DECEMBER 2001 : (KREKAR LEAVES IMK & JOINS NEWLY ESTABLISHED JUND AL-ISLAM : THE TWO GROUPS WOULD FORM ANSAR AL ISLAM UNDER LEADERSHIP OF KREKAR) Following splits in the Islamic Movement in Kurdistan (IMK) movement last year [2001], Mala Krekar and his followers left IMK in December 2001 and joined the newly established Kurdish Islamic radical group, Jund al-Islam. The two groups formed Ansar al-Islam, with Mala Krekar as the group’s leader. - "Ansar al-Islam’s leader arrested - Jordan asks his extradition," Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch, news, 15 September 2002
DECEMBER 2001 : (WAR ON TERROR : BATTLE OF AFGHANISTAN : ABU SALEH KILLED IN US BOMBING? --- See MILAN CELL, ITALY) The Arab-language newspaper Al Hayat, published in London, reports that Abu Saleh had been killed "during the recent bombing of Najran in Afghanistan" by American forces. As far as is known, however, his body has never been recovered, and one Western diplomat half-joked that he might have joined "the al-Qaida equivalent of the witness-protection program." - "Milan cell linked to al-Qaida operatives, " By John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune via Seattle Times June 30, 2002
2001 late : (BATTLE OF AFGHANISTAN : TALIBAN DEFEATED BY US : ZARQAWI FOLLOWERS FLEE AFGHANISTAN FOR CHECHNYA & VILLAGE OF SAGAT IN NORTHEASTERN IRAQ, IN SAGAT THEY EXPERIMENT WITH CHEMICALS SUCH AS RICIN & PLOTTED ATTACKS IN EUROPE) Investigators say the case offers a picture of how Al Qaeda sought to transform Ansar's Iraqi stronghold into a substitute, on a smaller scale, for the Afghan camps to which the terrorist network had sent aspiring holy warriors before the U.S. defeated the Taliban in late 2001.
After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, members of a network commanded by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a top Al Qaeda figure, fled to the Russian republic of Chechnya and northeastern Iraq. U.S. and European investigators say Zarqawi's specialists used a camp in the village of Sargat, near Kurmal, to experiment with cyanide poisons, toxic gas and ricin, a castor bean extract that can be used as a biological weapon.
The network allegedly plotted attacks in Europe that were assigned to different ethnic cells — Algerians in Britain and France, Jordanians and Palestinians in Germany — but were ultimately dismantled by police. - "Ansar al Islam's European connection : A Road to Ansar Began in Italy," By Sebastian Rotella, Times Staff Writer, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES , Second of two parts April 27, 2003, Times staff writer Jeffrey Fleishman, in northern Iraq, contributed to this report.
2001 LATE : (ITALY : US SAYS MAIN EUROPEAN AL QAEDA BASE IS IN A MILAN MOSQUE COMPLEX) Late last year [2001], U.S. officials said an Islamic cultural center and adjacent mosque in Milan were part of al Qaida's main base in Europe, something leaders of the mosque have denied. --- "Italy nabs eight new al Qaida suspects," Eric J. Lyman, UPI, 7/13/02
NOVEMBER 2001 : (BUSH CITES AL TAQWA AS PART OF AL QAEDA'S MONEY LAUNDERING ACTIVITIES -- See SADDAM HUSSEIN, IRAQ, LUGANO/MILAN CELL) According to the senior government official, Nada Management is part of the al-Taqwa group. In November 2001, President George W. Bush officially cited al-Taqwa as part of al-Qaeda's money-laundering activities. The citation included the following: "Al-Taqwa is an association of offshore banks and financial-management firms that have helped al-Qaeda shift money around the world." It is in al-Taqwa and Nada Management that the government investigator says he found the links to Saddam and Iraq. "Al-Taqwa was the recipient of illicit funds from Iraq's 'Oil for Food' program," the official tells Insight, and from there the financial resources went "through al-Taqwa to al-Qaeda." But in the Chronicle story [Ahmed] Huber is quoted as denying that Nada Management (al-Taqwa) underwrites al-Qaeda. ------ "The Link between Iraq and Al Qaida," by Scott Wheeler, Insight Magazine , Sept 2003, Posted on 09/19/2004 10:14:43 PM PDT by Big Jake
