Hundreds of young militant Muslim men have left Europe to fight in Iraq, according to senior counterterrorism officials in four European countries. They have been recruited through mosques, Muslim centers and militant Web sites by several groups, including Ansar al-Islam, the Kurdish terrorist group once based in northern Iraq.
...Intelligence officials fear that, for a new generation of disaffected European Muslims, Iraq could become what Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya were for European Islamic militants in past decades: a galvanizing cause that sends idealistic young men abroad, trains them and puts them in touch with a more radical global network of terrorists. Many young Europeans who fought in those wars came back to Europe to plot terrorist attacks at home.
...Virtually all of the major terrorists arrested in Europe in the past three years spent time in Bosnia, Afghanistan or Chechnya.
"Now the new land of jihad is Iraq," the intelligence official said. "There, they're trained, they fight and acquire a technique and the indoctrination sufficient to act on when they return."
A network of recruiters for Iraq first appeared in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Norway within months of the U.S.-led invasion, officials said. Some officials said that the recruitment effort has now spread to other countries in Europe, including Belgium and Switzerland. The network provides forged documents, financing, training and information about infiltration routes into the country.
=http://www.iht.com/articles/2...>International Herald Tribune article...Intelligence officials fear that, for a new generation of disaffected European Muslims, Iraq could become what Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya were for European Islamic militants in past decades: a galvanizing cause that sends idealistic young men abroad, trains them and puts them in touch with a more radical global network of terrorists. Many young Europeans who fought in those wars came back to Europe to plot terrorist attacks at home.
...Virtually all of the major terrorists arrested in Europe in the past three years spent time in Bosnia, Afghanistan or Chechnya.
"Now the new land of jihad is Iraq," the intelligence official said. "There, they're trained, they fight and acquire a technique and the indoctrination sufficient to act on when they return."
A network of recruiters for Iraq first appeared in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Norway within months of the U.S.-led invasion, officials said. Some officials said that the recruitment effort has now spread to other countries in Europe, including Belgium and Switzerland. The network provides forged documents, financing, training and information about infiltration routes into the country.
Thank the Bush administration for making the world safer. If Saddam weren't behind bars....
...The French official said many of these people are passing through Britain, once the major staging point for Muslims going to Afghanistan, or through Saudi Arabia, using the cover of a pilgrimage to Mecca to enter the Saudi kingdom before crossing into Iraq.
..."These young men know where the action is - they easily cross the borders of Syria or Turkey and they go directly to Falluja," the official said.
..."These young men know where the action is - they easily cross the borders of Syria or Turkey and they go directly to Falluja," the official said.
Which brings me round to my first thought at the beginning of this article....Before the U.S. finally declared itself officially involved in WWII, young American men were going to England and enlisting with the British to repel the German invaders. We called them selfless heroes with conscience.
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