Al Qaeda in Europe

by Lorenzo Vidino

  The decision of Yarkas, an experienced mujahid with connections at the highest levels of at Qaeda, to get involved in this street fight is significant. Though Zougam, Ahmidan, and the other North Africans involved in the fight were little more than young hoodlums, Yarkas recognized in them the next generation of at Qaeda in Spain. The savvy and well-connected recruiter nurtured them for years; as they rediscovered their roots in the streets of Lavapies and embraced radical Islam, he gave them tapes and books on jihad and the righteousness of the mujahideen's cause. The knowledge and the contacts he provided enabled them to continue jihad after his arrest in November 2001.

  Among those not captured in the massive Spanish antiterrorism operation of late 2001 was one of Yarkas's most loyal disciples, a young Tunisian man who had immigrated to Spain in 1996. Serhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, the son of middle-class government workers, had obtained a scholarship to study economics at Madrid's Universidad Autonoma, where he developed friendships with Spanish students and settled into a Westernized life. But after his 1998 pilgrimage to Mecca, Fakhet began to embrace radical views and to frequent the Madrid mosque attended by members of Yarkas's cell. "The Tunisian," as he was known in the neighborhood, became a regular at the Alhambra restaurant and often participated in the water rites at Berraj's barbershop. As his relationship with Yarkas grew closer, he became one of the most respected figures among the neighborhood's young Muslims, gaining a reputation as a charismatic and educated man. The Tunisian also began a long-distance relationship with the daughter of Ahmed Brahim, an Algerian who was arrested in April 2002 and is believed to be al Qaeda's moneyman in Spain.80

  Yarkas's arrest left Fakhet temporarily at a loss. "The situation inspired and infuriated the Tunisian," said a Spanish official familiar with the Madrid cell. "He was the one who kept insisting that the group had to do something here in Spain. Why go to Afghanistan if you can fight jihad here?"" But in order to take vengeance in Spain, Fakhet needed expert help. As Spanish investigators continued to uncover more information on the attacks, they became increasingly convinced that the group of young North Africans from Lavapies could not have carried out the bombings alone. The charismatic and intelligent Fakhet had capably handled their logistics, but he lacked the knowledge and experience to plan the whole operation and the connections to carry it out. To Spanish authorities, the timing and the magnitude of the attacks pointed to the involvement of al Qaeda's leadership, who conceived the plan executed by the assembled students, drug dealers, and shopkeepers.

  Investigators began scouring their files to see what senior al Qaeda members had been in contact with the bombers. Fakhet, Zougam, and Ahmidan had had close ties to Yarkas and Brahim, two senior operatives, but the two had been in jail for months. One of the men authorities believed could have played a role in the attacks was a mysterious militant who had arrived on the scene a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks; members of Madrid's fundamentalist community called him "Mohammed the Egyptian." He had attracted the investigators' attention shortly after entering Spain, as he immediately created a group of followers inside the mosque at which the radicals from Lavapies gathered. The role of "the Egyptian" increased after November 2001, as he filled the leadership void created by Yarkas's arrest. In December 2001, Spanish authorities began tapping his cell phone, suspecting he might be an important al Qaeda operative .12

  In a few months, the Egyptian, whose real name was Rabei Osman El Sayed Ahmed, became the leader of the small group of radicals who had been spared by the wave of arrests that hit the Madrid cell in the wake of 9/11. Fakhet, who more than anybody felt the need of guidance after Yarkas's arrest, became very attached to Ahmed, spending entire nights watching tapes about jihad with the Egyptian and Khaled Pardo, an Algerian who had connections to a Barcelona cell of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (Groupe Salafiste pour la Predication et le Combat, or GSPC) dismantled in 2003. Basel Ghalyoun, the handsome Syrian who flirted with the Romanian women on the train before leaving the explosives-filled backpack, and Fouad Amghar, a Moroccan later arrested for his role in the train bombings, also became part of the small group led by Ahmed.83 According to Spanish authorities, Ahmed was a model recruiter, both supplying the men with tapes and books on jihad and martyrdom and teaching them how to avoid detection by intelligence agencies. Under Ahmed's supervision, Fakhet and others who had been marginal figures in the old Madrid cell led by Yarkas formed the core of a new cell, gaining new prominence following the arrests or flight from the country of more experienced operatives.

