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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (40764)	8/29/2002 12:43:57 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Germany Says Hijackers Picked Trade Center as Target in 2000 By DESMOND BUTLER nytimes.com BERLIN, Aug. 29 — The Qaeda terror cell in Hamburg that included three of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers had chosen the World Trade Center as the target of an attack as early April or May 2000, Germany's federal prosecutor said today. Planning for an attack on the United States began in October 1999 at the latest, and the hijackers had decided on their target six months later, the prosecutor, Kay Nehm, said. Advertisement Mr. Nehm, detailing charges against Mounir el-Motassadeq, the only person in German custody in connection with the attacks, said one of the hijackers, Marwan al-Shehhi, had mentioned the World Trade Center as a target in a conversation with a librarian. "There will be thousands of dead," Mr. Shehhi said, according to Mr. Nehm. "You will all think of me." Mr. Motassadeq, a 28-year-old Moroccan arrested in Hamburg two months after the attacks, was charged on Wednesday with more than 3,000 counts of being an accessory to murder and belonging to a terrorist organization. He is expected to go to trial later this year in Hamburg. The month before his arrest, his name appeared on a list in the United States of 370 persons and groups with suspected links to the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Nehm, in outlining the charges against Mr. Motassadeq, gave a detailed account of how the Hamburg cell was formed and how the hijackers trained, including attending training camps in Afghanistan, flight schools in the United States and meetings across Europe. The cell included Mohamed Atta, Mr. Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah. Authorities believe Mr. Atta and Mr. Shehhi piloted the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, while Mr. Jarrah was at the controls of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. "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," Mr. Nehm said. "At the center of this stood the hatred of the world Jewry and the United States." Mr. Atta, 33, was the leader of the group, Mr. Nehm said. Mr. Motassadeq directly supported the hijackers, Mr. Nehm said, arranging for financing of their activities through Mr. Shehhi's bank account/ "The accused was just as involved in preparing the attacks up until the end as the others who remained in Hamburg," Mr. Nehm told reporters. "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."