Al-Qaida and Ireland

John Breslin on the terrorist group's links with Ireland.

AS EU member states move ahead with plans for a pan-European "terrorism czar", Ireland as president has played a key role in hammering out a deal.

But the lead-up to the meeting of European justice ministers was revealing.

While some of the smaller countries were pushing for a CIA-type European intelligence agency, larger states such as Germany, Britain, France and Spain, were holding meetings among themselves.

Greater co-operation was promised but there was no chance the vast intelligence services in the larger states would be subsumed into one European agency.

It is now clear there are al-Qaida supporters and agents operating worldwide. One intelligence expert told a British parliamentary committee that after the invasion of Afghanistan, fighters fled to 90 different countries.

What of Ireland and how much can the intelligence services here contribute to the new czar's knowledge of international terrorism?

No one has been charged here with any offence connected to the activities of al-Qaida. In five years, five people have been arrested and questioned on suspicion of being involved with international terror groups.

One individual designated under UN rules as having links with terrorism groups is believed to be living in Ireland. Under the rules, the assets of 41-year-old Tunisian national Ayadi Shafiq Ben Mohamed, who has aliases and addresses in Austria, Germany, Belgium and England, have been frozen.

There are other suspected links between al-Qaida and Dublin. The reports mainly emanate from the US as gardaí consistently play down the connections.

In July 2002, it was reported an investigation was underway into a suspected cell operating in Dublin. Those operating in Ireland were said to have provided false travel documents and cash to al-Qaida members.

Ireland is believed to have been used to channel funds in the past.

US investigators claim a charity registered in Dublin in 1992, the Mercy International Relief Agency, was used to channel funds to operatives who carried out two bombings in east Africa in August 1998.

A number of the directors of the charity living in Dublin, whose names are publicly available, have been questioned by gardaí.

The suggestion is they had no knowledge of the activities of certain individuals involved with the charity, most notably an Algerian man named in US court documents as a suspected member of al-Qaida.

Hamid Aich, aged 39, who has denied involvement with the network, fled Ireland two months before the September 11 attacks. He was arrested in December 1999 during an international investigation into the attempted bombing of Los Angeles airport.

Gardaí were tipped off by the FBI, raided Mr Aich's house in south Dublin and seized computer equipment and what appeared to be bomb-making schematics. The material was handed over to the FBI but no charges were brought against the suspect, who had links with one of those convicted of the LA plot.

The charity he was involved with was dissolved in early 1998, a full seven months before the bombings of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

Certainly, Sheikh Safar Al Hawali, a 50-year-old cleric and director of the charity, has preached fundamentalist anti-Western views and spent time in jail in Saudi Arabia for his views.

Sheikh Al Hawali, who has publicly condemned the US-led invasion of Iraq and called on Saudi nationals to fight against the coalition forces, is unlikely to retain any links to Dublin.

Other directors remain here but they have denied any knowledge of any links between the charity and al-Qaida. None of the directors are included on the list of terrorist suspects.