  Ahmed disappeared from Spain shortly before the train bombings, and authorities' interest in his whereabouts grew as they came to realize that most of the men behind the attacks were part of his group. Ahmed's involvement in the plot was confirmed when a witness identified him as one of the men who used to go to the country house in Morata de Tajuna, where the train bombers met to assemble the explosives. Two weeks after the attacks, Spanish authorities had a breakthrough: While searching the apartment of a suspect, Fouad Amghar, they discovered an electronic notebook containing an Italian cell phone number. The same number was found in the belongings of two of the men who died in the Leganes apartment, who listed it as Ahmed's new cell phone number in Italy.84

  Spanish authorities passed the information to their Italian counterparts, who immediately began monitoring Ahmed's cell phone. By analyzing the calls made from and to the telephone, Italian intelligence (Divisioni Investigazioni Generali e Operazioni Speciali, or DIGOS) located Ahmed in an apartment in Milan, which he shared with other Egyptians, and began round-the-clock surveillance of his movements. Ahmed was living inconspicuously in Milan, working as a painter and rarely leaving the apartment. The few occasions when he would leave home were on Fridays to go to either the Islamic Cultural Institute (ICI) or the Via Quaranta mosque, Milan's two radical mosques (discussed in part 3). And it was during one of the few times that Ahmed left for Friday services that DIGOS agents managed to enter his apartment and plant listening devices.

  On May 24, 2004, a phone call intercepted between Ahmed and Murad, an unidentified Moroccan living in Belgium, proved that Ahmed was involved with the Madrid bombings:

  Ahmed: You know what happened there, I don't want to mention the country.

  Murad: Yes, yes.

  Ahmed: And you know the whole group.

  Murad: Yes.

  Ahmed: The group, you saw it?

  Murad: Yes.

  Ahmed: I can't get close to the consulate because ...

  Murad: What happened to the boys there? What happened to them?

  Ahmed: You know Murad, you know the news.... The boys, our friends, they were behind the problems there.

  Murad: They were behind?

  Ahmed: They were behind the whole time, Sarhane [Fakhet, "the Tunisian"] and the brothers, and everybody! My brother!

  Murad: Oh God!

  Ahmed: Fouad [Amghar, one of the men arrested after the bombings] and everybody ...

  Murad: What happened to them?

  Ahmed: They went to God!

  Murad: So they are all gone now?

  Ahmed: Yes, all to God!

  Murad: Oh God !15

  But the depths of Ahmed's involvement in the Madrid bombings did not become clear to authorities until two days later. On May 26, the bug inside the Milan apartment recorded a conversation between Ahmed and Yahia, a young Egyptian immigrant whom Ahmed had been "mentoring" since his arrival in Italy.

  Ahmed: If one has the desire to sacrifice himself in the name of God he has to be ready. It is a shame. We, the youth, should be the first ones to sacrifice, like for example Mohammed, because God tries all of us and tires us, He tries the faith of all of us, He tries our soul. The solution is one, join al Qaeda. Here we are sleepers, it is our duty to be the first ones to go to jihad, here they are torturing and tiring us. Think about it, we come from our country, from far, to come to the land of the unbelievers, we were wrong, but it's never too late, because our destination should be for examp
le Chechnya, Kashmir. ... We see death every day, let's hope God will give us the courage to win; the reward for those who choose death has no limit. Because one has to stay like this, then they take you and you go to jail, why not tak, tak, tak and you are a martyr, you serve God.

  Yahia: Stay be my side always; unfortunately I was blocked at the beginning, but stay by my side and you'll see how I rise, with the strength of God, and I end up inside.

