Report: Bin Laden sent Suspect to Germany

A suspected Iraqi al Qaeda member arrested in Germany said he was personally sent by Osama bin Laden, according to the Germany weekly Der Spiegel to be published Monday. Bin Laden, the head of the Islamic terrorist network, had sent him to find recruits, Ibrahim Mohamed K. said, according to transcripts of police phone taps quoted by Der Spiegel. During the phone taps, recorded at the man's house in the western city of Mainz, Ibrahim Mohamed K. spoke with a Palestinian, Yasser Abu S., who he is alleged to have recruited for a planned suicide attack in Iraq. He was arrested on January 23 in Mainz and charged with being a member of a foreign terrorist organisation. US President George Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder are due to meet February 23 in Mainz. Yasser Abu S., 31, born in Libya and found with an Egyptian passport, was arrested in Bonn, also on January 23, and also charged with being a member of a foreign terrorist organisation. Ibrahim K, who has lived in Germany since 1997, was tasked with gathering financial and logistical support for al Qaeda, Germany's Attorney General Kay Nehm said a day after the arrests. He is also suspected of planning to obtain 48 grammes (1.68 ounces) of highly-enriched uranium from a group in Luxembourg, Nehm said. (AFP)