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Al-Qaeda: the link and threat to Europe
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| 16 January 2003 |
Al-Qaeda: the link and threat to Europe
By S. Gorka
Arrests of individuals allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network in Europe have raised questions among law enforcement authorities and the intelligence community (IC). Are these events the result of a heightened level of efficiency and co-operation among European law enforcement authorities and elements of the IC, or are they the result of a heightened level of activity and increased number of terrorist operatives within the countries involved?
These interdictions have occurred in Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy. In some cases individuals were apprehended with the means and necessary intelligence to execute an unconventional attack. In other cases they could not be linked to an imminent atrocity, but were identifiably part of the 'Arab Mujahideen' network trained and linked to Al-Qaeda.
Terrorism Security Monitor looks at existing trends with an eye to describing the extent of the network involved and the likely threat posed by members who are still at large.
The penetration of Al-Qaeda-connected operatives is greatest in those nations of the European Union that have liberal asylum and immigration laws, and those countries that maintain established and strong immigrant communities within well-defined geographic boundaries.
The problem has grown to such proportions that the Dutch internal security service, the Binnenlandse Veiligheidsdienst (BVD), stated in an official threat assessment that potential terrorists have singled out Holland - as a result of its lenient attitude to asylum and religious freedom. The BVD suggests the country is seen by potential terror groups as a safe haven where they can set up operational bases for furthering their cause. Dutch media has estimated the existence of several hundred terrorists on Dutch soil.
Technically, those arrested since 11 September have often been resident immigrants, but in France, non-Arab, previously non-Muslim, French nationals have also been detained, having similar Islamic conversion stories to that of shoe bomber, Richard Reid - (a resident) of the UK.
The unitary Schengen frontier around the continental members of the EU makes EU-nation-state issued travel documents all the more appealing, given the freedom of movement guaranteed to the holder once across the Schengen frontier controls.
From post-arrest questioning, it is clear that once inside the given EU member state, the early Arab Maktab al-Khidmat ('service bureau') system with its affiliated charities, as jointly set-up and eventually usurped by Osama bin Laden, continues to function on the continent and the UK. Along with remaining bureaus, certain mosques have become recruiting and meeting places for lower-level operatives, especially those associated with the radical and charismatic imams.
Overlapping this network is a string of charitable organisations, often linked to Islamic philanthropists resident in Saudi Arabia and several schools which, if not overtly Islamist, are linked via board members or in other ways to the previous net.
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