Denmark: Two Iraqis suspected of being top recruiters for Iraqi terrorism

Denmark: Two Iraqis suspected of being top recruiters for Iraqi terrorism

For over a year PET (the Danish Security Service) has been trying to deport 42-year old North-Iraqi Amer Saeed from Denmark since according to PET he's a danger to the national security. PET refuses to explain why they see him as dangerous.

But according to court documents from several German terrorism cases it appears that PET thinks that Amer Saeed was the main figure in North Europe responsible for recruiting terrorists to Iraq.

According to the court documents, Amer Saeed had close contact with Moroccan terrorists, who cooperate with the 'Al-Qaeda in Iraq' organization. They are responsible for extensive terrorist acts in Iraq.

The data in the court documents is confirmed by confidential interrogation reports from the Moroccan intelligence service, held by Politiken.

In the reports, captured members of a Moroccan terror cell declared that when they had found a young man in Morocco who wanted to sacrifice himself as a suicide bomber in Iraq, they would contact Amer Saeed, who ensured that they young suicide bomber would be sent to Iraq.

Amer Saeed confirms to Politiken that he had contact with people who belong to terror organizations.

"But I was just friends with them. We had completely different attitudes towards terrorism," he says and denies he recruited suicide bombers to Iraq.

One of Amer Saeed's good friends in Denmark is another North-Iraqi man named Mohammad Ezzedine Hamdi. PET tried to deport him too, since according to PET he's a danger to national security. PET didn't want to explain in his case either why he's dangerous.

Mohamad E. Hamid tells Politiken that in 7-8 trips to Syria he met with representatives of terrorist organizations in Iraq.

It was not to help them with carrying out terrorist acts, but because he wanted them to look for his missing brother in Iraq, he emphasizes.

The American state department disclosed this week in a report that PET thinks that both Amer Saeed and Mohamad E. Hamid cooperated in order to send terrorists to Iraq. Both are in a 'tolerated stay' [ie, without a residence permit] since the Refugee Appeals Board imposed a ban on them being sent back to their homeland, Iraq.

But PET might be misusing administrative deportations, if they suspected the two North-Iraqis of cooperating in terrorism in other countries, think Peter Vedel Kessing, a researcher in fighting terrorism at the Institute for Human Rights.

Peter Vedel Kessing says that the terrorism article in the Foreigner's Law includes actions which constitute a danger to national security, ie, the security of the Danish state. If a foreigner with a residence permit in Denmark contributes to terrorism in other countries, it's doubtful if he could be deported administratively. Instead PET should have turned to the courts with a terrorism case, as per the terrorism article in the criminal law.

He emphasizes, though, that the text of the law is unclear, and that PET's suspicions against the two North-Iraqis might have elements which affect Denmark's security, which aren't publicized.

Source: Politiken (Danish)

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