Twin towers 'fixer' faces 3,000 counts of terrorism

The 11 September suicide pilots planned their onslaught almost two years in advance and decided on their targets some 16 months before the attacks, Germany's Federal Prosecutor, Kay Nehm, alleged yesterday.

Mr Nehm, provided new evidence on the background to 11 September after formally charging Mounir al-Motassadeq, the 28-year-old Moroccan who is accused of being an accomplice of the hijackers, with 3,000 counts of being an accessory to murder and membership of a terrorist organisation.

Mr Motassadeq, who is so far the only person arrested in Germany in connection with the attacks, played an important role in the Hamburg al-Qa'ida cell to which the hijackers Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah belonged.

He is said to have conducted their financial affairs in their absence, arranged payment for their flying lessons in Florida and even signed Atta's will. Mr Nehm said the Hamburg cell had begun planning an attack on the United States in October 1999 and decided on its targets six months later.

Mr Nehm also claimed that one of the suicide pilots boasted to a Hamburg librarian about the attack on the World Trade Centre more than a year before the onslaught, saying: "There will be thousands dead. You will all think of me."

The admission was allegedly made by al-Shehhi, one of the two hijackers who flew planes into the World Trade Centre. Apparently the librarian did not take the threat seriously at the time, in April or May 2000.

"All the members of this cell shared the same religious convictions, an Islamic lifestyle and a feeling of being out of place in unfamiliar cultural surroundings," Mr Nehm said, "A central feature of their beliefs was anti-American, anti-Jewish sentiment," he added.

Mr Motassadeq was arrested in Hamburg two months after 11 September but was first charged with complicity on Wednesday. Mr Nehm's disclosures about the early planning of the attacks follow lengthy police and prosecutor interrogation of Mr Motassadeq, who had been held since November last year.

"He was aware of the commitment to mount a terrorist attack on the targets chosen by the cell and he supported the planning and preparation of these attacks through multiple activities," Mr Nehm said.

Mr Motassadeq studied electrical engineering at Hamburg's Technical University from 1995 until his arrest. Atta, 33, and Al-Shehhi, 23, also studied there before leaving Germany last year for the United States. He is believed to have first met Atta in 1996.

Mr Nehm said the German authorities were convinced that Mr Motassadeq had joined the others in attending al- Qa'ida camps on the Pakistan-Afghanistan borders where they were trained for a "Holy War." Only weeks before his arrest in November 2001, Mr Motassadeq had been preparing to return to his native Morocco because his wife had given birth, Mr Nehm said.

The German authorities stressed that the charging of Mr Motassadeq showed that progress was being made in the hunt for al-Qa'ida suspects in Germany. Police are still investigating 71 people in connection with the organisation and so far no charges have been brought against them.

In America, federal prosecutors were also claiming fresh success in stemming domestic support for al-Qa'ida after conspiracy charges were filed against six men accused of having links to terrorism. Five of the accused live in Detroit, while the sixth is a Muslim activist in Seattle with alleged links to fundamentalist militants in Britain.

All of the accused individuals except one in Detroit were in custody last night. The five in Detroit are alleged to have tried to raise funds and supply weapons to Osama bin Laden's terror network – working with two others to establish a "sleeper operational combat cell" in the United States.

The charges assert that "their planning involved specific violent attacks, including one that targeted an American air base in Incerlik, Turkey, and a hospital in Amman, Jordan". Officials noted that further arrests of additional suspects should be expected.

The case against the Seattle man, James Ujaama, known in the city for supporting its Muslim community, says he was trying to establish a "jihad training camp" on the American west coast. It also accuses him of plotting to use poison on US citizens and firebomb vehicles.

Mr Ujaama, who has been honoured for his community work, was arrested in Denver last month. He denied any connection with terrorism. "Should it be the policy of this government to convict innocent people before any trial?" he asked.

Al Qa'ida 's long war against America

Somalia, 1993

Tony Blair told Parliament in October 2001 that al-Qa'ida had been responsible for a 1993 ambush on US Rangers in Somalia that left 18 people dead.

The brutal attack on the soldiers, who were hunting the warlord Mohammed Aidid, had a traumatic effect on the US, which pulled out its forces and ruled out foreign peace-keeping missions for its soldiers for several years afterwards.

Somalia, which has been under intense surveillance by America and European nations because of 11 September, has been bracing for a retaliatory attack for the past year.

Kenya/Tanzania, 1998

Osama bin Laden was indicted by America for masterminding the August 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Kenya, right, and Tanzania, which killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and wounded 4,500. The attacks led to questions on the safety of American embassies around the world. The FBI placed Osama bin Laden on its "Ten Most Wanted" fugitives list and the state department offered a $5m reward for information leading to his arrest for the bombings.

A total of 17 people linked to al-Qa'ida were charged with the bombings, including Mr bin Laden. Nine have been arrested.

Afghanistan/ Sudan, 1998

President Bill Clinton ordered simultaneous missile strikes against al-Qa'ida training camps in Afghanistan, and on a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, right, alleged to be producing chemical weapons, days after the US embassy bombings in August 1998. Mr Clinton said there was "convincing evidence" that the group was involved in the embassy attacks, and warned that al-Qa'ida was planning future attacks and seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction. But America failed to back up its claim that the Sudanese factory was a weapons plant. The owner maintained it was producing medicine.

World Trade Centre, 2001

German federal prosecutors said yesterday that the suicide hijackers planned as early as April or May 2000 to use aeroplanes to attack the World Trade Centre.

Al-Qa'ida has also been linked to the 1993 bomb explosion in the basement of the World Trade Centre which killed six people and injured at least 1,040 others.

The blind Egyptian sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman is said to have inspired the men behind the 1993 bombing. He is serving a life sentence in an American prison for plotting to blow up New York landmarks, bridges and tunnels.