Posted on 07/02/2003 12:36:43 PM PDT by knighthawk
DUESSELDORF: A Jordanian terror suspect told his trial Wednesday that he served for two weeks as a bodyguard of Osama bin Laden at an Afghan residence of the al-Qaeda leader, but said the group for which he allegedly helped plot attacks in Germany was independent.
Shadi Abdellah, 26, said he moved to the bin Laden residence, close to the airport in Kandahar, for treatment after being injured during a fall during military training in early 2000 at a nearby al-Qaeda camp.
Abdellah, a tall, bearded man said he was drafted in to augment bin Laden's security amid fears that infiltrators were planning an attack on him.
He said he was detailed to help protect bin Laden from behind, and was chosen partly because of his height - at 1.94 meters (6 feet, 4 inches) just short of bin Laden - and because he had lived in Europe.
"Arabs who live in the west were always given preference because they were already resident abroad and wouldn't find it difficult to fit in," Abdellah told the Duesseldorf state court on the second day of his trial.
Abdellah is charged with membership in a terrorist organization and faking passports. He was among nine people detained by German authorities in April 2002 on suspicion of plotting imminent attacks in two German cities for Al Tawhid, a radical Palestinian movement. Prosecutors have not identified the targets.
Prosecutors say he took orders from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al Tawhid's operational leader - a Jordanian militant whom U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has described as an "associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda lieutenants."
Abdellah could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. However, federal prosecutors say he has cooperated with investigators and provided "comprehensive information" on Al Tawhid and its links to al-Qaeda.
But in testimony Wednesday, he said his earlier statement to police that the two groups were closely linked was "inexact."
"Al-Zarqawi has nothing to do with al-Qaeda. They are brothers in belief but they have nothing to do with each other," he said. "Al Tawhid is a group in itself."
Abdellah told the court he had "no idea" what al-Qaeda was when he was pointed toward Afghanistan by people he met in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan while on a voyage to learn about Islamic law.
After travelling via the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Quetta to an al-Qaeda guesthouse in Kandahar, he said he went into military training after being told on arrival by a bin Laden aide, Abu Hafs, that he "needed to be able to defend myself."
After giving up his stint as a bodyguard because his injuries were paining him, he said he studied for two months at a bin Laden-run institute in Kandahar.
He said he first met al-Zarqawi in Kabul in early 2001 while visiting other students from the course, and that: "A very good relationship began between us."
He didn't know how may members al-Zarqawi's group had, saying he understood it had its own camp in Herat, northwestern Afghanistan, and that its aim was "to topple the Jordanian government and fight the Jews."
He said he didn't know how the group was financed.
Abdellah said he stayed at al-Zarqawi's home, and that the alleged Al Tawhid leader tried to persuade him to go to fight in Jordan. Abdellah said he offered instead to go to Germany to collect donations."
"When I mentioned Germany to him, when I said I could be helpful there, we made an agreement," he testified.
Abdellah insisted that the group was independent of al-Qaeda, saying that al-Zarqawi always sought "religious opinion" before acting from Abu Qutadah, a radical Muslim cleric reportedly detained in Britain last year.
Prosecutors say Al-Zarqawi told Abdellah in May 2001 to return to Germany and help Mohammed Abu Dhess, a Jordanian who headed the Al Tawhid cell. During a September 2001 meeting in Tehran, Al-Zarqawi allegedly instructed Abu Dhess to carry out attacks on Jewish or Israeli institutions in Germany.
Abdellah's arrest came after he allegedly ordered a pistol with a silencer and a crate of hand grenades from another cell member.
Four other suspected Al Tawhid members, including Abu Dhess, remain in custody in Germany. Another four have been released but remain under investigation.
Abdellah also repeated much of his testimony last November at the Hamburg trial of Moroccan Sept. 11 suspect Mounir el Motassadeq, Abdellah said he saw the defendant at a camp in Afghanistan where bin Laden preached holy war.
El Motassadeq was sentenced to 15 years in prison for aiding the Hamburg cell around lead hijacker Mohamed Atta.
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