My CNN Interview with "Al Qaeda Living Legend"
By Paul Cruickshank
Back in February 2006, in a pine-wood chalet in central Switzerland, I interviewed Malika el Aroud, the woman allegedly at the center of the terrorism plot that was broken up today in Belgium.
The interview was for CNN's two hour documentary "In the Footsteps of Bin Laden."
Belgian counter-terrorism sources tell me tonight that it's not clear yet whether the alleged cell members wanted to launch suicide attacks in Europe or whether they instead planned to become "martyrs" in Pakistan or Afghanistan. Several of the alleged cell members had recently returned to Belgium from that region.
Belgian authorities will have a maximum of five days to press charges, before they have to release the suspects. That possibility cannot be discounted. Malika el Aroud was arrested exactly a year ago, in connection with a suspected plot to free an Al Qaeda prisoner in Belgium, but released without charge, because of insufficient evidence.
An account of my exclusive CNN interview with El Aroud can be found here.
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