Germany’s War on the War on Terror

by John Rosenthal
What is perhaps most startling about the German opposition to the SWIFT agreement, however, is the seemingly total indifference of the opponents to the reality of terrorist financing and the threat that European jihadist networks represent.
As was already made clear by the 9/11 attacks, Germany itself has been a major hub of jihadist activism and terror financing. Americans will largely be aware of the Hamburg cell and of the three suicide pilots—Mohammed Atta, Ziad Jarrah, and Marwan al-Shehhi—who came from Germany to America to train for and carry out the attacks. But they might be less aware that even after the arrival of the trio in the United States, their Hamburg cell co-conspirator Ramzi Binalshibh continued to play a crucial role in facilitating the attacks from German soil. Among other things, he did so, notably, by transferring funds.
It was indeed the discovery of Binalshibh’s Hamburg phone number among Zacarias Moussaoui’s personal affairs that would allow investigators to connect Moussaoui to the 9/11 plot. Binalshibh is known to have transferred $14,000 to Moussaoui in America. Binalshibh is also suspected of having been involved in the planning of the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole. He had lived in Germany since the mid-1990s.
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