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Belgian "Al Qaeda Cell" in touch with Architect of Transantlantic Airline PlotBy Paul Cruickshank
This connection is revealed in the CNN program "One Woman's War," my documentary about the extraordinary story of Malika el Aroud, a Belgian woman who authorities say has become an icon of the global jihadist movement. The documentary will make its CNN domestic debut this afternoon at 2.30pm Eastern. My profile of Malika el Aroud, "Love in the Time of Terror," is also the lead feature in the March issue of Marie Claire. CNN's report is below: Belgian "Al Qaeda Cell" linked to 2006 Airline Plot An alleged terror cell rounded up hours before European Union leaders were due to attend an summit in Brussels last December had ties to the very top leadership of al Qaeda, counterterrorism officials told CNN. Brussels, Belgium (CNN). -- Last December 11, fourteen individuals were arrested in the early hours of the morning in one of the largest counterterrorism operations in Belgian history. Six were eventually charged with participation in a terrorist group. The others were released. The officials told CNN that the alleged cell had connections to a senior al Qaeda operative who helped orchestrate the 2006 "Airline Plot," widely recognized as al Qaeda's most serious terror attempt since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The source could not reveal the operative's name to CNN because of the ongoing investigation. The 2006 plot involved plans to simultaneously blow up U.S.-bound passenger jets with liquid explosives hid in carry-on luggage. A senior counterterrorism source with detailed knowledge of the investigation told CNN the alleged cell was connected to the top ranks of al Qaeda through Moez Garsallaoui, a Tunisian Islamist militant who left Belgium for the tribal areas of Pakistan in late 2007. Garsallaoui, 41, is the husband of Malika el Aroud, 49, a Belgian-Moroccan who was one of those charged in December. When she was arrested, Belgian authorities publicly described her as an "al Qaeda Living Legend." El Aroud's former husband, al Qaeda operative Abdessattar Dahmane, helped assassinate Ahmed Shah Massoud, the head of Afghanistan's anti-Taliban Northern Alliance group, in a suicide bombing operation two days before 9/11. Belgian investigators told CNN that a pro-al Qaeda Web site administered by el Aroud helped radicalize the members of the alleged Brussels terrorist cell. Read more of CNN's investigation into the Belgian alleged terror cell here. You can view the documentary online here. The half-hour program, on which I collaborated with CNN's Nic Robertson, includes exclusive interviews with Malika el Aroud, her brother and sister, and Belgium's top counter-terrorism officials.
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