German Terror Suspects in UK – Robert & Christian´s Mysterious Journey

by Florian Flade

The pair seemed rather nervous when British border police asked the two German nationals what their reason for entering the UK was. They originally had planned to travel to Brussels, Robert B. (23) and Christian E. (28) told the police officers in Dover, the coastal town where they had arrived via ferry on July 15th. Plane tickets were too expensive, the two Germans said, so they decided to travel to London instead.

The police officers became suspicious and checked the luggage of both men. What they found was not really the usual tourist equipment: Jihadi propaganda material as documents and a laptop computer bearing an Al-Qaida flag as a sticker. Robert B. and Christian E. were arrested as terror suspects.

A few weeks later British prosecution accuses the two German converts of possessing material which can be used to build bombs and explosives and to plan terrorist attacks in the UK. Amongst the material found when B. and E. had entered the UK was a document titled “How to build a bomb in your Mom´s kitchen” – a article from the English-language Online magazine “Inspire” produced by Al-Qaida in Yemen. “44 Ways of supporting Jihad”, a essay by US-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was also part of the material in E. and B.´s possession.

In Solingen, a mid-size town in Western Germany, the Muslim community was shocked by the news of the two men´s arrest in Britain: Robert B. and Christian E. are both from Solingen.

Back in 2010 Robert B.´s mother had contacted the German Verfassungsschutz (Interior intelligence agency), told them about her son´s behavior. Robert, a shy and very friendly young boy, wanted to join the military when he was 17 and later successfully finished an apprenticeship. Soon after came in contact with Salafi Islam. Robert´s father had died a few years ago, his mother tells, only three days before his 13th birthday. Within Solingen´s Salafi community the White convert found new friends and an environment he was happy in. That was in January 2009.

“He only talked about paradise, about infidels going to hell and that I should wear a burqa”, Robert´s mother says. Her son began wearing long robes, reading the Quran and was regularly visiting mosques and lectures by fellow convert and Salafi preacher Pierre Vogel. Week after week Robert B. who called himself “Abdel Rahman” was not sleeping at home in his bed but instead spent nights in the mosque.

There he had met another White convert, Christian E. aka “Abdul Malik” , who had converted to Islam back in 2003. E., a blonde and blue-eyed 28 year-old man, who loves ice hockey and Rap music, was a well-known figure in the radical Salafi community, somebody keeping a low-profile but was known to German counter-terrorism. As the two befriended, both converts were monitored because of their behavior. My sources say B. and E. were known supporters of Jihad, and also important figures within Germany´s Islamist community regarding travels to the Pakistani terror camps.

B. and E. traveled to the Middle East themselves last year. In Egypt the converts planned to learn Arabic. Due to the political unrest and serious money issues both of them returned to Germany earlier this year.

In one of the mosques in Solingen Robert B. and Christian E. visited the Friday prayers on a regular basis. Very often both of them stayed after the lecture, sitting in the mosque with their laptops, talking to other Muslims and the Imams. The mosque leaders remember the converts as nice and pretty calm people, not talking about politics or Jihad openly.

“One day, police showed up”, a mosque official told me, “they told me Abdul Malik and Abdel Rahman were in contact with dangerous people. I should not let them infiltrate the community. So I decided to ask them to leave the mosque and they did without protesting.”

Christian E. was living at various places in Solingen before moving to a different mosque (“Masjid Ar-Rahman”) where his name even appeared on the mailbox. It seems like the Salafi mosque “Deutsch-Islamistes Zentrum” in the North of Solingen became his home before he travelled to Britain in July.

Still unknown is the reason for the convert´s journey to England. It is very likely one or both of them have been in touch with Islamists in the UK, possibly via Facebook. In recent months the connection between UK and German Islamists has grown stronger, mainly through the cooperation of Salafi Media. Question remains why Robert B. and Christian E. did not even try to hide the propaganda material they were importing to the UK.

The father of Christian E. says his son is not a terrorist. All material found in Christian´s luggage “is freely available on the Internet by everyone”, he says. According to British Anti-Terror Laws the possession of material that can be used to plan and carry out a terrorist attack is a crime that can lead to several years in prison.

Up to August 24th both Germans are held in custody at Belmarsh Prison in London. The next hearing is scheduled in the coming days. During the first hearing back in July, Christian E. and Robert B. did refuse to rise for the judge and instead told the court they would only submit themselves to Allah.

A lawyer from Solingen is now trying to get access to Robert B.. He says he will try to visit the arrested terror suspect, who is held in single detention and is under constant survaillance, together with B.´s mother next week. The lawyer fears a long prison term if Robert B. is sentenced in the UK. Therefore he is planning to get him sent back to Germany so he can be put on trial there.

