Posted on 10/16/2004 4:53:41 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie
SPANISH authorities are seeking the extradition of a German-based Syrian businessman suspected of helping Osama Bin Laden buy a ship, write Peter Conradi and Justin Sparks.
Marmoun Darkanzali, 46, believed to have been close to several of the hijackers on September 11, 2001, is alleged to have helped the Al-Qaeda leader with the purchase of a freighter. A source close to German intelligence named the ship as Jennifer and said it had been bought in 1993.
Spanish authorities claimed Darkanzali had been an important figure, providing logistical and financial support to Bin Laden in Britain, Spain and Germany since 1997.
Darkanzali was first arrested in 2001 but released. He has been under investigation for some time by German federal prosecutors. He was arrested in Hamburg on Friday on a Spanish international warrant.
It was not clear to what use Bin Laden would have put the vessel but there has long been speculation that Al-Qaeda has been amassing a fleet to raise money and for use in attacks.
German prosecutors said Darkanzali will contest the extradition. In the past he has denied any links with Al-Qaeda. He faces up to 12 years in jail in Spain if convicted of charges of membership of a terrorist organisation.
Think really BIG truck bomb.
Remember the ships at sea Saddam supposedly had? What ever happened to them?
Interesting that it's still not being reported in the MSM that we actually captured Bin Laden's "navy" of 15 ships sometime last year.
Did Bush Drop Ball on Usama bin Laden? (WE CAPTURED BIN LADEN's "NAVY" of 15 SHIPS)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1242259/posts
MINITER: I think people have different ways of counting this stuff. But we do know a number of major Al Qaeda figures have been killed or captured. The ones that have been captured are talking. One of the ones that are talking — and this has gotten very little media attention. I think the media — everyone talks about intelligence failures. Well, let's talk about media failures. I think the media has been missing some of the biggest stories in the war on terror. And as a result, the war on terror looks a lot worse than it actually is.
The president is getting direct information. So he sees one thing. Joe Public is reading "The New York Times," and watching CBS News and FOX News, and coming to a different conclusion. They are just things that are just not getting reported. One example, the Al Qaeda admiral, his name is Abd Rahim al Nashiri (search). He commanded a fleet of up to 15 cargo ships that were used to transport bombs or terrorists. We captured him in a place called Umm Qasr, one of the United Emirates last year. He's now talking.
And we dismantled an entire operation to make attacks on the United States and Americans abroad by sea. We defeated attempts to blow up warships in the Straits of Gibraltar. We defeated attempts to blow up oil tankers in the Straits of Malacca, and so on. And that's just one set of attacks that we've prevented.
"Think really BIG truck bomb" going off next to BIG oil tanker in BIG harbor.
BTTT
I missed the news regarding the capture of these ships. They'd been reported so long ago and nothing was ever mentioned about them again. Like the fact that there are a number of fuel oil trucks that have gone a'missin'.
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