War on Terrorism - 2064+: Nizar Trabelsi

» Jen_ - Nizar Trabelsi

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Nizar Trabelsi, al-Qaeda terrorist jailed in Belgium since Sept 01, in a phone interview from his cell - says he planned to drive a giant bomb into a US air force bunker in Belgium thought to contain nuclear warheads....

Hmmm - is he telling the truth or is he just making up a good story for the press from his cell? Or even worse - though this interview is he giving coded messages to other al-Qaeda brothers? What's he got to lose?

We've posted about Tabelsi several times above on this thread....he has lots of links to other al-Qaeda operatives ....
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from Steve's list posted above....

http://www.suite101.com/discussion.cfm/i...

14 Nizar Trabelsi ------------------------------------------ PRISONER arrested in Belgium in September 2001
Born in Tunisia. Mr Trabelsi was meant to blow himself up inside the US Embassy in Paris that would signal the start of a series of attacks on European targets. A British Muslim, Rashid Hussain, 29, told The Times UK that he was in Finsbury Park Mosque in the spring of 1998 and saw a former professional footballer, Nizar Trabelsi with Richard Reid and the al-Qaeda lieutenant Djamal Beghal, who, European police believe, recruited the suicide bombers. Hussain told The Times: "Trabelsi and Reid were physically very distinctive. Both were over 6ft 4in tall. They didn't say very much. Both appeared a bit shy and always seemed to be huddled in conversation with Beghal, who was clearly the boss." Trabelsi was allegedly chosen to be al-Qaeda's first suicide bomber in Europe.
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I think the 1st post was this one from 1/5/02 Times UK....connecting Trabelsi to the Finsbury Park mosque crowd including Richard Reid, Djamal Beghal, Jerome & David Courtellier, Zacharias Moussaoui, Abu Hamza al-Masri & Abu Qatada....

'I saw al-Qaeda agent recruit the shoe bomber'

(excerpt)

US security chiefs say they have intercepts of Mr Reid making regular telephone calls to Mr Moussaoui in London. Belgian police are concentrating on Mr Reid’s links with Mr Trabelsi, who like him had been in prison for drug offences and theft.

When Mr Trabelsi was arrested in September police allegedly found an Uzi sub-machinegun and a store of the chemical ingredients for the explosive TATP. TATP was the explosive found in Mr Reid’s boots.
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Steven's 5/23/02 post....

Richard Reid had help with the bomb
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from 9/2/02 MSNBC.com....

Dutch make al-Qaida-related arrests

(excerpt)

Algerian-born Adel Tobbichi was extradited to the Netherlands from Canada two months ago, accused of forging documents and belonging to a terrorist organization suspected of plotting to blow up the U.S. embassy in Paris.

According to the Dutch extradition request to Canada, Tobbichi allegedly provided false travel documents to a man named Nizar Trabelsi to enable him to travel from Europe to Afghanistan to train for a suicide mission in a military camp.

Trabelsi was arrested by Belgian authorities two days after the September 11 attacks.
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and then from 11/17 Straits Times....

<img src="http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/mnt/med..." width=86 height=120 align="left"> 'I am guilty, I will have to pay for it. What I did is not good but I had no choice.' -- Al-Qaeda terror suspect Nizar Trabelsi. PHOTO BY AFP

Al-Qaeda man planned to attack nuclear base

Tunisian says he hoped to blow up bunker in Belgium - the first known Al-Qaeda plot against a nuclear target in Europe

PARIS - An Al-Qaeda terrorist has confessed that he planned to drive a giant explosive device into a United States air force bunker in Belgium believed to contain nuclear warheads - making it the first known plot to attack a nuclear target in Europe.

The warning came as an audio tape believed to have been recorded by Osama bin Laden was broadcast last Tuesday.

It warned of attacks on Western targets, and the FBI said that US landmarks, the aviation, oil and nuclear industries were possible targets.

In an interview with a Belgian radio station RTBF network, Tunisian Nizar Trabelsi, 31, said he had hoped to attack the Kleine Brogel base in eastern Belgium with a bomb similar to those used to blow up the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

Experts said that Kleine Brogel houses nuclear weapons, something the Belgian authorities and Nato have consistently refused to confirm.

Anti-nuclear groups believed that the base contains 20 free-fall nuclear bombs.

'I am guilty, I will have to pay for it. What I did is not good but I had no choice,' the former professional footballer said in a radio interview from his cell.

When asked whether the US Nato base at Kleine Brogel, north-west Belgium, had been his target, he replied: 'Yes, exactly.' He also expressed his 'hatred for Americans'.

Trabelsi's confession marked the first known Al-Qaeda plot to attack a nuclear target in Europe, said the Telegraph.

The former German-league player lived in London in the late 1990s and listened to sermons from the Islamic cleric Abu Qatada, who has been linked to Al-Qaeda.

When arrested last year he was suspected of involvement in an Al-Qaeda plot to attack the American Embassy in Paris.

But Trabelsi denied media reports that the US Embassy was the target.

He said it made no sense to 'buy products here and take them to Paris to stage an attack over there. Myself, I don't even know where that embassy is located'.

Meanwhile, Belgian Justice Minister Marc Verwilghen said that an anti-terrorist judge was to blame for the illegal radio interview.

The ministry has ordered an inquiry into how the RTBF network gained access to Trabelsi.

The inquiry revealed that anti-terrorist judge Daniel Fransen had 'given the management of the Forest prison a series of telephone numbers that Nizar Trabelsi could call', Mr Verwilghen said in a statement on Friday.

'Besides the printed telephone numbers of his three lawyers there was a handwritten number of a cell phone. This was not the number of one of his lawyers, but a journalist from RTBF.

'Trabelsi, using a fixed-line telephone in the prison, was in contact five times by telephone with this journalist, who was able to do an interview,' the statement said.

The interview was illegal under Belgian law.

The Justice Ministry deplored the 'lack of professionalism in this affair' and 'clears of all responsibility the prison management, which was obeying orders from the judge', the Justice Minister's statement said. --AFP

....Jen

-- posted by Jen_