BOSNIAN SERB COMMENTARY SUGGESTS TERRORISTS ALLOWED TO LEAVE B-H
BBC Monitoring International Reports - August 7, 2007 Tuesday

Text of report by Bosnian Serb newspaper Glas Srpske on 4 August

[Commentary by D. Majstorovic: "Terrorists Covered up Their Tracks"; all Arab names as published]

The B-H Council of Ministers is supposed to consider over the next two months a report on drafting and implementing the so-called "road map" for the return of the six members of the "Algerian Group." This group was extradited to the US authorities in January 2002 on suspicion that it was preparing terrorist attacks on the US and British Embassies.

This was said at the last session of the B-H Parliament's House of Representatives, during a discussion about what had been done for the return of the "Algerian Group" to B-H.

Information on this was requested by B-H Social Democratic Party [SDP] deputy Zlatko Lagumdzija, who was, let us recall, head of the Council of Ministers and B-H diplomacy during the extradition of the "Algerian Group."

The debate on the Algerians and their fate reminded the public of another issue: the "Algerian Group" was only one of many similar groups that were, in the opinion of Western intelligence agencies, as well as domestic and foreign investigators, linked to the international Al-Qa'idah terrorist network.

To recall, the Algerians were uncovered following a telephone call from their leader Belacem Bensayah, also called Merdz, who made telephone calls from his number in Zenica, 032 420 737, on several occasions to Abu Zubejdah, one of Usamah Bin-Ladin's closest associates. As we know, the call was intercepted by the Americans, who, very soon afterward, uncovered the other members of the "Algerian Group," as well as their intentions.

This issue had also been discussed earlier by the coordination team for combating terrorism in B-H, which was formed after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001. This committee recommended to the relevant Federation bodies to revoke the B-H citizenships of all the members of the "Algerian Group," which was done, so the following people were stripped of B-H citizenship, based on the decision of the Federation Interior Ministry: Hadj Boudell, Saber Lahmar, Lakhdar Boumedien, and Mohamed Nechl. The remaining two members, Mustafa Ait Idir and Belacem Bensayah, did not have B-H citizenship. At least not under these names.

It might be interesting to recall that almost all of the "Algerian Group" worked for various Islamic humanitarian organizations in B-H, such as the Saudi High Relief Committee for B-H and the International Charity Foundation, the first humanitarian organization to be banned over its links with international terrorism. That their work had not much to do with humanitarian activities can be seen from the fact that "Algerian Group" leader Belacem Bensayah had $3.5 million in his account at Vakufska Bank.

Apart from the Algerian Group, B-H at the time also offered a safe haven to the so-called "Egyptian Group," which was suspected of direct links with the notorious terrorist group "Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya." Tomislav Limov, former deputy Federation interior minister, revealed at the time that the members of the "Egyptian Group" were Seror Said, also known as Abu Minah, one of the commanders of the notorious El-Mujahidin unit, then Ahmad al-Vakil, Gamal al-Huseini, Hasan al-Nagli, Mamdur Dzabir al-Mitavali, Kaleg Bakarat, Hosni Ibrahim, and Asaraf Hasan. All of them, as Limov said at the time, had B-H citizenship.

Nevertheless, the "Egyptian Group" disappeared from B-H without a trace, just like the so-called "Bologna Group," whose extradition from B-H was requested by Italy. The B-H Federation police also lost Salih Nidal, a Yemeni member of the "Bologna Group," who had been under police surveillance. Another Al-Qa'idah member, Ahmad Zuhair Handala, also disappeared mysteriously from B-H; he was the mastermind of the car bomb in Mostar in 1997.

Handala was linked with the "Hamburg Group," which was accused of organizing the attack on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001. Another Arab in B-H, Tunisian Karaj Kamel Bin Ali, was suspected by German investigators of links to the "Hamburg Group." He has been in Zenica prison for several years now.

[Box] Passports

Several years ago, the influential Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Alija Izetbegovic, the Bosniak wartime leader and post-war B-H Presidency chairman, distributed almost 13,000 passports to Islamic holy warriors, of whom 3,000 were the most extreme terrorists. To recall, B-H passports have been found on terrorists' bodies in Kabul, Chechnya, Iraq, and elsewhere. Muhammad Ibrahim Junuz al-Hajari, killed leader of a Saudi Al-Qa'idah cell, was also on the list of B-H citizens.

Source: Glas Srpske, Banja Luka, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 4 Aug 07

Copyright 2007 Financial Times Information
Copyright 2007 BBC Monitoring Service , Source: The Financial Times Limited

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