German Terror Tourists – Two Jihadis From Germany Arrested in AfPak

by Florian Flade

UPDATE: According to German newspaper DER SPIEGEL, the arrested Moroccan terror suspect is 30-year-old named Mohammed A. who had lived in Berlin before he left the country in 2010 after his permission of residence expired. A. and another Islamist from Berlin traveled to Pakistan via Turkey. In Turkey, Mohammed A. was arrested but later released. US military officials, DER SPIEGEL writes, claim that A. was planning a suicide bombing on a government compound in the Zabul Province of Afghanistan. He is now being held at Bagram Airbase Prison.

On May 8 US troops started a nighttime military operation in the village of Ghazi Kali in the Qalat district of Zabul Province in southern Afghanistan. Their target was a local Taliban facilitator. The operation resulted in the killing of ten suspected insurgents and the capture of several individuals believed to be al-Qaida associated Jihadi militants. Most of those killed and captures were Non-Afghans, among them Saudi, Turkish, Pakistani and French nationals.

One of those arrested during the raid is a Moroccan man who is now in US military custody. ISAF said in a statement the person is an al-Qaida recruit who was based in Germany before coming to Afghanistan. He is described as a “foreign fighter facilitator”.

According to ISAF the interrogation of the Moroccan resulted in valuable intelligence about al-Qaida´s activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “After his capture the facilitator provided details about his personal travel from Germany (…) He also observed foreigners from many countries converging in Pakistan to conduct attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan”, the ISAF statement reads.

“Additional information provided by the facilitator on the mechanics of getting foreign fighters to Afghanistan will serve to support targeting the network of facilitators who bring global terrorism to bear on coalition forces and civilians in Afghanistan”

Like foreign Jihadi militants the unnamed Moroccan traveled from Europe to Iran and then to Pakistan were he was trained in a terrorist training camp. “During a delay in his travels in Iran, the facilitator stated he was approached to become a suicide bomber,” ISAF claims, “However, he declined because of his goal to take part in the Global Jihad.”

German officials would not comment on the arrest of the suspected German-based Jihadi. The German Foreign Ministry told me they are aware of this report but cannot provide any further information or even confirm that US Military officials have contacted their German counterparts in that case.

Some information has surfaced though about the person. Allegedly he is not a German citizen but he lived in German for some years. The man´s permit of residence expired a while ago. Allegedly he left Germany a while ago and traveled to Pakistani Waziristan where he joined al-Qaida.

Another case of a suspected German Jihadi terrorist surfaced last weekend. Pakistani security forces arrested the German citizen Michael W. in April who is accused of being a member of a terrorist organization. W. was a resident of Bonn before he traveled to Pakistani terror camps last year. The convert was allegedly a friend of German al-Qaida spokesman Bekkay Harrach (who was killed in 2010 during an attack on Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan). Both had attended so-called “Islam Seminaries” in Germany, some of which Harrach had organized.

A spokesman for Germany´s Foreign Ministry confirmed in a phone call that a German national is in Pakistani custody and is being looked after by German Embassy staff in Islamabad. One of the German officials working at the Embassy has already visited W. who is expected to be extradited to Germany soon. No arrest warrant had been issued against Michael W. before he was arrested by Pakistani authorities.

Jihad in Pakistan – Notes On IMU´s Latest Video

by Florian Flade

Two weeks ago, the Pakistan-based terrorist organization “Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan” (IMU) released its newest German-language propaganda video. According to IMU it is only the first part of a several new videos dealing with life and Jihad in the Pakistani tribal areas.
Though the 50-minute long piece of Jihadi propaganda – which of course featured German Jihadi brothers Yassin and Mounir Chouka – does not contain much new information about the situation in Waziristan or the current stage of German militants in the terror training camps, there is some quite interesting content worth mentioning. Here is what I noticed watching the new IMU-video:

The New German

IMU claims there is a steady stream of German nationals – including whole families and single women – coming to Pakistan to join the group in the Jihad against the Pakistani military and NATO-forces in Afghanistan. In reality, the number of those Islamists migrating from Germany is far lower than IMU wants its Internet supporters to believe. Nevertheless the latest video from Waziristan indeed shows a new German recruit named “Abu Laith”.

The man´s face is blurred but from his speech one can tell he is probably from among the second or even third generation of Muslim immigrants – born and raised in Germany. At the moment German counter-terrorism officials are trying to figure out if the real identity of “Abu Laith” is known.

