He does talk a lot, but to my recollection he denies any terrorist involvement at all. Aren't Muslim terror cell heads supposed to be boastful about their jihad against the West etc?
Nope, that's what taqiyya is for.
What acts of terrorism has he carried out (or ordered, or assisted) then?
When police burst into Ismail Shalabi's flat in the small western German town of Beckum on 23 April, they instantly knew they had hit the jackpot.
On one wall a large portrait of Osama bin Laden gazed down as the armed officers scrambled through the door. There were dozens of books and leaflets in the rooms praising bin Laden. It was a shrine to the terrorist.
Another terror cell in Europe had been exposed. But, as other German agents made 19 more raids, sweeping up weapons and suspects, a familiar name emerged as one of the cell's organisers and inspirations. It was a name also well-known to British police - Abu Qatada.
Qatada is one of the world's most wanted men, the quarry of police on three continents from eight different countries. He is suspected of masterminding mass murder and bombing as a key figure in bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. He has been called bin Laden's 'European ambassador'. And he is here in Britain.
Whether he has adopted a disguise, perhaps shaving his beard and wearing Western dress, or whether he has holed up in a safe house, is not known. But for at least four months, according to reliable Islamist, police and political sources, Qatada has been hiding in Britain.
London, where he lived for nine years, is the most likely hiding place. He could also be in Leicester or in north-west England where he also spent time and has known associates.
The police are not the only ones who are confused. Rumours are starting to circulate that the manhunt for Qatada is not what it seems. In the tight-knit world of Britain's fundamentalist Islamic groups it is being whispered that Qatada may have changed sides. He might now be working with MI5, revealing the identities of terrorist cells across Europe - cells that he helped to create. If so, it would be a huge coup for Britain's embattled intelligence services. If not, it represents a major failing in the 'War on Terror'. If a man such as Qatada can hide so effectively in Britain, how can we expect to find bin Laden in the mountains of Afghanistan? As one Islamic exile put it: 'This is the United Kingdom, not Tora Bora. Why is he still free?'
On 22 March last year five men in an al-Qaeda cell gathered at a dingy flat on the outskirts of Milan to watch a video of Algerian guerrillas slitting the throats of government soldiers.
The conversation, secretly monitored by Italian police, turned to Qatada and the need for secrecy. 'If one is very important, one ought not to put oneself in danger. That's discretion. The example of that is Sheikh Abu Qatada,' said Sami ben Khemais Essid, a Tunisian later convicted of being bin Laden's top terrorist in Italy.
Certainly Qatada is being discreet now. The last time he was seen was on 15 December last year, outside the rundown house in Acton, west London, where he lived since 1993.
It was just hours before new laws in Britain came into force that would have allowed police to pick up and intern a long list of terrorist suspects. Qatada's name was at the top of it. Neighbours saw him load his pregnant wife and four children into their people carrier and drive off. His family still live in the house but Qatada has not been seen since.
It has been a spectacular disappearing act. By the time Qatada went on the run he was at the centre of a global web of terrorist conspiracies that runs from Washington to Amman and from London to Madrid. Police in America, Britain, Belgium, Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Jordan want him.
In Italy the Milan-based gang who praised him so highly plotted to use poison gas - transported in tins of tomatoes - on targets in France. In Jordan Qatada has already been convicted in absentia of plotting attacks on American and Israeli tourist targets. Another bombing he was implicated in cost the life of a 12-year-old girl. Spain's top investigating magistrate, Judge Baltasar Garzón, has named him as the 'spiritual head of the Mujahideen in Europe' with extensive contacts with Islamic terror cells in Madrid linked to the World Trade Centre attacks.
In France he is wanted for his close links to Djamel Beghal, accused of being bin Laden's main European recruiter. Beghal had attended Qatada's London prayer meetings. Shoebomber Richard Reid, who tried to blow up a jet, attended Qatada's weekly sessions at the Four Feathers Social Club on Baker Street. So did Zacharias Moussaoui, the 'twentieth hijacker', who was supposed to join the 11 September attackers.
It is a litany of infamy. And Qatada denies every word of it. He has denied ever having met bin Laden, despite intelligence reports stating the two held talks in Pakistan in 1989. Qatada says he is being persecuted for his views and has met hundreds of people at his prayer group. He says he cannot remember meeting men such as Beghal. Born in Bethlehem, Qatada, has claimed he is nothing more than a refugee holy man, fleeing persecution in Jordan. Qatada was unwilling to try his luck with Western justice. Since his disappearance, he has only emerged into public view once, on 11 January, to leave a voice message on an internet site used by his supporters. It stated simply: 'I'm safe, but just don't ask too much about me.' And with that, he was gone again.
But why hasn't he been caught? The French secret service believe they know: he is a spy. That is also the view of many in Britain's Islamic community. In prayer halls and private houses, the opinions are the same: 'Qatada is an MI5 agent', 'He is a supergrass' and even, as one Algerian exile remarked bitterly last week, 'Perhaps he is a Jew'.
The rumours have destroyed his reputation among radical Muslims. 'If Qatada appears in public again, no one will trust him,' said Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the respected Arabic daily Al-Quds .
Certainly dozens of activists associated with him across Europe are behind bars and charged with plotting to create mayhem across the continent. All these plots - from Paris to Frankfurt - were caught before they were carried out.
But many observers reject the spy theory. The networks he was involved in developed over many years into a terrifying organisation, the true extent of which is still not known. It is still a danger. Qatada was too active and high profile to be an agent and investigators missed the biggest plot of all: the attacks on New York. If Qatada was a spy, they say, then he represents one of the biggest mistakes in law enforcement history. Perhaps more likely is the idea that British intelligence does know where he is and that they are monitoring his every move, hoping to use him as a 'honeypot' to entrap others.
Yet maybe the simplest idea is the most likely. The British police and secret services simply cannot find him. That raises questions about what attacks might occur in the future. 'Perhaps for Qatada it is still mission unaccomplished,' said one Islamic radical close to Qatada's followers. 'Maybe he still wants to finish his task.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/ma ... .terrorism
