According to a report from Stern magazine, the plot was thought up by a sheikh who belonged to bin Laden’s inner circle and continued communicating with the now deceased Islamist terrorist even while he was hiding in Pakistan.
It involved planting a series of terror cells throughout Europe, ready to strike.
Two arrested German Islamists had warned authorities of the plot after a series of interrogations last year, but a dispute broke out among security agencies about how much weight to give them, Stern reported.
Some saw the sheikh as nothing more than a religious inspiration to al-Qaida and incapable of planning complex attacks. But German officials eventually felt concerned enough to issue an unprecedented terror warning last November.
Stern said the new bid Laden documents confirmed the sheikh’s influence in the terrorist organization and the acute danger Germany faced.
The Local/mdm
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