Trail leads to Northern Alliance Chief's Killer

BRUCE CRUMLEY/Paris Saturday, Dec. 8 2001
Terrorism experts generally agree that the Sept. 9 assassination of Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud by al-Qaeda operatives was a prelude to the terrorist strikes on the U.S. two days later. While many details behind the Sept. 11 attacks — and the thwarted assaults planned later for Europe — have been uncovered by investigators worldwide, the identity and origins of Massoud’s killers have remained largely obscure. Until last week, that is, when French police unmasked at least one of Massoud’s murderers — and told Time how they did it: by tracing his forged Belgian passport to members of the European network that allegedly provided it.

The breakthrough came a week after the Nov. 26 arrests in France and Belgium of 16 men suspected of providing logistical support for Muslim extremist organizations. Though most detainees in Belgium were soon released for lack of evidence, a suspect held by French authorities identified one of Massoud’s killers — and admitted helping prepare his trip to Afghanistan. Interrogated on Dec. 3 in the northern French city of Lille, Adel Tebourski told investigators he had recognized his friend and fellow Tunisian Abedessatar Dahman in news photographs of Massoud’s assassins — who masqueraded as television journalists.

Under questioning, Tebourski, 38, described his long association with Dahman, their growing passion for fundamentalist Islam and his role in helping Dahman travel to Afghan camps to train with their “brothers” in jihad. “These two were close, and they go back a long way,” says a French justice official familiar with the case. “Tebourski admitted he bought the airline tickets and provided the fake Belgian passport Dahman used to get to Afghanistan. What he doesn’t say, however, is whether Dahman left knowing he’d participate in the Massoud killing. That may have been decided only in Afghanistan.”

Tebourski told police he and Dahman came from the same area of Tunisia and emigrated to Belgium at roughly the same time to study. Though Tebourski says neither man was particularly religious at first, they soon were influenced by fellow Tunisians espousing Islamic extremism — with Dahman growing increasingly militant from 1996 on. Both men became members of what Tebourski called “a radical Islamist group” in Belgium. French investigators say the group has played a major role in ferrying new recruits to Afghanistan — and providing false documents and other support to camp veterans returning to Europe to form terror cells. They also say the network offers new evidence of the growing number of Tunisians in extremist organizations — and confirms suspicions that Belgium is increasingly being used by them as a base of operations. Last week, Belgian police arrested two more suspects linked to the Massoud case.

In May 2000, Dahman decided to go to Afghanistan. To cover his tracks and avoid alerting police to the nature of his journey, he told Tebourski, who was living in France as a naturalized citizen, to arrange air travel for him from Dü sseldorf to London and then on to Karachi. He also gave Tebourski a reserve of stolen passports for safekeeping. He’d soon need them. According to French sources, Dahman contacted Tebourski shortly after his arrival in London and said British immigration officials had questioned the authenticity of his Belgian passport and prevented him from flying on to Pakistan. Dahman then told Tebourski to take a passport from the reserve he’d been given and have a fellow network member bring it to London. After lying low and obtaining the visas he’d need, Dahman left London for Pakistan in July on the forged passport Tebourski provided. “Tebourski says he then had no news about Dahman until the reports on Massoud’s killers,” the French official says.

In the meantime, Dahman and his still unidentified accomplice — who also used a Belgian passport supplied by the Tunisian network in Europe — had arranged cover as Moroccan TV journalists and were making their way to the fatal meeting with Massoud. French justice sources say it may never be known whether Dahman left Belgium knowing he would kill Massoud, or if he was assigned that task in Afghanistan.

Still, they believe the information Tebourski has provided — and the link he represents with Massoud’s killer — again proves Europe’s importance as a recruiting and logistical center for Islamic terror networks. That reliance, they warn, will only increase if such groups are deprived of their Afghan haven.