- The Observer, Sunday September 30 2001
Djamel Beghal, 35, was a regular at Finsbury Park mosque in north London and lived in Britain for at least three years. He was arrested in Dubai in July and stands accused of plotting a series of European terrorist 'spectaculars' including a plan to fly a helicopter full of explosives into the US embassy in Paris.
Yesterday one of Beghal's commanders, 23-year-old Kamel Daoudi, who was arrested in Leicester last week, was extradited to France. Both were members of Takfir-wal-Hijra (Anathema and Exile) whose members have been described as the 'most dangerous people alive'. Islamic sources told The Observer that even bin Laden once thought the group 'beyond the pale'.
US investigators now believe that the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon were planned in Germany using up to 30 people, with individuals who lived or once lived in Britain playing a crucial role. It has emerged that, hours after the 11 September attacks, German intelligence agents intercepted telephone conversations between followers of Osama bin Laden during which they overheard terrorists refer to 'the 30 people travelling for the operation'.
The FBI knows that 19 suspected hijackers died and is searching for two other hijack teams comprising 11 others. The agency claims that one of these was Algerian pilot Lotfi Raissi, who had been living in Berkshire, two miles from Heathrow airport. The FBI suspects Raissi played a key role, teaching four of the hijackers how to fly, including the pilot who crashed into the Pentagon. Raissi, who is in custody in London, denies the allegations.
German agents also intercepted a call from America between French-Moroccan Zacarias Moussaoui, who once lived in Brixton, and the Hamburg cell of bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisa tion, linking the 25-year-old to the attacks. Moussaoui was arrested in Minnesota in August after flying school instructors became suspicious that he wanted to know how to steer a Boeing 747 but not how to take off or land. Moussaoui cheered from his cell as television pictures showed the planes crashing into the World Trade Centre.
German security services yesterday arrested three Arab nationals on suspicion of planning attacks on Germany. In Britain, security services will now come under pressure to explain why Beghal and his associates were allowed to operate here, running terrorist cells across Europe.
One Algerian living in London who knew Beghal said: 'Believe me, you do not want these people in your country... they will kill anybody, including their own family, if they are caught smoking or drinking.'
