Terror's Little Helpers

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Since Sept. 11, people like suspected terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta, alleged suicide hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui and would-be shoe-bomber Richard Reid have become the faces of the al-Qaeda organization in the West. But European investigators believe these men represent just the tip of a much larger and still lethal network — whose operatives are still at large and planning fresh attacks.

Later this month French prosecutors will begin to lay bare what they say are the roots of one of these terror cells when they open court proceedings against Ouassini Cherifi. A first-generation Frenchman who seemed a model of integration and upward mobility, Cherifi was arrested in August of 2000, and ultimately charged with theft and fraud to generate funds and distribute false identity documents to fellow extremists. Time had an exclusive look at the accusations, the evidence and the defense that will be presented in the case — one that French justice officals say shows how suspected operatives like Cherifi are crucial to the functioning of terror cells.

"Identifying the attack cells can be easier than unearthing the logistic networks, which are often staffed by people born and raised [in Europe] or who are fully integrated immigrants showing no sign of radical association," says a French justice official who is familiar with the Cherifi case. "Many maintain an outwardly modern and moderate profile even after radicalization. In so doing, they avoid detection and are able to work longer for their networks." That, authorities maintain, was precisely the case with Cherifi — who they say provided al-Qaeda cells with money and documents they needed to plan and carry out strikes. While Cherifi's arrest is important, police claim he was only part of a larger system that continues to operate without him. If French authorities are right, Sept. 11 was not the culmination of a single plot but just one thread in a much larger fabric of terror that is still unfolding.

Cherifi is one of seven children born to Algerian parents in suburban Paris. His work ethic and above-average intelligence earned him a university degree in mathematics and computer sciences. Gregarious and personable, Cherifi landed a job as head receptionist with an international hotel chain near Paris and later took on a second job with a computer-software firm. In 1999, at the age of 25, he was married, had a young son and was earning a good living. "Nothing in his life, family background or activities indicated Cherifi was harboring the anger, fanaticism and conspiratorial drive of an Islamist zealot," the French official says. "Yet when he finally came to our attention, we realized he'd completely dedicated himself to international jihad."

The exposure of Cherifi's alleged terrorist-support activity arose from a random postal inspection of a parcel sent to a "Mr. Bourgeois" care of the Novotel Hotel in the Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois, where Cherifi had worked until November 1999 and continued to receive mail. The package contained a set of forged French passports. When Cherifi came to pick it up, police arrested him. A subsequent search of Cherifi's belongings turned up a machine used to forge credit cards.