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Moroccan source: Terrorist cell reveals
plans for establishing Al-Qaeda in North
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=2978

Moroccan source: Terrorist cell reveals plans for establishing
Al-Qaeda in North African countries

08/12/2005
By Ahmad Al-Arqam

Asharq Al-Awsat, Rabat - Investigations carried out by the Moroccan
security services after the arrest of a terrorist cell that was made
up of 17 members have uncovered the cell's terrorist plans. These
plans included restructuring the Al-Qaeda organization in Saudi Arabia
following the Saudi security forces' success in finding and arresting
a number of its activists. The cell also planned to have the extremist
Algerian Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) rejoin Osama Bin
Ladin's organization and set up an Al-Qaeda branch in the Maghreb
countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) as a base for attacks to be
launched on the countries that support US administration.
The investigations showed that Moroccan Mohamed Raha, the militant who
helped the fighters infiltrate into Iraq across the Syrian border,
insisted on concentrating on the importance of restructuring
Al-Qaeda's organization in Saudi Arabia and to creating Al-Qaeda in
the Maghreb countries in the same way that Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi's has
established Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Security sources said that Raha contacted Khaled Abu-Basir al-Jazairi,
responsible for establishing Al-Qaeda in Europe with its supporters in
Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Britain, Denmark, and
Germany, to send urgent messages to Bin Ladin to draw up a
comprehensive plan for implementing the intended operations.

The investigations also showed that Moroccan Khaled Azik was first
asked to deliver the messages to Bin Ladin, especially after Azik
revealed his success of previous missions such as the infiltration of
some Arab fighters into Iraq via Syria, and seeing the wife of one
Chechen leader from Istanbul to Damascus. However, at the last moment,
Abu-Basir al-Jazairi expressed fears that the Iranian security
authorities had already discovered Azik who was due to cross Iran's
borders through to Afghanistan. Instead, he decided to assign the task
to Abu-al-Bara al-Sa'udi, a member of Al-Qaeda responsible for
collecting funding for the fighters in Afghanistan.

The first message talked about the necessity for new Al-Qaeda elements
in Saudi Arabia to replace others that had been captured by the Saudi
security authorities. The same message revealed that these new
elements were already in the country and were simply awaiting a
response from Al-Qaeda's leaders.
The second message talked about a plan to have the GSPC join Al-Qaeda
officially, to pledge allegiance to Osama Bin Ladin, and unite the
ranks of the religiously committed youths wishing to take part in
"jihad"' in the North African Arab countries under the GSPC's banner.
The third message sought to establish an Al-Qaeda organization in the
Arab Maghreb countries similar to that in Iraq and to unite the North
Africans of Europe.

The security investigations showed that the methodology behind
ensuring the plan's success was based on attracting volunteers and
sending them to Algeria to undergo military training in the GSPC's
camps. They would be trained in the use of weapons and the
manufacturing of explosives. Furthermore, they would take part in the
Algerian group's operations against the Algerian security forces.
Volunteers would be sent to Syria after having completed this training
to set up a base on Syrian soil, and to enter Iraq to carry out
suicide operations.

The same investigations also indicated that the Moroccan volunteers
would return to Morocco after completing their military tasks in the
Middle East and become sleeper cells waiting for instructions from
Al-Qaeda to carry out terrorist acts targeting the security and
intelligence centers, parliament, tourist establishments, naval and
commercial ships, and foreign interests, especially those of Jews.
According to the plan, Al-Qaeda's terrorist cell was planning to
launch its operations in either Morocco or Algeria and if successful,
would have called itself "Qaedat al-Jihad in the Arab Maghreb
Countries".
A Moroccan security source said that common method of the extremist
religious groups is to attract religiously committed youths and teach
them the methods of terrorists. These start with meetings held in
various places to watch videos and hear tapes talking about the
suffering of Muslims and Arabs in Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya, and other
countries. Once they have absorbed these ideas, the youths are sent to
camps for quasi-military training and in the end, are used as human
weapons to carry out the plans of the international terrorist
organizations.