Germany: Sept. 11 Suspect Explains Contact to Saudi Radicals

HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - The first suspected Sept. 11 plotter to stand trial told a German court on Wednesday that he had contacted alleged radicals in Saudi Arabia only to seek guidance on Islamic theological issues.

Moroccan student Mounir El Motassadeq is charged with serving as the paymaster of the al Qaeda cell in Hamburg, accused of masterminding the hijacked-aircraft attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.

German officials had testified that they had traced calls from Motassadeq to a radical group in Saudi Arabia.

"As you know, I am a devout Muslim," Motassadeq, dressed in a patterned sweater and tan slacks, told the court. "There are questions in faith that one does not know. I am not a scholar."

"What does Islam say about cloning or organ transplants?" he said. "I asked young scholars who are professors in Saudi Arabia."

The German officials also said they found a business card of a Saudi diplomat in Berlin among Motassadeq's possessions. The Saudi embassy has since said the diplomat did not know the accused. Fifteen of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudis.

Hamburg was a staging ground for the attacks. Three of the kamikaze pilots, including ringleader Mohamed Atta, an Egyptian, lived in the city in the 1990s.

Motassadeq said he obtained the names of the Saudis he had contacted from the Internet.

"There is a web site with the scholars' numbers at home, in the office and their cell phones," he said during brief questioning. "It was not something special for Mounir El Motassadeq."

Motassadeq said he did not know why some of the people he contacted in Saudi Arabia had been imprisoned but said it may have been because of their opposition to the Saudi government.

"I thought they had served their time," he said. "They have books and tapes that are still sold in Saudi Arabia."

Motassadeq is charged with more than 3,000 counts of aiding and abetting murder.

His defense team complained Wednesday about Washington's refusal to allow testimony from FBI Director Robert Muller and from alleged September 11 co-plotters Ramzi bin al-Shaibah and Zacarias Moussaoui, both in U.S custody.

The lawyers asked the court to appeal to the German government to apply diplomatic pressure on Washington to change its mind.

The court is also seeking testimony from a German prosecutor on information Washington may have provided about bin al-Shaibah, a former Hamburg resident.

The al-Qaeda paymaster of the Sept. 11th hijackers explains why he called radicals in Saudi Arabia -- he was just asking the Imam if it was OK to clone?...

The Raelian cloning cult has a website http://subversions.com that is filled with anti-Israel material, including an online petition claiming that in Jenin, the Israelis "coldly executed over 1000 Palestinians, most of whom were women and children, and then buried them in the ruins to make it look as if it was an accidental death."

The Raelians also claim: "Furthermore, over 4,000 Palestinian prisoners are presently incarcerated in concentration camps and being interrogated under torture. There is even a project underway to cremate not only the rotting corpses but also those still in a coma, or unconscious due to their treatment, so as to completely eliminate all evidence of torture.

The Raelians also claim to have cloned a human child.

Of course the actual number of dead Palestinians was closer to 50, and the claim that Israel "coldly executed" them is patently false.

The Raelian libel is at: http://www.subversions.com/english/pages/military/jenin.html

Subversions.com is registered to:

Marc Lavoie, International Raelian Movement
C.P. 86, Succ. Youville
Montreal, Quebec

The Raelian site is hosted by EV1.NET in Houston Texas. (Also home of Stormfront.org and the Texas Knights of the Klu Klux Klan).

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