NOVEMBER 7, 2001 : (PORTLAND, MAINE? RAID ON FINANCIAL NETWORKS "AL BARAKAT" AND "AL TAQWA"--- see ALTAQWA, MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, AHMED HUBER, YOUSSEF M NADA {see LUGANO/MILAN CELL}, ALI HIMAT, MOHAMMED MANSOUR, IRAQ, SOMALIA) On Nov. 7, Portland was in the news once more. In a crackdown on financial networks suspected of funneling money to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, federal agents raided the offices of two companies with offices in the United States - Al Barakaat, a money-wiring company based in Somalia, and Al Taqwa, a money-management company with offices in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the Bahamas and Italy. The government targeted offices in Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle and Columbus, Ohio. The government froze the assets of 11 people and groups alleged to have ties to the two companies and arrested a principal of Al Barakaat, Mohamed M. Hussein, who runs the company with his brother, Liban. --------(Newsday, 11/18/01)
NOVEMBER 7, 2001 : (PORTLAND, MAINE : RAIDS ON THE OFFICES OF AL TAQWA & AL BARAKAT--- see LIBAN & MOHAMED HUSSEIN, AHMED HUBER, ITALY, SWITZERLAND, THE BAHAMAS, LICHTENSTEIN, BOSTON CELL, TWIN CITIES CELL, SEATTLE CELL, BUCKEYE JIHAD/COLUMBUS CELL) On Nov. 7, Portland was in the news once more. In a crackdown on financial networks suspected of funneling money to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, federal agents raided the offices of two companies with offices in the United States - Al Barakaat, a money-wiring company based in Somalia, and Al Taqwa, a money-management company with offices in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the Bahamas and Italy. The government targeted offices in Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle and Columbus, Ohio. The government froze the assets of 11 people and groups alleged to have ties to the two companies and arrested a principal of Al Barakaat, Mohamed M. Hussein, who runs the company with his brother, Liban.
Court papers say that in March 2000 Liban Hussein opened an account for Al Barakaat at Key Bank in Portland and applied for approval to wire up to $50,000 from Key Bank to the company's account at Emirates Bank International Ltd. in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. According to the court papers, $974,000 was transferred to the bank in UAE between March 17, 2000 and Aug. 1 of this year.
The tradition of sending money to family members in Africa and the Middle East is common practice among immigrants. Al Barakaat's executives vehemently have denied that the company has ties to terrorists.
--------(Newsday, 11/18/01)
NOVEMBER 7, 2001 : (SWITZERLAND : AUTHORITIES FREEZE ACCOUNTS OF NADA MANAGEMENT, ORDER A RAID ON ITS OFFICES -- SEE LUGANO / MILAN CELL) On November 7, 2001, on the request of the US government, the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office froze the bank accounts of Nada Management, a Lugano-based financial services and consulting firm, and ordered a search and seizure raid on the firm's offices. Police pulled in several of the company's principals for questioning. Nada Management, part of the international al-Taqwa (fear of God) group, is accused by US Treasury Department investigators of having acted for years as advisers and a funding conduit for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.
Among those interrogated by police was a certain Albert Friedrich Armand (aka Ahmed) Huber, 74, a Swiss convert to Islam and retired journalist who sits on the Nada board of directors. Nothing too unusual perhaps, except for the fact that Huber is also a high-profile neo-Nazi who tirelessly travels the far-right circuit in Europe and the United States. He sees himself as a mediator between radical Islam and what he calls the New Right. Since September 11, a picture of Osama bin Laden hangs next to one of Adolf Hitler on the wall of his study in Muri just outside the Swiss capital of Bern. September 11, says Huber, brought the radical Islam-New Right alliance together.
On that, as his own career amply demonstrates, he is largely wrong. Last year's [Sept 11, 2001's] horrific terrorist acts were gleefully celebrated by Islamists and neo-Nazis alike (Huber boozed it up with young followers in a Bern bar) and may have produced closer links. But Islamism and fascism have a long, over 80-year history of collaboration based on shared ideas, practices and perceived common enemies. They abhor Western decadence (political liberalism, capitalism), fight holy wars—if needs be suicidal ones—by indiscriminate means, and are bent on the destruction of the Jews and of America and its allies. -------Islamism, fascism and terrorism (Part 1)By Marc Erikson, Asia Times, 5 November 2002