In Morocco's 'Chemist,' A Glimpse of Al-Qaeda

Houssaini later told Moroccan police interrogators that he became radicalized in Spain after meeting a Tunisian friend who urged him to support Islamic fighters in Afghanistan. Details of the interrogation were first reported in Le Journal Hebdomadaire, a Moroccan news magazine.

"Our principal subjects of discussion were around the jihad," he said, according to a transcript of the interrogation. "He made me understand the importance of religion and faith, providing me with religious books and audiotapes of the great sheiks' speeches."

Houssaini left Valencia University at the end of 1995. He told his professors that he was going home to Morocco for the holy month of Ramadan but never returned. Colleagues said they were surprised because he was close to finishing his degree. In fact, a few months later, his primary research paper -- focusing on the anti-cancer properties of certain chemical compounds -- was accepted for publication by the International Journal of Chemical Kinetics.

But Houssaini hadn't left Valencia. In December 1996, he and two friends were arrested by Spanish police and charged with possessing false travel documents and manuals on how to manufacture explosives. He was released on bail.

A few weeks later, he fled Spain and made his way to Afghanistan.

After Afghanistan

Houssaini remained in Afghanistan for four years. In October 2001, after the U.S. military began its bombing campaign against the Taliban, he escaped the country in a Toyota truck with other Moroccan radicals, driving to Iran, according to his interrogation transcript.

After stops in Damascus, Syria, and Ankara, Turkey, he returned with his family to Casablanca in April 2002. He was questioned by police upon his arrival at the airport, but released without charge.

In addition to his efforts to establish domestic cells of bombers over the next few years, Houssaini gradually turned his attention to Iraq. By October 2006, he and other Moroccan radicals had created "many recruitment networks" to send would-be Moroccan suicide bombers and fighters to combat U.S.-led forces there, police documents allege.

The documents identify 18 Moroccans who had been recruited by Houssaini and his allies and who left for Iraq in early 2007. Investigators believe there were many more. Police said Houssaini's network was separate from other Moroccan recruiting pipelines that have sent scores of volunteer fighters to Iraq, including a major ring based in the northern city of Tetouan that was broken up last fall.

Moroccan police said Houssaini collaborated via the Internet with a Moroccan man based in Syria, known as Zeid, who would greet the volunteers in Damascus and arrange for their passage across the border into Iraq. Although few personal details were disclosed about the recruits, police documents show that Houssaini made a point of personally paying their families small sums of money.

Each family received between $100 and $150 last fall, as the volunteers were recruited during Ramadan, and an additional $175 at the end of December to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Then, in February, they received a final payment of $500 as the recruits departed for Iraq.

Special correspondents Munir Ladaa in Berlin and Cristina Mateo-Yanguas in Madrid contributed to this report.