Tariq Ramadan, target for European intelligence
services
Christophe Dubois
Translation by Douglas
French original: "Tariq Ramadan, cible des services secrets européens"
(Christophe Dubois, Le Parisien, 2003/11/14)See also: "Tariq Ramadan accused of anti-Semitism" (Caroline Monnot and Xavier Ternisien, Le Monde/Watch, 2003/10/10 [2003/10/14])
For several weeks, a Federal judge in the state of Washington has had on his desk reports from European intelligence services implicating Tariq Ramadan in several investigations into the activities of Al Qaeda. According to our sources, these reports were obtained by lawyers acting on behalf of the families of the victims of the attack on the World Trade Center of September 11, 2001. A lawsuit is currently being brought on behalf of 5,600 plaintiffs seeking damages and interest against the persons or groups suspected of having supported Osama bin Laden’s organization. According to Jean-Charles Brisard, former member of the intelligence services and now a private investigator hired by the victims’ families, this international investigation has obtained the political and law-enforcement cooperation of thirty countries. Since the end of 2002, the Geneva Islamic Center, where Tariq Ramadan sits on the board of directors, and of which brother Hani Ramadan is the director, appears among the organizations under investigation.
“No link to the Muslim Brotherhood”
Several of the newer elements of this investigation personally implicate the star preacher to young French Muslims. According to documents provided to American law-enforcement officials, Tariq Ramadan is allegedly the nephew of of Omar Abdel Rahman, the planner of the first attack on the World Trade Center, sentenced to life in prison in the United States. Grand son of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna, in 1993, Ramadan was allegedly put in charge of the Daawa (preaching) for Europe by that Islamist organization. Ramadan denies the charges: “I am not related to Omar Abdel Rahman and have no organic ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.”
“Two harmless conversations”
Moreover, the name of the Muslim intellectual was cited in several anti-terrorist investigations. As part of an investigation into an Al-Qaeda cell in Spain, he was named as one of the “usual contacts” for Ahmed Brahim, considered to be one of Al-Qaeda’s treasurers indicted in April 2002 by magistrate Garzon. In particular, his name is mentioned during a telephone conversation of 22 April 1999, of which Le Parisien has obtained a copy, between Ahmed Brahim and an official at the Tawhid bookstore in Lyon, which publishes Ramadan’s books. The conversation concerns the acquisition of blank audio cassettes and the invitation extended to young French citizens in Majorca to “work for the path of Allah.” The Swiss intellectual is also named in the trial in France of a group suspected of having planned an attack against the US embassy. Djamel Beghal, considered to be network leader, told the investigating magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière on October 1, 2001: “In 1994, I followed courses taught by Tarek Ramadan.” The preacher’s response: “I do not know Ahmed Brahim. My name was simply mentioned over the course of two harmless conversations... Moreover, I didn’t begin teaching in Paris until 1997.” Another charge against him: according to the investigations conducted by the lawyers acting on behalf of the families of the World Trade Center victims, the Ramadan family address appears in a register at the Al Taqwa bank, which is on the American State Department’s list of organizations accused of supporting Islamist terrorism. Again, Tariq Ramadan denies the charge: “We have never had relations with that bank.”
“A real stack of evidence”
The last item recorded by the intelligence services: Tariq Ramadan and his brother allegedly organized a 1991 meeting in a Geneva hotel at which both Ayman al-Zawahiri, current al-Qaeda number 2, and and Omar Abdel Rahman were present. What of these “liaisons dangereuses”? “I have never met these people.” So many denials that do not impress Jean-Charles Brisard: “To-day there is a real stack of evidence pointing to Tariq Ramadan’s having had relations with several terrorists,” he says. “He has renounced the Muslim Brotherhood but he shares their heritage. Under the cover of moderation, he is accumulating a radicalism that may encourage Jihad.”
[Posted 2003/11/17]
Copyright © Watch 2001-2006.
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