As part of this sweep, they reexamined the case of the stateless Palestinian who turned out to be Ahmed, prompted by people in the Lebach camp who noted he had disappeared a few days before Sept. 11 and seemed extreme in his religious beliefs. Investigators later determined he was not connected to the attacks, German officials said.
Meanwhile, in Madrid, Spanish counterterrorism officials opened a separate investigation into Ahmed in December 2001 after they noticed that he was in frequent contact with members of a suspected cell of Islamic radicals, court papers show. One month later, Spanish investigators notified German law enforcement officials that they had Ahmed under surveillance and requested information about his background, according to reports compiled by German diplomats in Madrid.
Italian police display photographs of Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, left, also known as "Mohamed the Egyptian," or Mohamed Fayad, and another unidentified man.
(Stefano Rellandini -- Reuters)
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While Spanish police kept an eye on Ahmed, he worked as a painter in Madrid and married a Tunisian woman, according to investigators and a former roommate. He was apparently aware that he was being monitored and tried to keep low.
In a later conversation taped by Italian investigators, Ahmed told a friend that he spent years planning the Madrid attacks and had to be very cautious.
"In Spain I used different nationalities: Jordan, Egyptian, Palestinian, Syrian," he said. "Until my friends said it was enough -- I should be careful or I'll get caught. . . . After 9/11, I was forced to move everything from Spain to Paris, because in Spain, there was a lot of movement from the secret service."
Keeping a Low Profile
Ahmed left Madrid for Paris in February 2003. French investigators said he spent five months there, again working as a painter and frequenting a mosque in an immigrant neighborhood. How often he went is unclear. A cleric at the mosque, a two-story beige building with bars on the windows, said he didn't recall seeing Ahmed. "I've been working here for 15 years, but I never knew him," Ahmed Abou Hachem said.
Few other details have emerged about Ahmed's stay in France. But while he was in Paris, he again attracted fresh interest in a neighboring country.
In April 2003, German prosecutors opened another investigation into his activities. Frauke-Katrin Scheuten, a spokeswoman for the German prosecutor's office, said the case remained open now but declined to say what prompted it.
Ahmed returned to Madrid from Paris in July 2003. Four months later, Spanish police issued a report warning that they were investigating "the structure of a possible al Qaeda cell in Spain" headed by Ahmed, and that the cell had "links to other European countries." It is unclear if the report was shared with other European countries. One month after the warning, Ahmed moved on, this time to Italy.
Authorities Close In
In Milan, Ahmed sought work again as a painter and shared apartments with other Egyptian immigrants, moving frequently. He told roommates he was feuding with his wife in Spain and was worried she would report him to authorities, court papers show.
Italian authorities were not aware of his presence until April, five months after he arrived, when they were contacted by Spanish officials.
The Madrid commuter train bombings, which killed 191 people and injured thousands, touched off a furious investigation by Spanish authorities. The probe turned up Ahmed's cell phone number in the electronic address books of two suicide bombers and another suspect.
What followed was a rare case of successful cross-border coordination. Investigators traced the number and determined the phone was being used in Italy. They informed Italian authorities, who placed Ahmed under surveillance and bugged his phone and apartment in Milan.
According to transcripts of the wiretaps contained in an arrest warrant affidavit, Ahmed bragged to a roommate that "I was the leader of Madrid," adding that "the Madrid bombings were my project, and those who died as martyrs there were my beloved friends."
Italian police arrested him June 8, after hearing him discuss plans for another attack, possibly a suicide assault in Belgium, Italian officials said. In a computer in his apartment, they found photos of suitcase bombs similar to ones used in the Madrid attacks.
Investigators say there is still a lot they don't know about Ahmed; for instance, does he take orders from an international terrorist group and how did he come to Europe in the first place? They also disagree on whether he directed the Madrid attacks as he claimed in the wiretaps or if he was inflating his role.
In court papers, Spanish and Italian prosecutors charged that Ahmed was the "organizer of the terrorist group responsible for the attacks in Madrid" and also accused him of being the "coordinator of terrorist cells operating in various European countries," including Belgium, France and Spain.
Armando Spataro, an Italian prosecutor and chief of the antiterrorism investigative unit in Milan, said investigators were convinced Ahmed was a key figure in Islamic radical circles. "We know he was important because he was the one who coordinated all the communications," Spataro said. "Only an important figure could have been able to move as much as he did and keep in contact with all these people."
Investigators said Ahmed hadn't talked since his arrest. One of his Italian lawyers, Viviana Bossi, said that he "denies any responsibility regarding all the charges."
He remains in jail in Milan, where he is fighting attempts to extradite him to Spain.
Special correspondents Sarah Delaney in Milan and Shannon Smiley contributed to this report.
