Posted on 12/16/2003 4:27:32 AM PST by NativeNewYorker
BERLIN -- A Saudi diplomat met a member of the Hamburg, Germany, terrorist cell shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., according to a confidential police report.
The diplomat, Muhammed Fakihi, is said to have met Mounir el-Motassadeq when the 29-year-old Moroccan was contemplating fleeing Germany. A few days after the November meeting, Mr. Motassadeq was arrested. This year, he was convicted of accessory to murder in 3,066 cases and of membership in a terrorist organization. He is the only person world-wide to have been convicted for participating in the attacks.
The alleged meeting is detailed in a two-page report by Berlin police that has been reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. It is the strongest indication yet of the Saudi embassy's close dealings with radical Muslims in Germany -- a fact Riyadh has strongly denied. Convicted terrorists such as Mr. Motassadeq are known to have been influenced by Saudi-sponsored Islamic education programs, which taught an intolerant strain of the religion, but this is the first known contact between Saudi officials and the extremist milieu responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.
The alleged meeting occurred two years ago at breakfast before sunrise during Ramadan -- a time of fasting when observant Muslims don't eat during daylight -- according to the intelligence report. The report says five men took part in the meeting: Messrs. Motassadeq and Fakihi; two unidentified men; and Salem al-Raffei, the imam of the Al-Nur mosque in Berlin.
Mr. Fakihi, a 32-year-old former head of the Islamic Affairs Department at the Saudi Embassy in Berlin, had frequented the Al-Nur mosque for some time. He arranged Saudi funding for it to be expanded and, according to a letter he had sent to officials in Riyadh, to become a key missionary mosque for central and eastern Europe.>
During the meeting, according to the police report, Mr. Motassadeq said he was feeling pressure from German federal police in the Sept. 11 investigation and asked Mr. Raffei for help in getting a passport and visa. Mr. Raffei, who like Mr. Motassadeq was under police observation, said Mr. Fakihi could function as a go-between for the two men. The imam asked Mr. Fakihi to give Mr. Motassadeq his business card, according to the report. One of Mr. Fakihi's business cards was later found in a search of Mr. Motassadeq's possessions, according to a list of evidence seized during the raid.
Mr. Fakihi left the meeting early because he realized the man he was dealing with might be linked to the Hamburg cell, according to the police report. The report doesn't specify the exact date, but German investigators believe the meeting took place around Nov. 22, 2001.
The meeting is in contrast to an official answer by the Saudi embassy in Berlin to the German foreign service on Nov. 18, 2002, which reads: "Inquiries have shown there was never any contact between Mr. el-Motassadeq and members of the Saudi embassy staff either within or outside the Royal Saudi embassy."
A spokesman for the Saudi embassy said Monday he knew nothing about the new report. German police say Mr. Fakihi might not have told his superiors of the meeting. Mr. Fakihi didn't report to police in his host country, Germany, the fact that a suspected terrorist was contemplating escape.
Mr. Raffei didn't return calls seeking comment. His lawyer said he was unaware of new allegations.
Mr. Fakihi left Germany this past March after news of his links to the mosque and discovery of his business card became public. German officials say they insisted he be recalled. Saudi officials say that he left due to unjustified allegations in the news media and that he did nothing wrong.
German intelligence officials say the imam may have contacted Mr. Fakihi because as a diplomat Mr. Fakihi enjoyed diplomatic immunity and was unlikely to face police monitoring. He also wasn't spying on Germany, so wouldn't raise alarms with the intelligence unit that monitors illegal embassy activity.
"Mr. Fakihi fell into a hole between two operational units," a senior intelligence official said in a recent interview.
The intelligence report on the meeting was submitted to a German court this weekend because of a dispute between Washington and Berlin. In question is testimony by a leader of the terrorist group al Qaeda believed by German lawyers and legal officials to be Ramzi Binalshibh, a self-confessed coordinator of the Sept. 11 attacks.
German courts have asked that Mr. Binalshibh be brought to Germany to testify, but Washington has rejected this and instead is detaining him at a location that hasn't been revealed.
Washington did, however, give some of Mr. Binalshibh's testimony to Germany. But in it, Mr. Binalshibh said Mr. Motassadeq and Abdelghani Mzoudi, another Moroccan man on trial for aiding the hijackers, knew nothing of the attacks. Unable to cross-examine Mr. Binalshibh, a German court in Hamburg said it had no choice but to take the U.S. testimony at face value. It released Mr. Mzoudi from jail last week, although his trial continues.
A similar effort by Mr. Motassadeq's lawyers failed Monday, in part because of the new intelligence report, which -- besides offering details of Mr. Fakihi's involvement -- indicates Mr. Motassadeq had contemplated fleeing the country after the attacks.
That will be determined by one of two entities....
1. When the Wahabbi clerics and the militant Islamist lunatics decide they no longer need the "Royal Family" as front assholes.
2. Or when Washington decides it's their turn to fall...
It is no longer a decision to be made or avoided by the House of Saud...
Semper Fi
What would the name of the betting pool be and what would be the criteria for picking a winner?
Any bets on whether this clown has an 'accidental heart attack while off a sand dune deep in the desert'?
They say it's because of terrorist threats--but this type of withdrawal usually precedes BIGGER things.
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