Probe of London Attacks Targets A Network of Radicals in Europe By KEITH JOHNSON in Madrid, JEANNE WHALEN in London and DAVID CRAWFORD in Berlin Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL July 11, 2005; Page A3
Investigators are examining the possible role of a North African terrorist network in last week's subway and bus bombings in London, the city's worst peacetime attack. Those under scrutiny include suspected Islamist radicals who have spent many years in Britain or elsewhere in Europe, security officials say. Hours after the London blasts Thursday, which killed at least 49 people, British police began asking their European counterparts for information on a handful of suspected radicals linked to groups involved in a similar attack in March 2004 on Madrid's commuter rail system. The Madrid bombings, in which 191 died, were carried out by a loose alliance of radical Islamists who support the goals of Osama bin Laden but aren't thought to have direct operational contact with the al Qaeda leader, who is now in hiding. Spain has sent a five-person forensic team and explosive experts to London. Spanish counterterrorism officials say it is too early to pinpoint blame for the London attacks, but they are re-examining the links between known radicals in Spain and London. A British police spokeswoman said, "We're not ruling anyone in or out," adding, "clearly, we want to see if there are any similarities" to the Madrid bombings. British officials say the attacks last week bore the hallmarks of radical Islamic terrorists, although no group has been singled out as the likely perpetrators. The people British authorities have requested information about are Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, a Syrian who used to live in Spain and London; Abdel Karim Mejjati, a 34-year-old Moroccan who was killed this year in a shootout with police in Saudi Arabia; Hassan el Haski, 42, from Morocco; and Mohamed al Guerbouzi, 48, a British citizen of Moroccan origin who lives in London. In a telephone interview, Mr. Guerbouzi denied any involvement in the London bombings or other attacks and said he opposed terrorism. The two other men couldn't be reached to comment. Police believe that by examining the personal contacts, phone books, and email connections of alleged radicals, they can perhaps assemble a profile of young recruits who may have taken part in the subway bombings or know those who did. British police say the three bombs on subway trains all went off within 50 seconds, suggesting a well-organized operation. A fourth bomb on a double-decker bus exploded nearly an hour later. The bombs appear to have been in bags, not strapped to bodies, as would likely have been the case in a suicide attack, said Brian Paddick, deputy assistant commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police. Police initially believed the three train bombings occurred in a period of nearly half an hour. British officials said it was possible those behind the attacks could strike again. The center of Birmingham, a major city northwest of London, was evacuated Saturday night because of a security threat, but police said the danger had passed. Separately, police said they arrested three U.K. citizens at London's Heathrow Airport under antiterrorism legislation but declined to name them and said it would be "pure speculation" to link them directly to the attacks. They were released last night without being charged. As forensic experts scour wreckage for clues, other investigators are digging into the past of one of Europe's most active terrorist organizations, the Moroccan Islamic Combat Group, known by its French acronym GICM, and affiliated groups. Members of these organizations have been arrested in connection with backpack bombings in Casablanca in May 2003 and the train bombings in Madrid, as well as the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam in November. Unlike the people involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., who were mostly Saudi and Egyptian, attacks in Europe have become synonymous with North African groups such as the GICM and allied outfits in Libya and Tunisia. Nourredine Nafia, a former GICM leader, told Spanish investigators after his 2003 arrest that he personally pledged allegiance to Mr. bin Laden in 1999. Three years later, in February 2002, the Moroccan, Libyan, and Tunisian terror groups met in Istanbul, Turkey, to plot how to bring holy war to Europe, according to Spanish court documents. According to Spanish court papers, the meeting, which investigators say set in motion planning for the Casablanca and Madrid bombings, was conducted under the auspices of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, a Jordanian radical who leads al Qaeda in Iraq. One of the suspected masterminds of the Madrid bombings, the Moroccan Amer el Azizi, trained in a Libyan camp in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, according to Spanish court documents, and forged contacts with Mr. Mejjati, the Moroccan about whom British police have asked for information. Mr. Mejjati, who died this year in a battle with Saudi security forces in Riyadh, was relatively wealthy and, according to Spanish and other European police, provided seed money and logistical aid to establish radical Islamic cells across Europe. His largess, they believe, may have helped to fund those involved in Thursday's attack. Another of the suspected radicals, Mr. Nasar, settled in Madrid in the 1980s and, according to Spanish court documents, moved to London in 1995, where he edited the internal magazine of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group, an Islamist group at the center of Algeria's then-civil war. He left London at about 1998, apparently for Afghanistan. Spanish police believe he may have played a role in the Madrid bombings. He briefly resurfaced last month to issue a call to arms on an Islamic Web site, imploring Muslim youth to join the jihad in Iraq. U.S. officials said they were working with British intelligence to try to find the whereabouts of Mr. Nasar in relation to the London and Madrid bombings, as well as a number of other al Qaeda-linked terrorist attacks committed in recent years Saad Al-Fagih, a Saudi dissident living in London and designated last year by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia as a supporter of terrorism, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Nasar is a man who never smiles or strays from a rigid hard line. He is "an extremist by any standards" but "an impressive debater, whom almost every Islamist activist asks to meet." Mr. Fagih denied having any links to terrorism. Mr. Haski, one of the other men British investigators are looking at, is a veteran of Afghan training camps. He was arrested in December in the Canary Islands. According to Spanish court documents based on Belgian and French police and intelligence dossiers, Mr. Haski is a senior operative in the GICM, the Moroccan extremist group. The group was partly dismantled by police in Spain and Belgium in spring 2004 and Mr. Haski allegedly led an effort to revive it. GICM underlings told French police in late 2004 that Mr. Haski said that his group had carried out the Madrid attacks. The former head of the GICM, Mr. Nafia, told Spanish investigators in 2003 that other members of Mr. Haski's family were allegedly involved in the group. Investigators would like information on one of his brothers, Mehdi el Haski, formerly a top security official inside the GICM, who is missing. Another brother, Lahoussine el Haski, was arrested in Belgium last year after he sought political asylum. European law-enforcement officials said the British were interested in talking with Mr. Guerbouzi, a British citizen of Moroccan origin who lives with his family in the north of London. Mr. Guerbouzi denied any involvement in the subway bombings. "I am not in hiding. I'm not running away. I'm not outside the country." He said claims that he has ties to or supports extremists are "all rubbish." Mr. Guerbouzi said he didn't recognize the name of Mr. Nasar, who has a $5 million bounty on his head from U.S. authorities. Amid fears of retaliatory attacks against Muslims, British police guarded many of London's scores of mosques. Mainstream British Muslim groups strongly condemned the attacks. In Finsbury Park, once the base of a radical cleric arrested last year, the Muslim Welfare House hung a banner above its entry gate: "Muslims for Peace United in Condemning Terrorism." It also read, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families." Ibrahim Gure, a local Muslim, said he was so shocked by the bombs that he wrote an email to Scotland Yard, the London police headquarters, expressing his support for the British security service. He blamed President Bush for creating a climate of violence. FAIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research." 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