Terrorist planned attack on U.S. nuclear warhead stockpile

The Sun-Herald ^ | November 17 2002 | Philip Delves Broughton

[Destro]

Terrorist planned attack on nuclear warhead stockpile

By Philip Delves Broughton

November 17 2002

The Sun-Herald

An Al Qaeda terrorist has confessed that he planned to drive a giant explosive device into a United States air force bunker in Belgium believed to contain nuclear warheads.

News of the plot came as the US warned that a broadcast thought to contain the words of Osama bin Laden foreshadowed a likely attack. The FBI said national landmarks and the aviation, oil and nuclear industries were all possible targets.

In an interview with a Belgian radio station, Tunisian Nizar Trabelsi, 31, a former professional footballer in the German league, said he had hoped to attack the Kleine Brogel base in eastern Belgium with a bomb similar to those used to blow up the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

The base includes a munitions store and is believed by anti-nuclear groups to contain 20 free-fall nuclear bombs.

"I am guilty, I will have to pay for it," Trabelsi said in the radio interview from his cell. "What I did is not good, but I had no choice."

Trabelsi was arrested last year, suspected of involvement in an Al Qaeda plot to attack the US embassy in Paris.

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Cobra64]

"I am guilty, I will have to pay for it," Trabelsi said in the radio interview from his cell. "What I did is not good, but I had no choice."

Okay. Tie this asshole to a post and have a fireing squad shoot the bastard. This should be on international television stations.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Nuke the bastards first!

[Daveo]

"What I did is not good, but I had no choice."

The most important part of the story and they had no comment on it. Why did he not have a choice?; and he new it was wrong.

[Deathmonger]

While fortunately this would not have been effective in setting off the weapons, the fact that Al Qaeda sent this guy on a mission to try to set off nuclear weapons in Belgium makes it clear that it's no longer a hypothetical that they would use them if they had them.

As much as I hate to let these jihad yahoos drag the world into WWIII, just like a handful of anarchists started WWI, the only deterrence strategy I can see is threatening to flatten the Muslim world if one of these terrible weapons goes off in the West.

[Timm]

I wonder if we still keep nukes in Europe, what with the Red Army kaput?

I don't think for a minute this would-be terrorist is acting on anything other than rumor in the Belgian streets. I wonder, though, if there are any other places where American nuclear weapons are under the protection and control of Nato allies anymore? This information may well be classified, and anyone who knows shouldn't tell me if it is. My money, though, is on the bombs being out of European control now.

[Goatroper]

Bring back "Vlad, the Impaler."

[Cindy]

Note The following text is a quote:

www.fbi.gov/washingtondc/press-releases/2013/alleged-al-qaeda-member-extradited-to-u.s.-to-face-charges-in-terrorism-conspiracy

Alleged Al-Qaeda Member Extradited to U.S. to Face Charges in Terrorism Conspiracy

Defendant and Others Planned Suicide Bomb Attack Against Americans in Europe

U.S. Attorney’s Office
October 03, 2013
District of Columbia

WASHINGTON—Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian national, has been extradited to the United States to face charges in federal court in the District of Columbia stemming from a conspiracy to carry out a suicide bomb attack against Americans in Europe.

Trabelsi was arrested in Belgium on Sept. 13, 2001, before he carried out the planned attack. After 12 years in custody there, where he served time on Belgian charges, Trabelsi was extradited and transported today to face charges in the United States. Trabelsi was indicted in 2006 by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and a superseding indictment was filed the following year. The charges were unsealed today.

The indictment alleges that Trabelsi personally met in the spring of 2001, with Osama bin Laden to volunteer for a suicide bomb attack against U.S. interests. Preparations unfolded over the next several months, according to the indictment, with Trabelsi allegedly obtaining chemicals in Europe and subsequently joining others to scout a potential target: a military facility that was used by the United States and the United States Air Force.

The charges were announced by Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, John P. Carlin, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

Trabelsi, 43, is charged with conspiracy to kill U.S Nationals outside of the United States; conspiracy and attempt to use weapons of mass destruction; conspiracy to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization; and providing material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization.

According to the indictment, Trabelsi was residing in Germany in 2000, when he met with other conspirators and made preparations to travel to Afghanistan to train for jihad.

In the spring of 2001, the indictment alleges, he met with bin Laden in Afghanistan, and offered to carry out a suicide bomb attack. According to the indictment, he later spoke with Muhammed Atef, a high-ranking member and chief military planner of al-Qaeda, at bin Laden’s direction. Additionally, the indictment states, he met with others with whom he was to form a cell for the purpose of carrying out a suicide attack.

According to the indictment, Trabelsi and other conspirators discussed various possible targets for a suicide bomb attack and he undertook training in how to place explosives. In June 2001, the indictment states, Trabelsi traveled to Pakistan, where he obtained money from an al-Qaeda associate for use in carrying out his mission. The following month, he rented an apartment in Brussels, Belgium. While in Belgium, Trabelsi bought quantities of chemicals to be used in manufacturing a 1,000-kilogram bomb, the indictment alleges. Additionally, according to the indictment, he traveled at night with conspirators to scout the military base.

The investigation into this matter was conducted by the FBI’s Washington Field Office. The Department of Justice, Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance in this matter. The Department of Justice expressed appreciation to the government of Belgium and the Belgian Federal Police for their assistance. The prosecutors handling the case are Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan M. Malis and Opher Shweiki of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorney Mara Kohn of the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
 
If convicted of the charges filed in the indictment, Trabelsi faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has violated a criminal law. All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

[Cindy]

Previously...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1945916/posts

“No Brussels Fireworks Amid Terror Threat”
At&T ^ | 12-30-2007
Posted on December 30, 2007 7:32:45 AM PST by blam

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -
SNIPPET: “Authorities warned of an increased risk of attack after police last week detained 14 people suspected of plotting to help an accused al-Qaida militant break out of jail.

The inmate, Nizar Trabelsi, 37, is a Tunisian ex-professional soccer player who is serving 10 years for plotting to drive a car bomb into the cafeteria of a Belgian air force base housing about 100 U.S. military personnel.

However, in a letter published by the daily newspaper La Derniere Heure, Trabelsi denied that his supporters were plotting his jailbreak or any terror attack.

A judge ordered his supporters’ release for lack of evidence, and all suspects have maintained their innocence.”