helping the suicide hijackers and for belonging to an al Qaeda cell. Five relatives spoke on behalf of 25 co-plaintiffs in the trial of Abdelghani Mzoudi, charged with several thousand counts of aiding and abetting murder, and membership of a terrorist organisation, the Hamburg cell at the centre of the attack plot. In several hours of moving testimony, the relatives told of their pain. Debra Burlingame, whose brother was the pilot...

BERLIN (AFP) - Germany disconnected the first of 19 nuclear power plants due to be shut down, two years after deciding to abandon atomic energy, in a highly symbolic move for environmental activists. "The reactor is shut down," a spokesman for the E.ON energy company announced Friday just after the plant was officially taken off Germany's electrical grid at around 8:30 am (0730 GMT). No special buttons were pushed or cables cut at the Stade plant near the northern port city of Hamburg. "It was just like for a routine maintenance check," the spokesman said. Stade was brought into service...

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) - The roommate of a Moroccan accused of supporting the Hamburg-based Sept. 11 hijackers told a German court Friday that videos calling for holy war seized from their apartment belonged to him. Abderrazek Labied, 40, testified that his roommate Abdelghani Mzoudi, had never seen the videos or heard the audio cassettes, described by a judge as containing "aggressive religious speeches" urging jihad, or holy war. Labied added that their VCR had been broken for some time and although he continued to buy the tapes, he couldn't watch them. "They just lay there getting dusty," Labied said. Mzoudi,...

BERLIN, Oct 25 (AFP) - To all appearances Herr Herzog is an average German, but on Sunday Mohammed will be one of a growing number of his compatriots to begin the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, one of the five pillars of their faith. A former Protestant who worked in a social welfare centre for Turkish immigrants for many years, Herzog converted to Islam in 1979 when he realised that "the Koran gathered together everything I had ever believed in." Today he is the director of a Muslim cultural centre in the capital Berlin and he says that the number...

Saudi-funded school in Germany 'linked to terrorist attacks' By Kate Connolly in Bonn (Filed: 24/10/2003) Explosives and a testament like those written by suicide bombers have been found at the home of a man linked to a Saudi-funded school, German secret service sources said yesterday, intensifying pressure for the institution to be closed. The King Fahd Academy in Bonn was set up eight years ago with £10 million from the Saudi royal family, and was hailed as a "cultural bridge between Germany and the Arab world". Now it is alleged to be a magnet for Islamic fundamentalists. A spokesman for...