The alleged
mastermind of the Paris attack gave an interview to ISIS’s Dabiq
magazine earlier this year in which he spoke about being on the radar of
intelligence services and escaping capture while planning a “plot” that appears
to be Friday’s attack.
The three-page
interview in the 7th issue of the magazine, a sophisticated
monthly publication, is in a question and answer format, in which Dabiq
interviews Abu Umar al-Baljiki, a nom de guerre. Paris authorities knew him as
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 27-year-old Belgian national.
He reportedly
orchestrated the attacks from ISIS-held territory in Syria, where French radio
station RTL reported that he is one of the most active “executioners.”
Abaaoud has
been named in association with numerous planned attacks in Europe, including
the French train attack that was foiled by off-duty American troops.
"He appears to be the brains behind several planned attacks in
Europe," a French security official told Reuters.
An English
translation of the magazine (PDF), also included gruesome photos of the death of
Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kassabeh, who was captured and burned to death while
held in a cage, a call for followers to read a book about ousted Egyptian
President Mohammed Morsi and a story about the beheading of Japanese hostage
Kenji Goto.
In the
February 2015 interview, Abaaoud said he traveled with two others to Belgium
from Syria to “terrorize the crusaders waging war against the Muslims. As you
know, Belgium is a member of the crusader coalition attacking the Muslims of
Iraq and Sham.”
He said it
took months to finally enter Europe but once there, “we were then able to
obtain weapons and set up a safe house while we planned to carry out operations
against the crusaders. All of this was facilitated for us by Allah. There is no
might nor power except by Him.”
He said he had
been imprisoned before so the authorities knew him. But after a raid by Belgian
authorities on the safe house, which he said led to a 10-minute gun battle and
150 soldiers and the death of his two associates, he became a wanted man. At
one point, the intelligence services had a photo of him, which led to a stop by
a police officer. Abaaoud himself seems shocked to have escaped arrest.
“I was even
stopped by an officer who contemplated me so as to compare me to the picture,
but he let me go, as he did not see the resemblance! This was nothing but a
gift from Allah,” he said.
That escape
allowed him to keep planning as, he said, authorities chased the wrong
suspects.
“After the
raid on the safe house, they figured out that I had been with the brothers and
that we had been planning operations together. So they gathered intelligence
agents from all over the world—from Europe and America—in order to detain me.
They arrested Muslims in Greece, Spain, France, and Belgium in order to
apprehend me. Subhanallah [by glory be to God], all those arrested were not
even connected to our plans! May Allah release all Muslims from the prisons of
these crusaders,” he said in the interview. “All this proves that a Muslim
should not fear the bloated image of the crusader intelligence.”
He does not
specify what the plot was but ISIS anticipates his death as it includes a final
message or testament from him. He quotes a number of passages from the Koran, which
calls for Allah’s followers to stop those who dismember Muslim children and
bombard the Muslim world.
“Finally,
remember what Allah said, {O you who have believed, whoever of you should
revert from his religion–Allah will bring forth [in place of them] a people He
will love and who will love Him [who are] humble toward the believers, mighty
against the disbelievers; they strive in the cause of Allah and do not fear the
blame of a critic. That is the favor of Allah; He bestows it upon whom He
wills. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing} [Al Ma’idah: 54],” the
interview ends.
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