AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW Known to the authorities: Unknown. Networks and associates: Al-Qaeda: 665 -! Osama bin Laden [Trabelsi claimed to have met Osama bin Laden in 1999]; Mohammed Amor Sliti, Tarek Ben Habib Maaroufi [Convicted alongside Trabelsi for running 666 a recruitment network for al-Qaeda and trafficking in false documents. Trabelsi met Amor Sliti 667 in Brussels and maintained contact while both men were in Afghanistan in 1999]; Richard Reid 668 669 [Stayed with Trabelsi, who has been described as Reid’s handler in the 2001 shoe bomb plot]; 670 Saajid Badat [Badat was sent from Afghanistan to meet Trabelsi in September 2001, who has 671 been described as his handler in the 2001 shoe bomb plot]; David Courtailler [al-Qaeda 672 operative in Europe described as a “close contact’ of Trabelsi”]. US Embassy and Cultural Centre plot (2001) -! : Djamel Beghal, Kamel Daoudi [Trabelsi is claimed 673 to have been recruited by Beghal and attended Abu Qatada’s classes in London with Beghal 674 and Daoudi. Beghal claimed Trabelsi was planned to have been the suicide bomber used to 675 attack the US Embassy]; Jerome Courtailler and Mohammed Berkous [Dutch prosecutors claimed wiretaps showed Courtailler and Berkous had been in contact with Trabelsi to arrange a 676 safe house in the Netherlands and passports, and Courtailler was convicted of involvement in 2004]. -! NATO Airbase Plot network: Abdelcrim El-Haddouti [Described as Nizar Trabelsi’s “zealous lieutenant”, El-Haddouti supplied chemical ingredients for bomb-making in the NATO airbase 677 plot]. Finsbury Park Mosque: 678 -! Abu Qatada [Trabelsi attended Qatada’s study sessions in London]. JEROME COURTAILLER Role: Convicted in the Netherlands in 2004 for involvement in the 2001 plot to bomb the US Embassy 679 in Paris. Bio: 680 French national Courtailler was raised with his brother, David, in Bonneville in the French Alps. The son of a butcher, he worked for a time in the trade before his father’s business failed and his parents ! ! 665 O’Neill, S. and Daniel McGrory, The Suicide Factory: Abu Hamza and the Finsbury Park Mosque (London: Harper Collins, 2006), p. 227. 666 ‘Men jailed over Al Qaeda anti-NATO plot’, ABC News, 30 September 2003. 667 Shishkin, P., ‘Belgian Trial Provides Look at Terror Logistics’, The Wall Street Journal, 9 July 2003, available at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB105769450730773800, last visited: 9 August 2016. 668 O’Neill, S. and Daniel McGrory, The Suicide Factory: Abu Hamza and the Finsbury Park Mosque (London: Harper Collins, 2006), p. 229. 669 Dodd, V., ‘Former grammar school boy gets 13 years for shoe bomb plot’, Guardian, 23 April 2005, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/apr/23/terrorism.world1, last visited: 9 August 2016. 670 ‘Deposition in U.S. v. Adis Medunjanin’, 29 March 2012, pp. 30, 68. 671 Dodd, V., ‘Former grammar school boy gets 13 years for shoe bomb plot’, Guardian, 23 April 2005. 672 Henley, J., ‘Trial and terror’, Guardian, 18 March 2004, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/mar/18/worlddispatch.alqaida, last visited: 9 August 2016. 673 Bird, S., ‘Quiet existence in Leicester suburb masked complex terrorist network’, The Times, 2 April 2003. 674 ‘The Baker Street connection’, Independent, 6 October 2001. 675 Barnett, A. and Burhan Wazir, ‘From football to terrorism’, Guardian, 7 October 2001. 676 ‘Suspect arrested in foiled embassy plot’, The Chicago Tribune, 23 June 2002, available at: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2002-06- 23/news/0206230444_1_algerian-origin-adel-tobbichi-mohammed-berkous, last visited: 9 August 2016. 677 Osborn, A., ‘Bin Laden disciple jailed for 10 years in Belgium’, Guardian, 23 February 2003, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/oct/01/alqaida.terrorism, last visited: 9 August 2016. 678 ‘The Baker Street connection’, Independent, 6 October 2001. 679 ‘Dutch court jails terror supporters’, BBC News, 21 June 2004. 680 ‘Europe fears Islamic converts may give cover for extremism’, The New York Times, 19 July 2004. ! ! 55 !
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