[Mb-civic] How a Town Became a Terror Hub - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

How a Town Became a Terror Hub
Belgian Haven Seen At Heart of Network

By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 24, 2005; Page A01

MAASEIK, Belgium -- The phones at city hall began ringing nonstop one 
morning last year when several masked figures were spotted walking 
through the cobbled streets of this pastoral town. A small panic erupted 
when one of the figures, covered head to ankle in black fabric, appeared 
at a school and scared children to tears.

It turned out the people were not hooded criminals, but six female 
residents of Maaseik who were displaying their Muslim piety by wearing 
burqas , garments that veiled their faces, including their eyes. After 
calm was restored, a displeased Mayor Jan Creemers summoned the women to 
his office.

"I said, 'Ladies, you can be dressed all in Armani black for all I care, 
but please do not cover your faces,' " Creemers recalled. "I tried to 
talk to them about it, but it was impossible. They said, 'We are the 
only true believers of the Koran.' "

What the city elders did not know at the time was that the women came 
from households in which several men had embraced radical Islam and 
joined a terrorist network that was setting up sleeper cells across 
Europe, according to Belgian federal prosecutors and court documents 
from Italy, Spain and France.

Over the next nine months, Belgian federal police arrested five men in 
Maaseik, a town of 24,000 people tucked in the northeast corner of 
Belgium. Each was charged with membership in a terrorist organization, 
the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, a fast-growing network known by 
its French initials, GICM.

With each arrest, investigators uncovered fresh evidence that placed 
small-town Maaseik at the center of a terrorist network stretching 
across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The town had served as 
a haven for suspects in the Madrid train explosions that killed 191 
people in March 2004, for instance, as well as an important meeting 
place for the GICM's European leadership.

The Belgian investigation underscores the challenges that authorities in 
Europe face in tracking down sleeper cells and in sorting vaguely 
suspicious behavior from imminent danger. Police have made scores of 
arrests in Berlin, Paris, Rome, Stockholm and Amsterdam in the past two 
years to disrupt what were described as terrorist plots, although in 
many cases it remains unclear whether the threats were overstated or 
false alarms.

The problem has become more acute since the attacks in Madrid and the 
July 7 subway and bus bombings in London, with many intelligence 
officials predicting that Islamic radicals will inevitably strike again 
on the continent.

In Brussels, 13 people, including a group from Maaseik, appeared in 
court this month on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization and 
providing logistical support to the Moroccan network.

Despite an investigation that has reached into eight countries, Belgian 
authorities remain uncertain about the Maaseik cell's true mission . 
Police found no bombs, no guns, no blueprints for an attack -- just lots 
of worrisome evidence that the defendants were consorting with terrorism 
suspects from elsewhere and could have been planning something big.

"We are quite sure that we have proved that they were a logistical 
support cell," said a senior official with the Belgian State Security 
service, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But the fact is, the 
potential was there to do something more serious."

An Operation Afoot

Maaseik is located in the Belgian province of Limburg, a few miles from 
the Dutch and German borders. Until recently, its chief claim to fame 
was as the home town of Hubert and Jan van Eyck, the 15th-century 
Flemish painters.

(continued)...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/23/AR2005112302432.html
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