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Sheltering A Puppet Master?
By BRUCE
CRUMLEY/PARIS
Sunday, Jul. 07, 2002
As worldwide
investigations into the mysteries of the Sept. 11 terror conspiracy
roll on, officials in Europe have pondered an enigma: Where is Abu
Qatada? Described by some justice officials as the spiritual leader
and possible puppet master of al-Qaeda's European networks, Abu
Qatada has been missing since mid-December after British authorities
confiscated his passport, froze his assets and ordered him confined
to his London home. With Jordan seeking his return to serve a life
sentence for terror-related crimes, some observers figured Abu
Qatada went underground—and perhaps left Britain—to avoid
extradition. But senior European intelligence officials tell TIME
that Abu Qatada is tucked away in a safe house in the north of
England, where he and his family are being lodged, fed and clothed
by British intelligence services. "The deal is that Abu Qatada is
deprived of contact with extremists in London and Europe but can't
be arrested or expelled because no one officially knows where he
is," says the source, whose claims were corroborated by French
authorities. "The British win because the last thing they want is a
hot potato they can't extradite for fear of al-Qaeda reprisals but
whose presence contradicts London's support of the war on terror."
British security services officials declined to comment.
—With reporting by Helen Gibson/London
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