IMU and the Tehrik e-Taliban

Of course it is not a secret that the Uzbek-founded IMU and the Pakistani Tehrik e-Taliban (TTP) are close allies, sharing training camps, fighters and resources. In the newest IMU-video three high-ranking TTP leaders are featured, two of them seen alongside IMU-fighters and leadership.

Wali ur-Rehman, TTP´s No.2 man, is seen giving a speech to a group mixed up with Taliban and IMU militants somewhere in the mountains of North Waziristan. He was choosen by the TTP Shura as the deputy leader of the organization.

Ur-Rehman´s boss, Hakimullah Mehsud, the Amir of TTP and Pakistan´s most-wanted terrorist, is seen in the new IMU footage, visiting the IMU´s new Uzbek leader Uthman Adil. Hakimullah Mehsud even tells some personal anecdotes on how he met and experienced the late IMU-leader Tahir Yuldashev (alias “Qari Tahir Jaan”), who was killed in a US-drone attack in 2009.
“The mujahideen of Tahir Jaan”, Hakimullah says, “have taught us the meaning of Jihad, long before I had ever heard of it (…) The blood of Tahir Jaan will awake thousands of new Tahir Jaans.”

Jihad in Tajikistan

IMU-Trainingcamp November 2010

A prison-break set free a number of IMU-members in Tajikistan last year. Only a few weeks later, on September 19 2010, militants attacked Tajik military targets including an army convoy in the Rasht Region, near the border with Afghanistan, killing at least 23 Tajik soldiers.

IMU´s streaming in to North Afghanistan has been described by many observers. From Waziristan the group tries to infiltrate Afghanistan and then declaring Jihad against the state governments of the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia – IMU´s Jihad is coming back to it´s birthplace.

The German militant Mounir Chouka confirms for the first time IMU´s Tajikistan agenda.”We have an army at the service of the Muslims, Chouka says, “Right now it is taking part in the Jihad of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.”

Qari Hussain´s Face

For the first time ever, the IMU´s German propaganda tape reveals the face of the Pakistan Taliban´s chief trainer for suicide bombers – Qari Hussain. The notorious militant ranks high on Pakistan´s most-wanted list and has avoided cameras and the media spotlight in the past. Hussain contacted Pakistani journalists several times via phone but refused being filmed.
IMU´s German spokesman Mounir Chouka describes Qari Hussain as “one of the heroes of the Jihad in Pakistan”.

IMU´s Arab Propaganda Chief?

During one scene of the new IMU video – labeled as a history lessons about Jihad in Waziristan – a militant named “Sheikh Abu Ahmad al-Madani”, with his face hidden under a Keffiyah scarf, appears sitting in front of a laptop computer. He is allegedly part of IMU´s media staff. The name reference “al-Madani” is not a clear indicator of where this Arab IMU fighter is from, but usually “al-Madani” refers to someone originating from the Arabian-Peninsula, often from Yemen.

Question is: How many Arabs are among IMU? It seems not all Arab Jihadis coming to Waziristan are ending up in al-Qaida.

“Islamic Emirate of Waziristan”

Gun Shop in Waziristan

German-born Jihadi Mounir Chouka tells the viewer of a fairytale Islamic Emirate being build by the mujahideen in Waziristan at this very moment. “We have our own treasury, doctors, hospitals, schools, judges, pharmacies, our own intelligence agency (…) there are gun shops”, Chouka claims, “We even have our own unit responsible for the well-being of the Muhajiroun, about 30 brothers tasked only with this work.”

IMU fighting German Troops in Afghanistan

German Spy Drone – Shot Down (?) in Kunduz

At least since IMU released a video in 2010, showing their members fighting in the North Afghan province of Kunduz fighting German troops, the presence of IMU in that region of Afghanistan is known and confirmed.  IMU it seemed from the propaganda tape, was responsible for one of the deadliest attacks on German soldiers in Afghanistan. The so-called “Good-Friday Incident” was a bloody ambush on a German military convoy in the Char Darrah district of Kunduz in which three German soldiers were killed when an IED exploded next to a DINGO military vehicle.

In the latest IMU-video a German military drone is seen, allegedly shot down in summer of 2010. Worth noting is: German military admitted it had lost a drone during a survaillance flight due to technical failure. The spy plane was later discovered and taken by Taliban forces.

Western Jihadis

Last but not least – IMU presents a trailer for the next part of the video series, featuring a Western Jihadi training in Waziristan. The masked man has a strong English accent and my guess is he is most likely a Asian immigrant from either the United States or Australia.