  Ahmed: We need just one blow, you see what they do to our brothers in Iraq, you see what they do to the Arabs, you see the prisons, you see the humiliations. Isn't it better to die than to be imprisoned there? What do the Americans think they are going to do, stop us? There are other ways, they'll see ... [ ... ] God is great ... I am very honest with you, you have to know it, listen to me carefully, I am sincere, you have to know that I have many friends that died as martyrs in Afghanistan, that also died in jail, there is one thing, there is one thing that I am not going to hide from you: [lowering his voice] the attack in Madrid was my project and those who died martyrs are my very dear friends.

  Yahia: Ahhh!

  Ahmed: I am the thread of Madrid, when the deed happened I wasn't there, but I'll tell you the truth, before the operation, on the 4th, I had contacts with them ... keep your mouth shut ... I go around alone, they worked in group.

  Yahia: They all died martyrs?

  Ahmed: Five died martyrs and eight have been arrested; they are the best friends, dearest friends, very loyal ... beware ... already on the 4th I began to plan, but to plan at a high level, I wanted to plan it in order that it was something unforgettable, including me, because I wanted to blow up too, but they stopped me and we obey the will of God. I wanted a big load but I couldn't find the means. This plan cost me a lot of study and patience, it took me two and half years ... beware ... beware!! Don't you ever mention anything and never talk to Jalil, in any way, not even on the phone.

  Yahia: Not even with the phone card?

  Ahmed: No, nothing, in no way. You have to know that this information that I have given you ... nobody in the world knows it. All my friends are dying one after the other. Some of them blew themselves up in Afghanistan, and there are many people that I know that are ready, I am telling you that there are two groups ready for martyrdom, the first group leaves the 25th, the 20th of the next month for Iraq, through Syria, there are four ready for martyrdom. You don't have to say anything to Mohammed, even though he knows everything, and knows those that are leaving on the 20th, but you don't know anything, OK?

  Yahia: OK, and Ahmed?

  Ahmed: Yes, he is there.

  Yahia: The passports?

  Ahmed: Everything is ready, the passports are not a problem, they are already ready.

  Yahia: Egyptian passports?

  Ahmed: The Egyptian passports are not OK. They were already bought in Spain for two or three hundred euros, it depends on the color. Passports from France, Morocco, Syria, England, and Pakistan, you can find them at the market, it's not a problem. Listen, your brother Mohammed knows everything, but I tell you again, beware, this is the first lesson I give you, I have meant to tell you this for a long time: nothing on the phone.

  Yahia: Not even the call centers?

  Ahmed: Nothing, nothing, when the moment comes you don't have to use anything, it's the first lesson, if you have a phone card throw it away.

  Yahia: My Egyptian passport is not worth anything?

  Ahmed: No, the Egyptian passport doesn't work.

  Yahia: I am ready to sacrifice myself.

  Ahmed: Brother Yahia, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you have to keep calm, consider yourself already in paradise just for the fact that you are ready to sacrifice your life.

  [The men recite verses of the Quran together.]

  Ahmed: You have to know that jihad has different mechanisms, different components. There is knowledge, information, study.... Why don't you take care of obtaining information on the [Egyptian] Embassy and on the different movements of the diplomats and the employees? Try to get to know somebody from the embassy, because we need to know, always, if our brothers have to come in or out. You have to know that our brothers need information on the consulates in Europe. We have to develop this issue. Anyways, if you make a commitment, don't forget that you already have a commitment with God. I met several brothers of jihad, may God bless them, and they didn't have documents, anything, but they are ready for jihad, they don't have money, they don't have anything ... oh my God ... oh my God.... You have to know that there was a group that was ready in Holland, then, for different reasons, the knot was untied and now there is just one who is ready, he is worried, he just got out of jail, but everything at due time. You have to know that I met other brothers, that little by little I created with just a few things, before they were drug dealers, criminals, I introduced them to faith and now they are the first ones to ask me when it's the moment for jihad. Some of them went to Afghanistan and others are praying and waiting ... [ ... I You have to know that we are emigrants of God. We are for jihad, we believe in God and in his Prophet Mohammed, because everything is allowed, including marrying Christian women because we need the documents. We have to be everywhere, in Germany, Holland, London. We are dominating Europe with our presence. We need the women to obtain the documents, because we are for the cause of God and with time you'll learn many things.86

