Small World

It would appear that one of the German Islamists arrested earlier this week may have had ties to Mohammed Atta. Will wonders ever cease?

The prime suspect in the alleged German terror plot to blow up hundreds of people may have had contact with Mohammed Atta, the suicide pilot who smashed a hijacked plane into the Twin Towers.

German police reports are vague about the encounter, but it has helped investigators to trace Fritz Gelowicz’s path from average Bavarian schoolboy to Islamic radical. His case has also highlighted the curious and sinister role of Neu-Ulm — a small township in the Roman Catholic heart of southern Germany — as a cradle of Islamic extremism.

The connection between Gelowicz, 28, who was arrested this week, and Atta seems to date back to 2000 while the suicide pilot was studying in Hamburg and already preparing the 9/11 attack with a group of devout accomplices.

The Egyptian student visited a small mosque in Bavarian Neu-Ulm, which had already gained a reputation for radicalism. Firebrand preachers were passing in and out of the town and it had become a magnet for angry young Muslims.

Atta wasn't just the pilot, but the ringleader of the cell of al Qaeda terrorists who made 9/11 happen at the behest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Osama bin Laden. This is potentially significant, and makes one wonder whether Atta's other contacts have been put under surveillance.

The article goes on to suggest that some of the dissatisfaction among the people in that area of Germany was the result of US nuclear policy to station Pershing missiles there.