“Trusted aide to Bin Laden” came to Palma

By Humphrey Carter ONE of the key pieces of evidence in the trial against the former Palma resident Algerian Ahmed Brahim who has been sentenced to ten tears in jail by the Spanish High Court which found him guilty of trying to launch a web site to recruit extremists and distribute “fatwas” (an Islamic decree condemning people to death) supporting terrorist attacks may have been the fact that Brahim was visited in Palma by a convicted senior Al Qeada operative Mahmoud Mahmoud Salim. Brahim was arrested at his Barcelona home in 2002, but prior to that he lived in Palma with his wife and ran a business, Nora Yachting, buying and selling yachts. It was during his time in Majorca that the 60-year-old Algerian, now four years into his ten year sentence, is said to have met at least six Al Qeada or Islamic operatives, including Salim and Serhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, a Tunisian who would later be implicated in the 2004 Madrid train bombings. Coincidentally, one of the senior members of the Madrid bomb plot apparently purchased the drugs, which were exchanged for the explosives used in the attacks, in Ibiza and Majorca. One of the vehicles used to transport part of the explosives from Asturias to the Spanish capital was originally registered in Arenal. According to court papers, Brahim's plan dates back to 1998 the year Salim, alias Abu Hajer, visited Brahim at his sea front apartment, valued in 2001 at 150 million pesetas, on the Paseo Maritimo. Salim apparently came to Majorca in October to buy a second-hand car and Brahim, who maintains he is inncocent, said he knew little about Salim's activities. But, soon after he returned to Germany, Salim was arrested and extradited to the United States. There he was tried for links to the terrorist attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August, 1998. Salim went on to be charged with a number of other defendants in the case of United States v Bin Laden, (the Embassy Bombings Case) and was, according to the U.S. Attorney Southern District of New York court papers, alleged to have “participated in a global conspiracy to kill Americans in connection with the operations of Al Qaeda. This conspiracy included the bombings by Al Qaeda operatives of the United States embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Der Es Salaam, Tanzania. Among other things the indictment specifically charged that Salim was a trusted aid to Usuma Bin Laden.” While awaiting trial, Salim, repeatedly assaulted a prison officer and was sentenced to life for attempted murder. Throughout his nine-day trial earlier this year Brahim maintained that he had no links to Al Qeada, that he hardly knew Salim and that he had been merely translating religious writings into French to help French-speakers read the works. However, the Spanish high court ruled that Brahim's project was “aimed to permit any Muslim access to the most radical preachers of Holy War” adding that Brahim wanted to distribute the web site in French so that it would reach more Muslims in the West who know French better than Arabic.