AL-QAIDA ON TRIAL

Five men go on trial today in Frankfort, Germany. The men are charged with conspiring to blow up the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Strasbourg, France, on New Year’s Day 2001. The trial will be world’s first in-depth post-Sept. 11 look into Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network.

Had the plot succeeded, the bomb would not have destroyed merely a church, albeit a church that is one of the great examples of Gothic architecture, a 14th-century masterpiece that for more than 400 years was the tallest building in Christendom. The timing of the explosion, on a day both festive and holy, was calculated to produce the highest possible death toll. Among the evidence presented by prosecutors will be a videotape the defendants made eight days before their planned attack in which they observed the bustling marketplace around the cathedral and happily speculated how much more bustling it would be on the coming holiday.

The plot, of course, failed. In a chilling reminder of how fine a line separates close call from catastrophe, what might have been Europe’s most deadly terrorist attack was undone by one careless phone call – a call from one of the bombers, upset by the size of his paycheck for this awful work, to the group’s London-based leader was intercepted by British police less than a week before the planned attack. Although this particular al-Qaida cell, numbering about 20, had been under surveillance by law-enforcement agencies throughout Europe for nearly a year, the one call tied a lot of suspicious activity to one specific event.

Upon receiving this crucial information from the British, German police on Dec. 26 raided apartments the men had rented in Frankfort. The found a bomb-making laboratory, detonation devices, machine guns, rifles with long-distance scopes, cash, forged passports and the homemade video.

The five, all Algerians, are charged with planning to commit murder, planning to cause an explosion, membership in a terrorist organization, falsifying documents and various weapons offenses. Four others, including the alleged leader of the operation, are in custody in France. The alleged mastermind, Abu Doha, is detained in Britain. The United States is seeking his extradition to face charges in a foiled plot to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport on New Years Day 2000.

The Frankfort trial is expected to last as long as a year. By the time the trials begin here in late summer and early fall of John Walker Lindh and Zacarias Moussaoui, a much clearer diagram will have been laid out on the creation, development and operations of al-Qaida cells and other such terrorist organizations. The complex, intentionally complicated, network of terrorism will be at least partly unraveled. The fanaticism that drives these terrorists – the voices on the video gleefully anticipate the deaths of so many non-Muslims – will be further revealed.

The trial also should further warning of the truly global reach of this terrorism network and of its devious nature. Elements of this plot have been uncovered across Europe: in Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Belgium. The terrorists were trained in Afghanistan and had sharpened their skills working as teams

in Bosnia and Pakistan. Financing was done largely through international drug trafficking and credit card fraud. Documents forged in Thailand allowed the purchase of the bomb-making chemicals – supposedly needed by a hospital in Africa – and the forged passports and other identification are so complete and convincing that authorities are certain of the true identity of only one defendant. At least one of the plotters has been tied to Moussaoui, the only person facing federal charges for the Sept. 11 attacks and also to Richard Reid, the Briton charged with trying to detonate explosives in his shoes on a flight from Paris to Miami. There are several connections to the Los Angeles plotters.

Although the resourcefulness and ruthlessness of terrorists is daunting, this trial offers two important and encouraging reminders. The war against terrorism is not the United States’ alone – Europe is on the front line as well. And while the reach and deviousness of this network is alarming, the Frankfort trial proves that with diligent investigating and quick cooperation, it can be defeated.