RELATED BLAST FROM THE PAST :
[SNIP] 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 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”. .... [/SNIP]
—— “Moroccan source: Terrorist cell reveals plans for establishing Al-Qaeda in North African countries,”
Asharq Al-Awsat, 12/8/05 BY Ahmad Al-Arqam
Thanks for that memory jogger, piasa.