  Italian investigators apparently had been given the confession of the mastermind of the Madrid bombings on a silver platter. A few days later, on June 7, police arrested Ahmed and Yahia inside their Milan apartment and charged them with belonging to a terrorist organization. 87 While the words of Ahmed cannot be taken as completely truthful-they are intended, at least in part, to impress his young recruit-without question his arrest took off the streets a man deeply involved with terrorist activities across Europe. Moreover, Ahmed was the perfect recruiter, a lone wolf who traveled throughout Europe and spotted young radical Muslims who could serve the needs of the organization: "before they were drug dealers, criminals, I introduced them to faith and now they are the first ones to ask me when it's the moment for jihad." His relationship with Yahia provides revealing insights into the process of recruiting young Muslims living in Europe for terrorist activities.

  Ahmed was born in Egypt in 1971; for five years he served in the Egyptian army, where he joined the specialized Explosives Brigade in Port Said. Because Ahmed had a degree in electronics from an Egyptian technical school as well, he was skilled in the two areas most essential for making bombs. According to Egyptian authorities, Ahmed was also a member of the Islamic Jihad, and, in the mid1990s he served time at the Abu Za'abal jail, a facility that the Egyptian government uses to detain Islamic fundamentalists and other political prisoners.88 He is first known to have been in Europe in 1999, when he was arrested by French author ities as he attempted to cross the French border from Germany without documents. He was detained for a few months and then sent to a camp in Lebach, a small town near the French border, where German authorities place asylum seekers while they process their applications.89

  Ahmed immediately applied for political asylum, claiming to be a Palestinian-a tactic common among Middle Eastern immigrants, since most European governments give Palestinians preferential treatment. Because Ahmed had no documents, his claim could not be verified. Nevertheless, German authorities granted him temporary asylum and allowed him to stay in Lebach, even though Palestinian representatives who had interviewed him reported their doubts about his story.90 A conversation between Ahmed, Yahia, and another guest in the Milan apartment reveals other sophisticated methods that the Egyptian used to hide his real identity from German officials:

  Hussam: Have you been to Germany?

  Ahmed: Yes, I lived in Germany

  Hussam: Is Germany a nice place?

  Ahmed: Yes, they are organized, if you work or study and they are not after you, they respect you. They are people who wake up early, they are workers, at 8 they are already at work, did you hear that, Y
ahia? But, unfortunately, half of my friends in Germany have been arrested. In Germany if you have documents you live well; I had a lot of Palestinian friends. For them it's easy to get the documents, they ask for political asylum. I also lived with them, in a refugee center. The police are very strict there, especially since they have begun taking fingerprints.

  Yahia: Were you wanted?

  Ahmed: Yes. Once I scratched my fingers, once I used transparent glue and another time, when I was at the refugee center and I claimed to be Palestinian, I used a product ... there is a special product that modifies fingerprints. I drove them crazy. In Germany I had to be ready because every two or three months they took your fingerprints, so you should keep the product with you. This way they never find you, you confuse them, they will never find out your nationality.

  [The men laugh together.]

  Ahmed: In Germany the thing was repetitive, they came by surprise every month, two months, three months ... but I drove them crazy, one day they arrested me and then they freed me, they told me, "It's not you." I know a way that allows me to change my fingerprints continuously, they are never the same. They had this law and they would get me every two, three months and I continuously changed my fingerprints. By now they erase by themselves, not even the American services will find me, they cannot find me [in their database].