– SHADI ABDALLAH

 

 

Shadi  Abdallah was born in 1975 in Jordan in the Northern town of Irbid. He grew up in an abusive family. Shadi  Abdallah had trouble holding down a job after finishing high school.

In 1995, Shadi  Abdallah fled to Europe – to escape his abusive father, as he claims. At first, he stayed with an uncle in Belgium and then applied for political asylum in Germany. To qualify, he lied to officials that he had escaped from Iraq, and was awarded temporary asylum in 1996.

In Germany Shadi  Abdallah settled in Krefeld, North Germany lived on welfare and worked odd jobs in a grocery store owned by a mosque in the town. In return, he was required to attend prayers and he soon developed an interest in Islam.

In 1999, Shadi  Abdallah accepted an invitation to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. In Mecca he was recruited to Al Qaeda by Abdallah Al-Halibi, Osama Bin Laden’s son-in-law. From Mecca Shadi  Abdallah traveled to Afghanistan. Shadi  Abdallah claimed that he served in Afghanistan more than a year and a half.  In late 1999 and during his training Shadi  Abdallah was badly wounded in his skull. He also claimed to be Osama Bin Laden’s bodyguard but quit his new job after two weeks because his head wound limited him. He returned to Germany in early 2001.

Back in Germany Shadi  Abdallah got to practice western style of life. He suffered from alcohol drinking problems, in contradiction to his Islamic belief, and began to spend money that he, later, admitted was from terrorist sources. In fact Shadi  Abdallah conducted a double life – that of a spender and drinker and that of an Islamic puritan activist.

Shadi  Abdallah was arrested, alongside other eight terror suspects, in Krefeld, North Germany in 04/2002 as a member of an Al-Tawhid group and, probably, because of his previous connection to two members of Hamburg Cell: Mounir el Motassadeq and Abdelghani Mzoudi.

Shadi Abdallah began, almost immediately, to cooperate with the authorities and handed over the Dusseldorf Cell as well as details about the past of two Hamburg Cell members Mounir el Motassadeq and Abdelghani Mzoudi in Afghanistan and also testified against them in court. Shadi  Abdallah confessed that he and other suspects in the Dusseldorf cell had planned attacks on Jewish or Israeli targets in Germany.

Despite many contradictions in his testimonies and his capricious personality, the German investigators realized that they were consistent with some of the information in the taped phone conversations. Shadi  Abdallah also provided information about Al Qaeda members, told investigators where weapons were being concealed, and even drew maps of terrorist training camps. After supplying all kinds of valuable and correct information, Shadi  Abdallah has became important witness in the war on terror.  

Shadi  Abdallah was sentenced in 11/2003 for four years imprisonment and was released from German jail in 11/2004.

Since Shadi Abdallah accepted in 11/2004 to give testimony also against Zacarias Moussaoui in USA, both Germany and USA agreed to delete his name from the UN list of international terrorists and he became the first, and so far the only name, that was erased from that list.

Today (07/2007) Shadi  Abdallah is at large in Germany.

Summary ;

Shadi Abdallah was a problematic and an unreliable source of information but, despite his disturbed personality, he provided some leads, that after extensive investigation, helped to foil the Dusseldorf Cell activity and shed light on Al Qaeda operations in Europe.

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* Related topics ; 

• 12/2004 -GERMAN ANSAR CELL 
  GERMAN ISLAMIC  RADICALIZATION  
  PROFILE -MARWAN OTHMAN  EL-HINDI    

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