A Moroccan national accused of helping the September 11th hijackers used to talk obsessively about Israel, expressed his support for Adolf Hitler's genocide of the Jews during the Holocaust, and harbored great hatred for the United States "because it defends Israel," according to witnesses who testified Wednesday.
Sudanese national Ahmed Maglad told a German court that he met Moroccan Al Qaeda member Mounir El-Motassadeq while living in Hamburg in 1997 and, through him, met lead Mohammad Atta, who piloted one of the airplanes that terrorists flew into the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001.
Maglad told the Munich court that he also knew other figures from the Hamburg cell, which produced three of the September 11th pilots. "Everybody spoke out against the United States because it defends Israel," Maglad said, according to the Associated Press. “The Hamburg terror cell believed that the foundation of Israel was unjustified, and the Palestinian conflict was always a topic for Atta."
El-Motassadeq's retrial began last week after his conviction (for helping pilots Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah) was overturned in March after an appeal.
Ralf Goetsche, an engineer from Munich who shared an apartment with El-Motassadeq and three others in 1996, testified that El-Motassadeq once told him "that what the Germans did then wasn't really so bad. So I asked what he meant and he said 'with the Jews.'" On another occasion, El-Motassadeq responded to the mention of Israel with a loud, "There is no Israel, there is only Palestine," Goetsche said.
El-Motassadeq was freed from prison in April and is being retried on the same charges - membership in a terrorist organization and more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder - for which he was originally sentenced to the maximum 15 years of prison in 2003.
El Motassadeq says he knew and was friends with most of the principals of the Hamburg cell, but did not know of their plans for September 11th.
Sudanese national Ahmed Maglad told a German court that he met Moroccan Al Qaeda member Mounir El-Motassadeq while living in Hamburg in 1997 and, through him, met lead Mohammad Atta, who piloted one of the airplanes that terrorists flew into the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001.
Maglad told the Munich court that he also knew other figures from the Hamburg cell, which produced three of the September 11th pilots. "Everybody spoke out against the United States because it defends Israel," Maglad said, according to the Associated Press. “The Hamburg terror cell believed that the foundation of Israel was unjustified, and the Palestinian conflict was always a topic for Atta."
El-Motassadeq's retrial began last week after his conviction (for helping pilots Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah) was overturned in March after an appeal.
Ralf Goetsche, an engineer from Munich who shared an apartment with El-Motassadeq and three others in 1996, testified that El-Motassadeq once told him "that what the Germans did then wasn't really so bad. So I asked what he meant and he said 'with the Jews.'" On another occasion, El-Motassadeq responded to the mention of Israel with a loud, "There is no Israel, there is only Palestine," Goetsche said.
El-Motassadeq was freed from prison in April and is being retried on the same charges - membership in a terrorist organization and more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder - for which he was originally sentenced to the maximum 15 years of prison in 2003.
El Motassadeq says he knew and was friends with most of the principals of the Hamburg cell, but did not know of their plans for September 11th.