Macaca sylvanus
05-04-2010, 05:23 PM
News report on recently declassified information:
AL QAEDA TEAM ‘CAME TO GIBRALTAR TWICE’
In the first months of 2002, an international intelligence operation - Operation Gibraltar - was initiated to uncover an Al-Qaida plot in Morocco to attack NATO warships in Gibraltar. Although rumours of an attack on US ships in the Strait emerged at that time an anti-terrorist watchdog known as the The NEFA (Nine Eleven Finding Answers) Foundation has issued a report that claims that terrorist operatives came to Gibraltar twice before Moroccan authorities foiled their plans.The report says that intelligence services from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Morocco worked around the clock to unravel the plot.
In early 2002, Moroccan intelligence officers flew to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to interview 17 Moroccan prisoners.The report says that while interviews were being conducted in Guantanamo, in Morocco, authorities simultaneously questioned recently arrested Al-Qaida suspects. A mole provided information about an attack being organized in Morocco.The information collected through the interviews was shared with Moroccan authorities, who began to focus on two heavily populated districts in the main cities of Rabat and Casablanca. Authorities narrowed their investigation to three Saudis and the Moroccans who were living in Casablanca. According to the NEFA Foundation suspects were identified and put under surveillance in three cities: Tangier, Fčz, and Casablanca.
Three operatives established covers but Moroccan officials tailed the group. In April 2002 they received information that Zuhair Hilal Mohamed Al-Tabayiti (or Tbaiti) had entered the Spanish enclave of Melilla in northern Morocco. Al-Tabayiti was placed under surveillance for a month, during which time he traveled extensively around Morocco and repeatedly entered Melilla and another Spanish enclave, Ceuta. Tabayiti claimed that he was a businessman interested in opening an importexport business and also inquired about the purchase of Zodiac speedboats. In total, the group is alleged to have travelled to Gibraltar twice. Utilizing a technique previously used by Al-Qaida, a second “logistics” team would take over from the quartermasters to bring in weapons and explosives. The attack itself was to be carried out by a group of suicide bombers specially trained for this mission.
In late April, Tabayiti received a call from outside the country to return to Saudi Arabia. On May 12, 2002, when he was ready to board a plane at Casablanca airport, Moroccan intelligence officials arrested him, along with another Saudi, Hilal Jaber al-Assiri, and two Moroccan women; between the four of them, they had $10,000 cash in their possession. The men gave up the name of the third Saudi man, Abdallah M’Sefer Ali al-Ghamdi, who was arrested the next day in Agadir in the south of Morocco.
chronicle.gi
04/05
Original NEFA Report: http://www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/dots%282%29operationgibraltar.pdf
Gibraltar Chronicle article: http://www.chronicle.gi/headlines_details.php?id=18897
AL QAEDA TEAM ‘CAME TO GIBRALTAR TWICE’
In the first months of 2002, an international intelligence operation - Operation Gibraltar - was initiated to uncover an Al-Qaida plot in Morocco to attack NATO warships in Gibraltar. Although rumours of an attack on US ships in the Strait emerged at that time an anti-terrorist watchdog known as the The NEFA (Nine Eleven Finding Answers) Foundation has issued a report that claims that terrorist operatives came to Gibraltar twice before Moroccan authorities foiled their plans.The report says that intelligence services from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Morocco worked around the clock to unravel the plot.
In early 2002, Moroccan intelligence officers flew to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to interview 17 Moroccan prisoners.The report says that while interviews were being conducted in Guantanamo, in Morocco, authorities simultaneously questioned recently arrested Al-Qaida suspects. A mole provided information about an attack being organized in Morocco.The information collected through the interviews was shared with Moroccan authorities, who began to focus on two heavily populated districts in the main cities of Rabat and Casablanca. Authorities narrowed their investigation to three Saudis and the Moroccans who were living in Casablanca. According to the NEFA Foundation suspects were identified and put under surveillance in three cities: Tangier, Fčz, and Casablanca.
Three operatives established covers but Moroccan officials tailed the group. In April 2002 they received information that Zuhair Hilal Mohamed Al-Tabayiti (or Tbaiti) had entered the Spanish enclave of Melilla in northern Morocco. Al-Tabayiti was placed under surveillance for a month, during which time he traveled extensively around Morocco and repeatedly entered Melilla and another Spanish enclave, Ceuta. Tabayiti claimed that he was a businessman interested in opening an importexport business and also inquired about the purchase of Zodiac speedboats. In total, the group is alleged to have travelled to Gibraltar twice. Utilizing a technique previously used by Al-Qaida, a second “logistics” team would take over from the quartermasters to bring in weapons and explosives. The attack itself was to be carried out by a group of suicide bombers specially trained for this mission.
In late April, Tabayiti received a call from outside the country to return to Saudi Arabia. On May 12, 2002, when he was ready to board a plane at Casablanca airport, Moroccan intelligence officials arrested him, along with another Saudi, Hilal Jaber al-Assiri, and two Moroccan women; between the four of them, they had $10,000 cash in their possession. The men gave up the name of the third Saudi man, Abdallah M’Sefer Ali al-Ghamdi, who was arrested the next day in Agadir in the south of Morocco.
chronicle.gi
04/05
Original NEFA Report: http://www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/dots%282%29operationgibraltar.pdf
Gibraltar Chronicle article: http://www.chronicle.gi/headlines_details.php?id=18897