September 11 accused makes link between al Qaeda and Chechnya
Mounir El Motassadeq, the first suspected Sept. 11 conspirator to stand trial, said the men headed to Afghanistan to train in hopes of later combating what they regarded as Russian crimes in Chechnya.
The four included Mohammed Atta, Marwan Al Shehi and Ziad Jarrah, who US authorities believed piloted three of the hijacked planes on September 11. The fourth was Ramzi Bin Al Shaibah, an alleged accomplice arrested in Pakistan last month.
“Atta, Al Shehi, Bin Al Shaibah and Jarrah wanted to go to Chechnya because of the massacre the Russians were carrying out,” Motassadeq told the court, divided into two by a bullet-proof glass screen.
His comments back up claims by Russian authorities of a link between Chechen rebels and Osama bin Laden's Islamist al Qaeda network.
Chechen guerrillas took more than 700 people hostage in a Moscow theatre last week. Russian special forces used a mystery gas to end the siege early Saturday morning. More than 100 hostages died of the gas.
Motassadeq, 28, an electrical engineering student, is charged as an accessory to 3,045 murders in New York and Washington, DC.
He is also charged with membership in the Islamist cell in Hamburg accused of leading the Sept. 11 attacks.
Prosecutors say the four men went to Afghanistan in November 1999 to prepare the Sept. 11 attacks.
A second group, including Motassadeq, followed six months later.
The accused acknowledged in court a week ago he had attended an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in 2000 to learn to fire Kalashnikov rifles.
However, he said that was to fulfil a demand of Islam to be trained in the use of weapons and not for any specific attack.
At the end of testimony Tuesday, Motassadeq also said a Muslim student group he joined in Hamburg did little more than pray and meet for dinner. “We just had a small prayer room,” said Motassadeq.
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