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February 18, 2008

Germany: Muslim Arrested For Assisting Al Qaeda

News from Reuters, ABC.net.au, Associated Press, PR-Inside, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, New York Times and Expatica:

On Friday, German police announced that a Pakistan-born German national had been arrested. The 45-year old man was, in accordance with German press conventions, only named as Aleem N., though a relative revealed in a telephone interview that his full name is Aleem Nasir.

He was arrested at his home in Germersheim in Rheinland-Palatinate in the southwest of Germany on Thursday. Police said he had supplied on three occasions night-vision equipment, money, binoculars and radios to Al Qaeda operatives on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border. He had also made one trip in which he supplied cash only. On each occasion he brought $5,850 in cash. He had made four trips there between April 2005 and June 2007.

On his last visit to Pakistan, he had offered himself up to become a fighter for Al Qaeda, and was sent to a training camp where he received explosives training, stated federal prosecutors in the southern city of Karlsruhe.

According to his lawyer Manfred Gnjidic, Aleem Nasir had been arrested in Pakistan in June 2007 and detained for two months. Gnjidic said that Nasir was tortured by Pakistan's military intelligence service (ISI) while in custody. In September 2007, Nasir gave an interview in which he said his confession had been beaten out of him.

On Friday, a magistrate ordered that Nasir be detained in custody until the investigation of his alleged activities is completed.

Aleem Nasir has been charged with six offenses. Four of these relate to his trips to provide money/equipment to a terrorist organization (Al Qaeda). The fifth charge relates to his apparent attendance at an Al Qaeda camp to learn the use of explosives, and the sixth charge relates to his recruitment of a German-based individual to become involved in terrorism.

The recruitment is said to have taken place in 2006. The recruit had apparently "immediately traveled to a training camp in Afghanistan with N's letter of introduction."

Aleem Nasir, who is a dealer in semi-precious stones, had been released from Pakistani custody on August 21, 2007 after the Supreme Court issued a ruling that would have seen the head of ISI jailed if one of three individuals was not produced in court by that date.

Nasir, along with Hafiz Abdul Basit and Imran Munir, a Pakistani-Malaysian national were released on the same day. The ruling had been made by Pakistan's Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. This individual had been suspended by President Musharraf in March 207 and subsequently reinstated in July. When Musharraf initiated his six-week state of emergency on November 3, 2007, in which martial law was introduced, Chaudhry was replaced as Chief Justice.

Aleem Nasir claimed he had been arrested by the ISI at Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore, on July 18, 2007. Aleem Nasir had been ordered to appear in court on August 21, 2007 and on that date the Attorney-General of Pakistan, Malik Muhammad Qayyum also appeared. Nasir's belongings and travel documents had been returned to him. He was greeted outside the court by his mother.

The Pakistan Attorney General affirmed that Aleem Nasir would not be re-arrested.

When Aleem Nasir arrived back in Germany at Frankfurt airport on August 25, 2007, he was taken by police to a medical clinic in Mainz. Here he was given a blood test and his hand and arm were photographed. This medical examination had been ordered by judge Ulrich Hebenstreit of the Federal Court of Germany, following a request from the Office of the Federal Prosecutor.

it was alleged that Nasir had been injured in one of his "explosives" lessons, when he tried to mix 250 grams of potassium nitrate with red phosphorus. The ensuing explosion had apparently injured his right arm and hand.

Der Spiegel stated that Nasir's examination (which proved inconclusive) was the first time since 9/11, 2001 that German authorities had accepted testimony derived from alleged torture techniques, carried out by ISI operatives in a jail which was said to be run by Americans.

Aleem Nasir has been a German citizen since 1992 and is married to a German wife, by whom he has four children. He admitted that he had been in Wana, the main city of South Waziristan agency in North-West Frontier Province. He claims that he had only been there to purchase lapis lazuli (ultramarine). When arrested, he had in his possession 25 kilograms of the semi-precious rock.

According to ISI, in the training camp where he learned about explosives, he had become injured on his second attempt to make an explosive concoction. The first attempt had been a success. The ISI (Inter-Service Intelligence directorate) claims that the camp was run by Al Qaeda operative Abdul Rehman.

Aleem Nasir had claimed that while being interrogated, he was repeatedly shown photographs of Fritz Gelowicz. These photographs came from German prosecutors' files. Nasir claimed his interrogators had been "fully briefed by the German authorities."

If Nasir's statement is true, it does indicate that the German authorities were closely linked to the operations of Pakistan's notorious ISI. Fritz Gelowicz and two others were arrested on September 4, 2007, accused of plotting to commit terror attacks.

Munich-born Gelowicz, a convert to Islam, had been under surveillance before the arrests were made, following his apparent scouting of a US military barracks in Hanau, near Frankfurt, as a potential bombing target. Gelowicz and his associates were said to be members of the Islamic Jihad Union. This is an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which has a presence in Wana, South Waziristan, where Aleem Nazir was arrested.

The arrests of Gelowicz and his accomplices had come after a joint operation with German authorities and the CIA, code-named "Operation Alberich". No photographs of Gelowicz were released to the media before September 4, 2007, and would not have been publicly available while Aleem Nazir was in jail in Pakistan. But was Aleem Nazir telling the truth?

Lapis lazuli ((Na,Ca)8(AlSiO4)6(S,SO4,Cl)1-2) gained its name "ultramarine" as it is almost exclusively mined in Badakhstan in Afghanistan. This rock contains the rare pigment lazurite, and during the Renaissance, it was the only durable light-fast pigment that produced an authentic blue color. The pure blue skies of Raphael's and Titian's paintings are due to ground lazurite pigment. It was transported across the Black Sea to Europe, hence its name "ultramarine" or "beyond the sea".

For Nazir to be purchasing lapis lazuli in Waziristan where there are links to Afghanistan via the Taliban, seems believable, but it could also be a "cover story" for other activities. His trial when it happens will be extremely interesting.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at February 18, 2008 10:05 AM

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