Hamburg Mosque Used by 9/11 Attackers is Closed: Islamic Terrorism is becoming Transnational with a "Connectivity that is Succeeding"

Concern about Increasing Connections Between Terrorists of Many Nations

Hamburg Germany closed the mosque they say served as a main meeting place for jihadists, including some of the perpetrators of 9/11.

According to Der Spiegel, suicide hijacker Mohamed Atta, a pilot in the attacks who is considered to have coordinated the attackers, was a repeated visitor at the Taiba. The deputy head of Hamburg's regional intelligence agency, Manfred Muck, said at a press conference that the Masjid Taiba mosque served "again and again as a center for radicalization." German authorities said the mosque, located behind Hamburg's main rail station and next to a fitness center, remained a "central attraction for the jihadist scene." A German-Arabic association linked to the mosque has been banned as well. The association has used the mosque to recruit new jihadists (fighters for the Islamic Holy War, the jihad).

The former Al-Quds-Mosque gained worldwide notoriety after the events of 9/11. According to the city-state's intelligence service, the mosque still serves as a meeting ground for radical Islamists. According to the Hamburg Express, "45 Jihadists are supposed to be residing in Hamburg at the moment."

The closing of the Masjid Taiba in Hamburg comes a month after Norwegian police arrested three men accused of involvement with Al Qaeda - a Chinese Uigher, an Iraqi Kurd, and an Uzbek - and charged them with planning to build a peroxide-based bomb.

The former Al-Quds-Mosque gained worldwide notoriety after the events of 9/11. The Hamburg Express reported, "According to the city-state's intelligence service, the mosque still serves as a meeting ground for radical Islamists. 45 Jihadists are supposed to be residing in Hamburg at the moment."

According to the Christian Science Monitor, "One link between the Norwegian arrests and the German mosque shut-down is an ongoing concern by European security officials of the burgeoning transnational character of Islamist thinking and organizations, in which jihadi cadres from various nations are breaking free from old 'national' groupings and working more closely together in causes that are less 'territorial' and more ideological."

The Monitor said that the mosque hosted Moroccans, Bosnians, Saudis, Egyptians and quoted Washington-based expert on Pakistan-Afghan jihad groups that "Every day we hear of a different nationality arrested or killed in Waziristan, Pakistan or Afghanistan -- someone from Uzbekistan, from Yemen, from Egypt, from the Gulf. So you see some ability to project a set of individuals, a united front, anywhere, in which the racial or national background is not important." The Monitor also cited that "various ethnic groups were starting to come together and project themselves abroad under various Islamist or jihad banners, something she characterized as a new development. 'They are being stopped at the moment, but there is a connectivity that is succeeding...a thread that is bonding these individuals in the name of a cause.'"

The U.K. Mirror reported that "German intelligence last year claimed 11 people from the mosque had visited a military training camp in Uzbekistan."

Sources:
Christian Science Monitor (August 10, 2010). Why Germany closed mosque where 9/11 plotters met. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2010/0809/Why-Germany-closed-mosque-where-9-11-plotters-met

Hoen, Marco (August 10, 2010). Hamburg police close mosque used by 9/11 attackers. Epoch Times. http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/40697/

Hamburg Express (August 10, 2010). News update: Taiba mosque closed. http://www.thehamburgexpress.com/content/view/1402712/59/

Turnbull, Greig (August 10, 2010). Mosque is shut in new terror alert. U.K. Mirror. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/08/10/mosque-is-shut-in-new-terror-alert-115875-22477255/

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Ahmadinejad Claims USA Designed 9/11

Reuters reported that Iran's Ahmadinejad said at the UN on September 23, 2010 the following:

(1) "There is no evidence that 3000 people were killed on 9/11"

(2) "The U.S. trumped up 9/11 to cover its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq"

(3) "No Zionists were killed in the attacks because one day earlier they were told not to go to their workplace"

Addressing the UN General Assembly on September 23, 2010, Ahmadinejad said that the September 11 attacks were orchestrated by elements within the US government in order "to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime."

Ahmadinejad said there were “three viewpoints” in identifying those responsible for the September 11 attacks. The main viewpoint, he said, “advocated by American statesmen,” is that “a very powerful and complex terrorist group, able to successfully cross all layers of the American intelligence and security, carried out the attack.”

The second viewpoint – which Ahmadinejad called the viewpoint of “the majority of the American people as well as other nations and politicians” – was “that some segments within the US government orchestrated the attack in order to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime.”

Finally, he said, some believe September 11 “was carried out by a terrorist group but the American government supported and took advantage of the situation.” He conceded that “this viewpoint has fewer proponents.”

Ahmadinejad announced that, in light of this professed ambiguity as to the guilty parties, Iran will host a conference “to study terrorism and the means to confront it.”

The Reuters report said, "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the United Nations most people believe that the U.S. government was behind the attacks of September 11, 2001, prompting the U.S. and European delegations to leave the hall in protest. "They were joined by all 27 European Union delegations and several other countries... Addressing the General Assembly he said it was mostly U.S. government officials and statesmen who believed al Qaeda Islamist militants carried out the suicide hijacking attacks that brought down New York's World Trade Center -- less than 4 miles from where the Iranian president was speaking."

Ahmadinejad is perhaps having a 'good influence' on other Islamic leaders. MEMRI reported at least three other Islamic leaders have echoed the Big Lie of 9/11. In the U.S., in an interview on Al Jazeera English, the leader of the Nation of Islam, Lewis Farrakhan said, "What proof have we heard from those wicked deceivers [the U.S.A.] that it was Osama bin Laden who carried out 9/11?"

Former Egyptian Deputy Foreign Minister Abdallah Al-Asba'ai said, "9/11 was the single work of U.S. Intelligence and the Israeli Mossad." Former Iraqi Ambassador to the U.N., Muhammoud Al-Douri said: "The U.S. has managed to unite almost all the world behind it. In light of this we can offer at least one reason for the events of 9/11 - it is possible that the U.S. itself was behind it."

Sources:
Horn, Jordana and the Associated Press (September 26, 2010). Obama, Ban Ki-moon condemn Ahmadinejad's 9/11 Comments. Jerusalem Post.

Charbonneau, Louis (September 23, 2010). Reuters. Ahmadinejad tells U.N. most blame U.S. gov't for 9/11.

Middle East Media Research Institute [MEMRI] (October 20, 2010). Farrakhan on Al-Jazeera English TV: No proof that Bin Laden carried out 9/11; former Egyptian Foreign Minister and former Iraqi Ambassador to U.N.: The US was behind 9/11. Special Dispatch 3310.

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