Germany says al-Qaida planned attack in 2000

Prosecutor says evidence shows Hamburg cell began plotting in 1999

KARLSRUHE, Germany, Aug. 29 —  German authorities have evidence the Hamburg al-Qaida cell that included three of the Sept. 11 suicide pilots was planning an attack on the World Trade Center as early as April or May 2000, the country’s federal prosecutor said Thursday.

ANNOUNCING CHARGES against Mounir El Motassadeq, the only person in German custody in connection with the attacks, federal Prosecutor Kay Nehm said the Hamburg hijackers had begun planning an attack on the United States in October 1999 at the latest, and had decided on their target six months later.
       Nehm said hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi mentioned the World Trade Center explicitly as a target in a conversation with a librarian either in April or May 2000.
       “There will be thousands of dead. You will all think of me,” al-Shehhi told the librarian, according to Nehm.
       El Motassadeq, a 28-year-old Moroccan citizen arrested in Hamburg two months after the attacks, was charged Wednesday with more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization. Prosecutors expect a trial to begin later this year in a Hamburg superior court.
       The month before his arrest, his name appeared on a U.S. list of 370 individuals and organizations with suspected links to the Sept. 11 attacks. When contacted then by The Associated Press, El Motassadeq angrily denied involvement.
       “All of this is false, I have nothing to do with this thing,” he said before hanging up.

The Hamburg cell included hijackers Mohamed Atta, Al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah.
       Authorities believe Atta and al-Shehhi piloted the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, while Jarrah piloted the plane that crashed in a Pennsylvania field.
       
HATRED OF JEWS
       In laying out the charges against El Motassadeq, Nehm gave a detailed account of how the Hamburg cell was formed and how the hijackers trained for their suicide mission, including attending training camps in Afghanistan, flight schools in the United States, and meetings across Europe.
       “All of the members of this cell shared the same religious convictions, an Islamic lifestyle, a feeling of being out of place in unfamiliar cultural surroundings,” Nehm said. “At the center of this stood the hatred of the world Jewry and the United States.”

  Atta, 33, became leader of the group because of his age, the length of time he had been in Germany, his proficiency in German and his organizational skills, Nehm said.
       El Motassadeq directly supported the suicide pilots, arranging for financing of their activities through al-Shehhi’s bank account, including paying for flight schools in Florida, Nehm said.
       Others logisticians in the Hamburg cell included Ramsi Binalshibh, Said Bahaji, and Zakariya Essabar, all being sought on international warrants by German authorities. Nehm said countless others, whose identities are still unknown, in Afghanistan, the Arab World and Germany also were involved.
       “The accused was just as involved in preparing the attacks up until the end as the others who remained in Hamburg,” Nehm said. “He was aware of the commitment to mount a terror attack against the targets chosen by the cell and he supported the planning and preparation for these attacks through multiple activities.”
       Nehm said the plan had been to train either Binalshibh and Essabar as the fourth pilot, but their visas for U.S. were rejected.
       The 90-page indictment against El Motassadeq, which was not released, details the emergence and development of the Hamburg cell, Nehm said.
       “We have also tried as much as possible to expose the relationships between the people involved,” he said.

LOGISTICAL SUPPORT
       Members of the group came to Germany between 1992-97 to study, and by the end of the decade all had converged in Hamburg. El Motassadeq, for example, left Morocco in 1993 to study German in Munster, then moved to Hamburg in 1995 to study electrical engineering at the city’s technical university, which was also attended by Atta and al-Shehhi.
       In November 1999, after the group had already decided to attack the United States, Atta, al-Shehhi, Jarrah and Binalshibh left for an al-Qaida camp near Kandahar, living in a Taliban guest house, Nehm said.
       The second group from the Hamburg cell went to Afghanistan in early 2000, Nehm said.
       Upon their return, Atta, al-Shehhi and Jarrah signed up for flight schools in Florida. While el Motassadeq and the others remained in Germany tending to logistics, the plotters coordinated the attacks during meetings in Europe, including Spain, Nehm said.
       “Besides sharing ideological and military training, the members of the cell coordinated with the international network on the details of the attack and the logistical support,” Nehm said.