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French say suspect plotted to blow up U.S. Embassy
10/03/2001
By GREGORY KATZ / The Dallas Morning News
PARIS – French television and radio stations reported Tuesday that a suspect in a French prison had confessed to plotting to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris after he was ordered to do so by Osama bin Laden's deputy at a terror camp in Afghanistan.
The suspect, Djamel Beghal, is a French-Algerian Muslim who was brought back to France several days ago after being imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates after traveling in July on a fraudulent passport. The Associated Press, quoting French judicial officials, said Mr. Beghal, a frequent visitor to Mr. bin Laden's training camps, had given authorities compelling details describing his recruitment.
The development, while denied by Mr. Beghal's attorney, could buttress the case against Mr. bin Laden and his top associates, who are accused by the Bush administration of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
Mr. Beghal, 35, has emerged as a key figure in a sprawling plot to attack important U.S. facilities in France – including the embassy, the consulate in Marseilles and the U.S. cultural center in Paris – that was broken up by police raids in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Britain, and Spain.
Radio station Europe 1 reported that Mr. Beghal has told French officials that he agreed to attack the embassy during a meeting in Afghanistan in March with Abu Zubaydah, a key associate of Mr. bin Laden. He described the agreement, reached at a clandestine military training camp, as "a pact."
Before the attack could take place, he was picked up on suspicion of terrorist activity at the airport in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates as he was returning to Europe from Afghanistan in July. His frequent trips to Afghanistan had aroused attention.
The radio station, which said it had seen his written statement, reported Tuesday that after Mr. Beghal was taken into custody in the United Arab Emirates, he met with Muslim religious leaders who persuaded him that he had a duty to reveal the plot against U.S. facilities in France.
Told of co-conspirators
Since then, he has been cooperating with authorities, providing information about roughly 20 co-conspirators in other countries who were first placed under surveillance and then arrested. Nonetheless, police cannot be certain they have taken all of the so-called "sleepers" into custody.
Late Tuesday, Mr. Beghal's lawyer, Fabrice Dubest, said that his client had denied receiving orders to attack the U.S. Embassy. But officials said they still take his earlier claims very seriously.
French officials launched a formal investigation of Mr. Beghal and his associates on Sept. 10, the day before terrorists believed to be linked to Mr. bin Laden attacked targets in the United States with devastating results.
It is not yet known whether some of the plotters allied with Mr. Beghal in Europe were aware of the plans to attack the United States or if the terror cells were operating independently, as is often the case in terrorist organizations where operational security is vital.
It is not believed that Mr. Beghal knew of the U.S. plan – if he had, it is thought that he would have told authorities about it once he began cooperating, a development that might have given U.S. agents a chance to prevent the tragedy.
But the details that emerged Tuesday suggest that Mr. Bin Laden's operatives had specific, advanced plans for bloody attacks in France.
Suicide attack detailed
After 11 hours of extensive interrogation conducted by anti-terrorism Judge Jean Louis Bruguiere on Monday, Mr. Beghal said that the plan called for a Tunisian man to breach the embassy security perimeter with explosives strapped to his body in a suicide attack, according to broadcast reports Tuesday.
The Tunisian, identified as 30-year-old Nizar Trabelsi, was arrested in Belgium on Sept. 13 when police who had him under surveillance decided they had to act immediately because of the successful attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Officials found chemicals used for making explosives in his apartment during the raid.
Like Mr. Beghal, Mr. Trabelsi is believed to have trained at Mr. bin Laden's terror camps in Afghanistan.
The group also planned to explode a truck bomb outside the government-run U.S. Cultural Center in downtown Paris, Mr. Beghal told the judge, according to broadcast reports.
Earlier police reports indicated that the plotters were also assessing the feasibility of packing a helicopter with explosives and slamming it into the embassy, which has been given protection by U.S. and French agents after officials learned of the threat.
Possible NATO hit
Officials have said the plotters were also studying a possible attack on NATO facilities in Brussels. In addition, they said, targets in Strasbourg, France – home of the European Parliament – were being considered.
Mr. Beghal's role, the radio station reported, was to study the embassy's security operation and make recommendations about its weak spots.
French police have at least eight of Mr. Beghal's alleged co-conspirators in custody, including Kamel Daoudi, another French-Algerian who managed to escape the police raid but was arrested in Britain and returned to a French prison Sunday. He was suspected of being in charge of logistics for the group.
French newspapers report that four of the men were destroying documents and computer software when they were arrested. Others were able to destroy the computer chips on their mobile phones to prevent police from gaining information.