Posted on 10/18/2007 4:39:12 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
LAHORE: An increasing number of militants from Europe are travelling to Pakistan to train and plot attacks on the West, European and US anti-terrorism officials say, according to a report in the LA Times.
“There have always been people going to Pakistan, but it is more frequent now,” said a senior French intelligence official who, like others interviewed for the report, spoke on condition of anonymity. “There is a return. It is a cycle ... And you have the attractive phenomenon that all the big chiefs of Al Qaeda are there.”
“The emerging route, illuminated by alleged bomb plots dismantled in Germany and Denmark last month, represents a new and dangerous reconfiguration,” write Dirk Laabs and Sebastian Rotella in the LA Times.
Unlike Iraq, where foreign fighters plunge quickly into combat, recruits in Pakistan are more likely to be groomed for missions in the West. Aspiring holy warriors drawn to the Pakistani-Afghan border region today include European converts and militants from Arab, Turkish and North African backgrounds, investigators said.
“Pakistan worries me more than Iraq,” a top Belgian anti-terrorism official said. “It’s true that Iraq scares them a bit because many of them end up getting strapped up with the explosive belt right away. In Pakistan, they have time to be trained as operatives.”
In the past, the main threat from that part of the world has involved young men from Britain’s large Pakistani diaspora targeting Britain and the United States. In a half-dozen plots since 2003, British operatives trained in Pakistan, made contact with fugitive Al Qaeda leaders and returned home to strike.
In contrast, extremists from North African and Arab immigrant communities in Germany, France, Spain and Italy have been more likely to join networks based in North Africa or the Iraq region.
But today, even small countries such as Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland have detected non-Pakistani extremists going to Pakistani training outposts, officials say.
These new links, combined with the unprecedented plots against Germany and Denmark, show a gathering menace, the official said. “I think that Europe has been at extremely high risk during the past six months,” he said. “First, because many fighters have returned from Iraq. Second, because of the real problem of Pakistan.”
In the Danish case, the leader of an alleged cell was trained by Al Qaeda in Pakistan in an apparent plot to kill Danish civilians, partly as revenge for the publication of caricatures of the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), anti-terrorism officials say. In the German case, police in September arrested three suspects accused of assembling 1,500 pounds of explosive materials for vehicle bombings near US military bases. The trio allegedly took orders from Islamic Jihad Union, an Al Qaeda ally based in Pakistan.
Starting in 2005, the three main suspects spent time at the Qortoba Arabic-language school in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, intelligence officials say.
German suspects also attended such schools in Saudi Arabia and Syria and roamed in Turkey, investigators say, drifting abroad for months at a time.
Fritz Gelowicz, the accused ringleader, reportedly met a key contact - a militant from Balochistan - at a Koranic school in Damascus, Syria, in 2005, an anti-terrorism official said. In March 2006, Gelowicz and two other suspects trained at a camp in the lawless Waziristan region, according to Pakistani and US intelligence provided to German investigators.
Investigators say the training camp was near the city of Mir Ali. The suspects used a variety of contacts and routes, but they all entered Pakistan via Iran.
As the plot gathered momentum early this year, a second wave of associates set off from Germany. But US and German police had begun intense surveillance, and Pakistani police were on alert. During the first half of the year, Pakistani authorities arrested seven militants.
On June 10, two alleged key figures in the group made it only a few miles across the Pakistani border before their capture at a bus stop. Tolga Duerbin and Houssein al Malah had met a contact in Tehran, paid $100 to a smuggler in an Iranian border town, and were carrying satellite phones and fake Afghan IDs when they were caught, according to investigators and a defence lawyer.
Pakistani police locked them in an underground prison in Islamabad, blindfolded them and grilled them about associates in Germany, said Duerbin’s lawyer, Michael Sertsoez. Duerbin said American agents were present during interrogations, the lawyer said. The two were eventually deported. daily times monitor
fyi
Having them moving out where we can get at them in stead of plotting in hiding is actually a good thing.
At least some of the European nations are starting to take a more healthy view of the problem with radical Islam. To many heads where held deep in the sand to long for fear of addressing the problem.
Any time we identify one of these summer camps for Islamic Neanderthals we ought to treat them to a nice sarin gas breeze via stealth bomber.
“Unlike Iraq, where foreign fighters plunge quickly into combat, recruits in Pakistan are more likely to be groomed for missions in the West. Aspiring holy warriors drawn to the Pakistani-Afghan border region today include European converts and militants from Arab, Turkish and North African backgrounds, investigators said”
I am not sure if these terrorists realize the consequences of their actions if terrorist attacks are too frequent and too successful. Muslims may then not be safe in European lands. Six million Jews were killed in the 1940’s just for being different and financially adept. (Hell, Europeans have killed each other in the tens of millions over the last century.) It will not be a pretty sight.
That's a terrible thing to call a Neanderthal. Napalm be upon them.
An increasing number of militants from Europe are travelling to Pakistan to train and plot attacks on the West, European and US anti-terrorism officials say, according to a report in the LA Times.Sure would be a shame if all the madrassas were taken out simultaneously, eh? Thanks Ernest.
Let’s call it Pack a Stan, with ‘Stan’ being a code for [whatever] - goodness, I need coffee....
Just FYI, "stan" means "land" in Arabic.
I didn't know that a couple years ago. ;-)
Nope...Yer fine...Switch to decaf...:-)
I didn’t know it until you told me!
WHEN RU COMING HOME???
I'll be home for leave in a mere two months. :-D
Dec. 15???
Just a very few days after that.
I hope we can all get together before I head back over here in January.
So do I! I just realized I must have missed the Renaissance Festival...
Maybe TheMom will have us to the compound, or maybe HG will be well enough by then to have that housewarming he was talking about!
Well, that and the fact that I go outside the wire several times a week to locations around Baghdad that are considered quite dangerous. Oh, and there's that seven-day workweek thing.
Along with the having to duck into bunkers during attacks on occasion, although that has abated lately.
Oh, yes, and the walking up several flights of stairs in full battle-rattle in a building full of Mahdi Army, even in 120-degree temperatures in the summer...yes, that might be considered as well.
Learning some Arabic is something that just happens.
Getting a little tired of resentful people dissing contractors and seeming to think we're living in the lap of luxury. And doing this dissing from the comfort and safety of their homes. Nice.
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