PRESS RELEASE
Londonistan's Links to Charlie Hebdo Killers
Jan. 14, 2015 (EIRNS)—While the media are eager to link al-Qaeda in Yemen with the Charlie Hebdo killers, what have not been reported in depth are the Londonistan links to the killers. A Guardian article reported today, as has EIR, that the mentor of the two gunmen in Paris was Djamel Beghal, a French-Algerian who moved from France to Britain in 1997, and became a regular worshipper at London's Finsbury Park Mosque and a disciple of the radical preachers Abu Hamza al-Masri and Abu Qatada, the latter of whom is now in Jordan. He came to be seen by U.K. and French intelligence as one of al-Qaeda's leading recruiters in Europe, the Guardian said.
Beghal, who moved to Leicester, U.K., with his family in 1997, was part of an extreme Islamic Armed Group (GIA) offshoot, Takfir Wal Hijra, loyal to al-Qaeda and led by Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Incidentally, Beghal was one of many Algerian Groupe Islamique Armé (GIA) members linked to al-Qaeda that Londonistan protected and continues to protect.
For instance, the Paris transit bombings of 1995 killed eight and injured 150 and were carried out by the GIA. The alleged mastermind of the GIA bombings was Rachid Ramda, an Algerian living in the U.K. at the time, whom the British then detained but refused to extradite to France until 10 years later! The delay in Ramda's extradition was allegedly due to Great Britain's Londonistan policy of not wanting to offend Muslim investors and immigrants. Ramda was eventually convicted on several charges over the Paris Metro bombings, including financing the attacks, which involved a wire transfer from the Britain-based Ramda to onsite bomber Ait Ali Belkacem. During the trial at the Paris Assizes Court, it was revealed that a police search of Ramda's London address produced a Western Union payment slip bearing his fingerprints, which showed he had sent £5,000 ($10,250) to the Paris bombers. It was not said where he got that £5,000.
EIR's investigation team in January 2000 had sent an open letter to then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, urging her to put Britain on a list of state sponsors of terrorism. In that letter, EIR documented that "in late 1995, the GIA's London headquarters ordered a terror war against France, leading France to loudly protest to the British government, according to the Nov. 6, 1995 London Daily Telegraph article entitled "Britain Harbors Paris Bomber." On Nov. 3, 1995, the French daily Le Figaro wrote, under the headline "The Providential Fog of London," of the GIA's bombing spree: "The trail of Boualem Bensaid, GIA leader in Paris, leads to Great Britain. The British capital has served as logistical and financial base for the terrorists..."
