Just a few days after September
11, 2001, with the fallen twin
towers still smouldering and the
world in turmoil, a group of
people gathered on an
unremarkable street in
Hamburg, looking up at a first-
floor window.
The building at Marienstrasse 54
had by then become the
notorious terrorists’ nest – the
place where Islamic extremists
supposedly had planned the
worst terror attacks the world
had ever seen. Neighbours were
horrified to discover that the 58-
square-metre flat had been
home to Mohammed Atta, who
piloted a plan into the World
Trade Center, and his co-
conspirators.
Manfred Murck at the time was
deputy director in charge of
extremism at Hamburg’s branch
of the Office for the Protection
of the Constitution – Germany’s
domestic intelligence service. He
was actually in hospital on
September 11 after having an
operation on his knee.
By the time he had recovered
enough to call the office, it was
frantic – information had
emerged that some of the
hijackers had lived in his city and
the operation was underway to
work out what had been known
– and to try to sweep up any
supporters still in Hamburg.
Now director of the office,
Murck told The Local that the
disparate group of young men
who were to form the core of
the terror attack – three of the
hijack pilots, Atta, Ziad Jarrah
and Marwan al Shehhi, as well
as some of the more important
organisers – undeniably become
acquainted and radicalised in
Hamburg.
Plans were made in
Afghanistan
But he said the plan to fly planes
into buildings was not formed in
Germany – that came from
senior al-Qaida members in
Afghanistan.
“They were Muslims in the
Diaspora who found each other
at university or at a mosque and
developed their world view
together. And then as a group at
some point radicalised, in
Hamburg, to such a point that
they decided to take part in Jihad
themselves," Murck told The
Local.
"Then they decided to do
something, maybe even become
suicide bombers. That was the
part which took place in
Hamburg.”
They left for training camps in
Afghanistan in late 1999 – having
talked of preparing to fight the
Russians in Chechnya – and were
recruited by al-Qaida.
The US Congress’ Commission
on 9/11 concluded that al-Qaida
leaders including Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed had been planning
to use hijacked planes as
weapons for a considerable time.
The Islamists quickly scooped up
Atta and the others as suitable
operatives who could work
effectively in the United States
without major language or social
problems.
"When then in the spring of
2000 they came back to
Hamburg it was clear to them
that basically they would carry
out the attack with planes,” said
Murck.
“But they were not in Hamburg
for long after that. They went to
the USA in order to train and
prepare. They were hardly here
once the plan had been decided
upon and given to them.”
Under surveillance
The German intelligence services
had had some of the men in
contact with Atta under
surveillance, and had even
tapped a number of phone calls
made by some of the group’s
associates.
But they never had enough to
realise what was happening –
and although other intelligence
services had information which,
had it all been fitted together,
could have conceivably
prevented the attacks, this was
not done.
Afterwards, Hamburg authorities
would discover two of the crucial
helpers, Said Bahaji and Ramzi
Binalshibh, had left just days
before the attacks. Prosecutors
had to content themselves with
men on the outer reaches of the
group.
“It was difficult afterwards to
prosecute those with these
tendencies, who were in the
milieu around this group,” said
Murck.
The federal prosecutors started
around 15 investigations of
people in the Hamburg
grouping, but only two came to
trial – Abdelghani Mzoudi and
Mounir Motassadeq.
Investigations came to nothing
"The others came to nothing due
to a lack of evidence of crimes
having been committed," said
Murck. "The fact is, many of
these radical Islamists have
contact in other cities in this
network of Jihadists, but that is
not enough to prove a crime.”
Charges of accessory to murder
for those killed in the attacks
were eventually dismissed in
Mzoudi’s case – on the
reasoning that if the attack was
not planned in Hamburg he
could not have been involved.
With Motassadeq, Germany
secured the first of only a
handful of convictions of people
in connection with 9/11. He was
found guilty of more than 3,000
counts of accessory to murder
and is now half-way through a
15-year prison sentence.
Yet his lawyer Udo Jacob told
The Local that the conviction was
wrong, based on the assumption
that the plans for the 9/11 attack
were drawn up in Hamburg,
which is a theory no longer
generally accepted.
He is trying to persuade the
German justice system to re-hear
the case, hoping to dig up new
evidence which would convince a
court to acquit and release his
client.
He said the prosecutors’
reasoning was that he must have
known what they were planning,
as he was friends with them – yet
he barely saw them after their
trip to Afghanistan when they
were recruited to the al-Qaida
plot.
A verdict based on
assumption?
“It was a verdict based on a
theory, an assumption,” said
Jacob, who hopes to persuade
Mzoudi to return from his home
in Morocco to Germany to testify
in any new hearing of the
Motassadeq case.
“The Motassadeq case is one
which does not let me go,” said
Jacob. “It was a defeat for us,
but also a defeat for German
justice. It was a wrong verdict. I
hope the justice system takes the
chance to reverse it.”
Another Hamburg associate of
the Atta group, who also has
other connections to al-Qaida, is
Mahmoud Darkazanli, a German
citizen who rejected several
recruitment attempts by German
and American intelligence
services.
He remains at liberty in
Hamburg, said Murck, admitting
there was nothing the authorities
could pin on him.
"We have in Hamburg, in the
years since 2001, extradited
around 15 people. That was
possible – you need more
evidence if you want to
prosecute them but you can
extradite them," he said. "This
was not possible with Mahmoud
Darkazanli for example, as he
has German citizenship.”
Danger still present
He admitted the danger of
terrorism was still present, but
said German authorities were
more effective now than a
decade ago – internally as well
as in terms of cooperation with
their foreign counterparts.
Unfortunately, the tool of
extradition is pretty much the
only one the German authorities
have to get rid of people who
are considered to be a potential
threat, he said.
“We have closed down the al-
Quds mosque in Hamburg too,
depriving Islamists of their most
important meeting place," Murck
said. "But we know there are
people here who support the
idea of Jihad and who will
perhaps join the fight.”

bobot:


“We have closed down the al-
Quds mosque in Hamburg too,
depriving Islamists of their most
important meeting place," Murck
said. "But we know there are
people here who support the
idea of Jihad and who will
perhaps join the fight.”

ok